The Witch and the Chameleon

The Witch and the Chameleon was a science fiction fanzine published by Amanda Bankier.
It is generally recognized as the first explicitly feminist fanzine and was planned to be four-six issues a year. 
There were five issues, the last one a double issue, published between August 1974 and Summer 1976. 
While putting together the zine, Bankier placed an advert in the Worldcon Progress Report. One of the first respondents was American SF author Vonda N. McIntyre, who became one of the zine's regular and influential contributors, helping to set the tone for the zine.The Witch and the Chameleon, ZineWiki. Accessed May 9, 2018.
Because of her role in publishing this zine, Amanda Bankier was invited to be Fan Guest of Honor at WisCon in 1977. Her speech was here but is now offline and sadly not archived in any way: Amanda Bankier's Guest of Honor speech at WisCon 1, 1977.
==Some Contributors==
Articles and fiction: Vonda McIntyre, Jennifer Bankier, Marlene Barr, Karen Feinberg, Catherine Madsen, Suzy McKee Charnas, Gayle Netzer, Joanna Russ, Raccoona Sheldon, and Kate Wilhelm.
Poetry: Eleanor Amason, Amanda Bankier, Maria Jaoudi, Beth Jankola, Jennifer Malik, Raccoona Sheldon, and others.
Art work is mostly not traditional illos, but small "doodles," a description used by Amanda Bankier: Amanda Bankier, Margrit Eichler, Jeanne Gomoll, Catherine Madsen, Barry Kent McKay, Elizabeth Mordue, Tom Robe, Raccoona Sheldon, Linda Steele, and Bruce Townley, Michael Bankier, and others. 
Letters: Avedon Carol, Cy Chauvin, Don D'Ammassa, Kris Fawcett, Rhoda Katerinsky, Andre Norton, Lee Overstreet, Raccoona Sheldon, Lisa Tuttle, Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and others.
==Letters by Raccoona Sheldon==
Raccoona Sheldon contributed illos, poetry, and letters to this zine. In 1977, a year after this zine series ceased, it was discovered that Sheldon and James Tiptree, Jr. were the same person. Sheldon had been using the name Tiptree since 1967. 
Sheldon writes in an issue of "The Witch and the Chameleon" about female writers using male names but does not reveal that they had been doing just that. 
The details of Sheldon's later passing, as well as information about Sheldon's ongoing struggles with depression, lend a special poignance to one of Sheldon's letters which describes a one member of a loving couple facing the death. See issue #5/6.
==Letterwar Between Joanna Russ and Marion Zimmer Bradley==
This zine series is the origin of the "Darkover Landfall-feminism" letterwar between Joanna Russ and Marion Zimmer Bradley and contains some of their correspondence. Other correspondence and rebuttals were created in the form of letters, essays, and a pro fiction book, and they appeared in other venues.
The review that sparked the letterwar and related fan and pro works was the essay Darkover Landfall reviewed by Vonda N. McIntyre.
See: 
* The Witch and the Chameleon "Darkover Landfall" Letter by Marion Zimmer Bradley (April 1975)
* The Witch and the Chameleon "Darkover Landfall" Letter by Joanna Russ (1975)
* The Witch and the Chameleon "Darkover Landfall" Letter by Marion Zimmer Bradley (September 1975)
* The Minor Letters, comments by various fans (September 1975)
* A Letter to Marion Zimmer Bradley by Joanna Russ (summer 1976) 
* We Who Are About To..., fiction by Joanna Russ (January/February 1976 in a magazine, but got much higher visibility in July 1977 when Dell printed it as a book)
* An Evolution of Consciousness: Twenty-Five Years of Writing about Women in Science Fiction, essay by Marion Zimmer Bradley (August 1977)
* DARKOVER SPINOFF. Or maybe that should read CONTRARY MOTION—VERY., essay by Ted Bryan (September 1977)
==Issue 1==
The Witch and the Chameleon 1 was published in August 1974 and contains 18 pages. 
The covers are by Amanda Bankier. The interior illos are not credited, by likely by Bankier.
This issue was "printed at the Toronto Women's Press. The Toronto Women's Place is the owner or harborer of the Gestetner." It is unknown if "Press" and "Place" are two different things, or if one is a typo. 
 
