Directory of Anglofandom

The Directory of Anglofandom was the UK's first fan directory published by J. Michael Rosenblum in January 1945 for the British Fantasy Society.

It had a complicated gestation (and later life, or agony, as well come to think of that; but let us not get ahead of ourselves). In May 1943, British Fantasy Society Bulletin 8 reported that the Advisory Board

are very enthusiastic about the project of a Who's Who of British fandom, which would contain autobiographical details of every fan from whom the required information could be secured, or obtained by indirect means. I understand that Dennis Tucker is prepared to do the donkey work, including publishing, planning, editing, and so on. The plan hasn't as yet been O.K'd by the Executive Committee, but there does not seem to be a particular objection - though there may be doubts as to its feasibility. 

This, then, would be a much more ambitious and extensive project than a simple list of addresses, almost certainly beyond the capabilities of the Wartime Britfandom – a similar encyclopedia of a substantial set of UK fans was achieved only in the 1961 US-produced Who's Who in Science Fiction Fandom. (It remains to be researched whether there were any interim reports on the development and narowing the scope to a directory.) In Futurian War Digest #37 ("Octember" 1944) Rosenblum wrote:

At long last Dennis Tucker has found it impossible to continue with the production of a Directory of British Fandom, which he undertook on behalf of the British Fantasy Society, so all papers have been turned over to JMRosenblum (me!) and I shall try to get the thing out as soon as possible...

However, the next issue of FWD (38, December) did not mention Tucker:

Within the next couple of months it is hoped that the following will be published from [Rosenblum's address: three titles, second of them being]. A Directory of British Fandom, compiled, stencilled and published by JMR.

The British Fantasy Society Bulletin 21 reported the Expenditure on "Directory of Fandom" as 1 - 14 - 10 (£/s/d). The Directory itself also did not acknowledge Tucker in any way:

Prepared, produced and published by J. M. Rosenblum […] One copy free to BFS members. Other copies at 4d each. […] Also distributed to all members of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association alleged to be part of the Spring 1945 Mailing

(i. e. #31); but there is no trace of this happening in the FAPA Book (vol. 2).

Beside names and addresses – it can be especially useful for establishing full names when initials were usually used, although many are still initials only – Rosenblum identified armed forces personnel, and separately those posted overseas, BFS members with their numbers, and included some 'not in touch at the present moment' and 'one or two people whose connection to fandom is known to be finally severed', marked X. However, especially due to contingencies of its production, the Directory contains a number of errors, from obvious typos to more insidious, so caution must be taken.

The Directory's 24 unnumbered pages are divided thus:

• Simple pictorial cover (artist not given but similar to Joe Gibson who provided much material to JMR), empty verso
• "Foreword" at pp (3–4)
• Main list (5–20). There are 14 entries per full page and the final one has 5 plus "Addenda" of 4 (three of them BFS members with numbers 89, 95 and 104[?], reported in BFS Bulletins from Nov 1943, March 1944 and March 1945). This makes for 219 names altogether of whom there were "one American and two Canadians […] resident in thse [sic] isles long enough to join the" BFS.
• "Roll of Honour" (21), nine of BFS's American honorary members, with just cities and not street addresses; plus a notice "of the death by accident of BFS member Michael Lord, Sub-Lieut., RNVR" (not in the main list)
• Advert for / description of BFS exhorting to join (22)
• The final two pages in the Fanac.org scan look as if they might be switched, judging from the left edge's fraying and traces of the staple (just one, in the upper third): (23?) as scanned has a list of BFS officers, fanzines etc., while (24?) is empty with a handwritten (might this be Rosenblum's hand?) address of "F J Ackerman", with his street name "New North" crossed out and corrected to North New Hampshire. Perhaps it would make some sense to have text on the bacover, of even so modest a production as the DoAF was, and empty inside rather then simpler vice versa, but then why write the address inside?