From the editorial:
CONTENTS:
* Editorial (2)
* Women in the Fiction of Andre Norton, article, author is not credited but likely by Amanda Bankier (3)
* Dream Walker, fiction by Maria Smee (6)
* Conventional Thoughts, a short humorous vignette about costuming at the upcoming Discon, author is not credited by likely Amanda Bankier ("Discon is fast approaching, and yet again I've been struck by unspeakable yearnings. Oh, for tentacles and antennae! Ah for strings of eye-balls, and a severed head! Perhaps this year, at last, I too shall go to the costume show, in costume.") (14)
* Definitive Work, a short vignette, but not titled as such on the vignette itself (14)
* Reviews (these books are roughly $1.25 (US)!) (15)
** Walk the End of the World (Suzy McKee Charnas), review by Amanda Bankier ("This novel is depressing and powerful. I recommend it highly.")
** Star Ride (Doris Piserchia), review by Amanda Bankier ("This is a nice wildy wooly space opera...")
** The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (Ursula K. LeGuin), review by Amanda Bankier ("The Dispossessed is not a simple book, being both profound and highly structured, but it fits into the mind with a kind of inevitability. It reads like history and like truth (keeping in mind that both are full of uncertainty and contradiction.")
* The Last Word (The editor said the next issue will be longer and more varied and apologizes for the request of international money orders.) (18)
==Issue 2==
The Witch and the Chameleon 2 was published in November 1974 and contains 19 pages. Unlike the first issue, this one is very sparsely illustrated; there is one small piece by Amanda Bankier, and one that is uncredited but likely Elizabeth Mordue.
 
This issue was printed at the "Permanent Press" in Hamilton, Ontario (proprietors: Anne Lickers and Lyn Tomlinson). "Thanks to Vonda McIntyre for help and encouragement, and to Jennifer Bankier for a number of things, but especially for TYPING."
The second issue contains a very critical review by Vonda McIntyre of Marion Zimmer Bradley's book "Darkover Landfall." This review generated many letters by readers, including a later rebuttal by Bradley herself. One of the responses to this review was by Joanna Russ who, 1976, wrote a response fic to "Darkover Landfall" called "We Who Are About To..." There are many other responses to this letter by Bradley in some issues of Darkover Newsletter, specifically #7. For much more about this review and the resulting discussion, see Darkover Landfall reviewed by Vonda N. McIntyre.
CONTENTS:
* Editorial by Amanda Bankier (Discusses casual sexism, includes a clipping of two letters published in Time Magazine from September 23 and October 7, 1974. The first is a letter to the editor by Arthur C. Clarke. The other is a reply by a woman named Sharon Smith in Hartland, Maine.) (2)
* Letters by Andre Norton, Kris Fawcett (4)
* "A Farewell," fiction from "The Clouds Return" by Vonda N. McIntyre (6)
* Women in SF: Image and Reality" - A Criticism, essay by Jennifer Bankier (criticism of a panel discussion called "Women in SF: Image and Reality" at the 1974 Worldcon (One of that disputed panelists was Katherine Kurtz who "dominated the panel" with her view that the writers of science fiction weren't expressing their discrimination against women in their works, but were rather simply poor writers. Kate Wilhelm wrote a response to this article in issue #3.) (10)
* Further Conventional Thoughts, essay by Amanda Bankier (14)
* "The Fork in the Road," fiction by Elizabeth Mordue (15)
* Reviews of Pro Books
** "The Jargoon Pard by Andre Norton, reviewed by Jennifer Bankier ("'The Jargoon Pard' is not on par with the best of Ms. Norton's recent books, such as "The Crystal Grypon" [sic]. IT is still, however, a pleasure to read, and a welcome relief from the desert of badly written, boring or sexist science fition and fantasy stories with which we have lately been afflicted.") (16)
** House of Zeor by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, review by Amanda Bankier (Mentions Lichtenberg's "apparent aversion to homosexuality," the use of too many exclamation points, the irritating use of "girl" to describe grown women, but overall, "although parts of the novel are awkward, there is plenty of interest and considerable promise. I look forward to seeing more of Lichtenberg's work.") (17)
** Darkover Landfall reviewed by Vonda N. McIntyre, book was by Marion Zimmer Bradley ("If 'Darkover Landfall' were not such a nearly brilliant book it would not need reviewing. If it were potboiler, a churned-out piece of trash, as so much sf is, it could be ignored and forgotten. But it is a book written with emotion and conviction, and it is a book with passages of stunning beauty and effect which testify to teh ability of the author. Yet the same author destroyed her own book. She has not written the novel that could have been, but a polemic. In an attempt to prove, justify, and strengthen a particular point of vice, she perpetuates some of the cruelest and most crippling myths our society holds in shaky sacredness today.") (19)
From "Further Conventional Thoughts by Amanda Bankier: 
 
 
File:Witchcham2-1.jpg|inside page from issue #2, first page of of the House of Zeor review
File:Witchcham2-2.jpg|inside page from issue #2, first page of of the Darkover Landfall review
==Issue 3==
The Witch and the Chameleon 3 was published in April 1975 and contains 42 pages. It is the largest issue.
This issue was printed at the Toronto Women's Press. "Thanks to the Dundas Public Library for the use of their mimeograph. No thanks to Gestetner Company for selling the Dundas Public Library a defective machine."
Interior illos are by Lisa Vaugeois, Judy Gaffney, and Amanda Bankier.
CONTENTS:
* "Socialism and The Dispossessed, or A Study in Selective Perception," article by Jennifer Bankier (4)
* Jacqua, fiction by Sally Gearhart (9)
* About 2,675,250 Words," essay by Vonda N. McIntyre (A analysis of a year's worth of short fiction as an example of how long it was taking for most male writers of science fiction magazines to change their attitudes regarding gender issues, specifically women.) (13)
 
* "Women Writers," a 4-page letter by Kate Wilhelm (She backed up Jennifer Bankier's statements in the article in the previous issue regarding the Worldcon panel discussion. Wilhelm wrote about about the obstacles women faced in the science fiction field. Wilhelm's letter was the first she'd ever written a letter of comment/essay to a fanzine.) (21)
* other letters by Damon Knight, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (see some of her comments at "Women in SF: Image and Reality": A Criticism), Raccoona Sheldon, Joanna Russ, Avedon Carol, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Marion Zimmer Bradley (see some of her comments at Darkover Landfall reviewed by Vonda N. McIntyre, as well as at The Witch and the Chameleon "Darkover Landfall" Letter by Marion Zimmer Bradley (April 1975)), and Hal Davis (25)
* "Haven't We All Seen This Before?," examples of SF cliche tropes about women by Joanna Russ ("The Weird-Ways-of-Getting-Pregnant Story," "The Talking-About-It Story," "The Nobel Lecture Story," "The Turnabout Story, or I always knew what they wanted to do to me because I've been doing it to them for years, especially in the movies" (This was apparently reprinted as "The Cliches from Outer Space" in "Women's Studies International Forum, 7:2, 1984) (32)
* Reviews of some pro books
** "The Liberated Future" (Robert Hoskins) reviewed by Jennifer Bankier (37)
** "The Female Man" (Joanna Russ) reviewed by Amanda Bankier (38)
* Related? Topics (small bits of satire and info) 
* Hard Core Photography, article (40)
 