Ghost second edition

The British Fanzine Bibliography said there was a second edition in 1948 produced by the British Fantasy Library, but significantly listed no specific details. It would of course make a perfect sense in the post-War era, when old fans moved (or gafiated definitively) and new ones were arriving in great numbers, but sadly this must be considered (as SFE says) a ghost title. The edition was indeed announced and even over-optimistically promoted – an instance easiest available now is Fantasy Review 9, Jun–Jul 1948:

YOU WILL find the Directory of Anglo-Fandom invaluable for making contacts. Published by the British Fantasy Library, comprising names and addresses of over 300 fans (members and non-members) in the British Isles, the new issue is now ready. Copies, 1/- post free, obtainable from the Librarian: Ron Holmes

The reality was much darker, as Walt Willis recounted in his characteristically readable fanoir 'I Remember Me' mere 8 years later:

This Booklist [#6, July 1948] also carried a second reference to the BFL Directory of Anglofandom, a mysterious Necronomicon-like document which had a curious history. The previous Booklist had said it was now available. This one formally blacklisted one Thomas MacDonald of Carlisle, who had 'promised to print it but had not returned the material or answered our letters'.

It must be noted that in this "Emergency Issue" Ron Holmes announced his dire personal circumstances and gafiation, and both the quality of production, including amount of typos, and some emotional formulations attest to his frayed nerves. It is also interesting that WaW's quote was rather imprecise (even though earlier he block-quoted Holmes's introductory paragraph):

BLACKLIST. We don’t like to do this, but we feel that it is for the comunal good.
THOMAS. T. L. MacDonald [sic! One other offender is named similarly irregularly as J. FRANK. White. Address follows] He offered to print the directory, accepted the lists and material, and has failed us even to the non-return of lists.

After or despite these strong words, though, the situation apparently improved somewhat somehow (after all, BFL was still running so had to have some kind of membership list at its disposal), but we have only WaW's tantalising paraphrase below, as the issue is not available. John Gunn took over and he

distributed his emergency Booklist on 20th October. […] The Emergency Booklist had announced, with apologies to MacDonald, that the BFL Directory of Anglofandom was a splendid job and now in circulation, and copies could be obtained from the Editor. But neither money nor entreaties could produce anything from Gunn but booklists.

Willis managed to persuade Gunn after several months of unanswered letters that to distribute Slant 1 as a rider, he would even mail Booklist himself (that is, with the rest of the Wheels of IF). On Christmas Day, the 200 copies arrived (of which only "49 noted as fully paid-up members of the BFL") with a letter saying a.o.

I am also enclosing the only copy of the Directory of Anglo-fandom in existence, so please don’t lose it.

This is the strongest possible argument against the up-to-date version existing any time in 1948 (let alone later when the BFL was in its final death throes, clearly unable to find anyone to produce or distribute such a publication. Also, if it existed, surely enough copies would survive to be found in the 21st century, if not earlier). Alas, we do not know and hardly will ever learn what form that "only copy" had (stencils? a finished manuscript?) and what its final fate was. It is certainly a pity all that toil and trouble was in vain, and who knows – if BFL had left such a legacy, it might have significantly influenced the reshaping of organised UK fandom. But still, what a tale!

However… there is one further claim that a second edition was eventually published. In the first edition of his Directory of Science Fiction Fandom (i. e. for 1955, published Feb 1956), Ron Bennett wrote:

The first Anglo Fan Directory as far as anyone appears to know was compiled by Michael Rosenblum in 1945, followed about seven years later with a photolith production by John Gunn. Both these efforts were excellent productions but are now sadly out of date. September 1953 saw […] also another Directory from the hands of Vin¢ Clarke. Unfortunately this last Directory is also out-of-date after two years. Many of the names of then 'Very-active' fans mean little or nothing to me. Hence this

This would imply that Bennett had seen the second edition… yet: There are few reports of Gunn being that active "about 1952" so as to undertake such a big project, even printing while Clarke and Bennett modestly duplicated; and of course no other contemporary news nor later mentions. Is it possible that Bennett might have confused this with the US N3F 1950 Fan Directory, which is nicely printed – although, as some bibliographies suggest, not by photolithography, and contains mere 16 names in "England"? (Also, while Bennett does his best to explain why a directory would go out of date just in two, let alone three years, even the most generous 1950s fan could hardly call Rosenblum's wartime austere production "excellent", except to praise the effort.) So this seems rather a ghost sighting than hard evidence.

• Directory of Anglo-Fandom at Fanac.org (3 MB PDF, poor reproduction / faded)
• "J. Michael Rosenblum's 1945 Directory of Anglo-Fandom": a cartographic visualisation by Doug Bell, 2021; contains several sub-layers

---

Publication

1945

This is a publication page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was published, how many issues it has had, (including adding a partial or complete checklist), its contents (including perhaps a ToC listing), its size and repro method, regular columnists, its impact on fandom, or by adding scans or links to scans. See Standards for Publications.