Excerpts from the letters:
==Issue 4==
The Witch and the Chameleon 4 was published in September 1975 and it contains 32 pages.
There are six doodles, one by Barry Kent McKay, the rest by Amanda Bankier. The editor writes: "If there is any out there doodling, will they please send in their doodles? I need more artwork badly!"
The place of printing for issue #4 is not mentioned, but the scientific Factsheet that is reprinted in this issue is stamped "DUNDAS PUBLIC LIBRARY," so it is likely the editor (and hopefully helper/s) were at the Dundas Public Library using that previously-mentioned crummy Gestetner there!
CONTENTS:
* S.O.S. Found in an SF Bottle, poem by Raccoona Sheldon (10)
* A Matter of Loyalties, fiction by Kris Fawcett (3)
* Sex Expression in Cucumbers, by D. Cantliffe ("reprinted as a public service.) (This is a reprint of a January 1974 two-page Factsheet printed by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and is an actual scientific paper abstract by D. Cantiliffe.) (13)
* Letters
**The Witch and the Chameleon "Darkover Landfall" Letter by Joanna Russ (1975): Joanna Russ (15)
** The Witch and the Chameleon "Darkover Landfall" Letter by Marion Zimmer Bradley (September 1975): Marion Zimmer Bradley (19)
** Devra Langsam (25)
** Jacqueline Lichtenberg (25)
** Ursula Le Guin (25)
** Vonda McIntyre (26)
** Stephen Robinett (26)
** Jack Williamson (26)
** Jerry Pournelle (27)
** Poul Anderson (28)
** jan howard finder (29)
** Paul David Novitski (30)
* Review of "Women of Wonder" (Pamela Sargent) (31)
* Editorial (31)
==Issue 5/6== 
The Witch and the Chameleon 5/6 was published in Summer 1976 and contains 32 pages. 
 
* Hey, Lilith!, short story by Gayle Netzer (1)
* Poem (untitled), poem by Eleanor Arnason(2)
* Becoming, short story by Karen Feinberg (3)
* Dreams, poem by Maria Jaoudi (8)
* Conditions of Terror, poem by Jennifer Malik (8)
* A Letter to Marion Zimmer Bradley, essay by Joanna Russ (9)
* artwork by Linda Moorcock (as Linda Steele) (10)
* Coda to Joanna, poem by Amanda Bankier (13)
* A Very Bad Good Idea, essay by James Tiptree, Jr. (as Raccoona Sheldon) (14)
* Chameleon,poem by Beth Jankola(14)
*  Letter, essay by Avedon Carol (15)
*  Letter, essay by Cy Chauvin (15)
* Commodore Bork and the Compost (A Homily), short story by Catherine Madsen (16)
* artwork by Catherine Madsen (19)
* Idols and Manipulators: Some Women Characters in SF, essay by Marleen S. Barr (as Marleen Barr) (20)
*  Letter, essay by Lee Overstreet (23)
*  Letter, essay by Lisa Tuttle (23)
*  Letter, essay by Don D'Ammassa (24)
*  Letter,essay by Rhoda Katerinsky (25)
*   Review: The Exile Waiting by Vonda N. McIntyre, review by Amanda Bankier (26)
* Gothic Or Not, essay by Suzy McKee Charnas (27)
*   Review: Change by Ann Maxwell, review by Suzy McKee Charnas (27)
*   Review: The Shattered Chain by Marion Zimmer Bradley, review by Jennifer Bankier (29)
* artwork by Elizabeth Mordue [as by Liz Mordue] (30)
*  Letter, essay by James Tiptree, Jr. (as Raccoona Sheldon) (30)
* artwork by Tom Robe (31)
From the letter by Raccoona Sheldon: 
 
Image:witchchal56-2.jpg|inside issue #5/6, detail, Raccoona Sheldon
Image:witchchal56-3.jpg|inside issue #5/6, full page, showing detail by Sheldon
Image:witchchal56-4.jpg|inside issue #5/6, sample "doodles" on a page, artist is Barry Kent McKay
Image:witchchal56-5.jpg|inside issue #5/6, detail, McKay
Image:witchchal56-6.jpg|inside issue #5/6, detail, Raccoona Sheldon
Image:witchchal56-7.jpg|inside issue #5/6, Amanda Bankier, woman holding a chameleon
==References==
Category:Science Fiction Zines
Category:1970s ZinesCategory:2018 Featured Articles