George Locke

(February 3, 1936 – February 1, 2019)

George Walter Locke was a UK fan, writer, fan editor, one-time pharmacist, antiquarian bookseller, and bibliographer active from the mid-1950s.

He was described in Eye #6 (Christmas 1956) as 'a young fan who rolled up at The Globe one day and offered stuff to editors!'. He was the subject of the first of a 'Who's Who in British Fandom' series published in Skyrack where Ron Bennett wrote in #26 (November 1960):

If fannish ability counted with military authorities, George Locke would be pushing the rank of field-marshal. In three short years George has sprung to the fore in British fandom and his writings are without doubt an acquisition to any fanzine in which they appear. George, who was born on 9th February 1936 (he stands 5' 10" and weighs just over 12 stones), came into fandom about the time of the London World Convention in 1957 and was content for over a year to sit on the sidelines at Globe meetings in London, merely drinking in the fannish atmosphere and grounding himself in fannish history. Suddenly, in 1959, he burst forth as an actifan with his own fanzine Smoke as well as competing with John Berry in prolific writing. Apart from the 1957 Worldcon he attended the 1959 BrumCon in Birmingham but was prevented by an untimely callup from appearing at this year's LonCon. He was voted one of the best new fans in last year's Fanac poll. George possesses a most enviable balance of puckish humour and mature seriousness. His OMPAzine Eyetracks is devoted in the main to items from his fabulous book collection. A thoroughly nice guy who is an asset to British fandom.

He was an early although not founder member of the BSFA, contributing to the second issue of its journal, Vector. He was also a member of The Science Fiction Club of London (SFCoL), leaving in April 1960 for National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He subsequently served in Kenya and Kuwait.

Locke was a member of OMPA and FAPA. With John Berry he founded IPSO, the UK's short-lived second APA, in November 1960. His Smoke placed sixth in the 1959 Skyrack Poll and second in 1960 while Locke himself placed fourth and second as fan writer in the same years and remained in the top-ten until 1963. He was on the RePetercon committee, publishing its The East Fanglian Times progress reports. He was also a member of The Fan Squadron group of fans who were also aircraft enthusiasts.

He largely withdrew from fandom after 1966 to increasingly devoted himself to his book-selling business, becoming a full-time bookseller in 1972. He did however attend Beyond This Horizon in 1973, and more recently ReRepetercon in 2004 (where he and Dave Barber 'continued a discussion they had left off at their last convention in 1966') and Cytricon V in 2008. He was also an occasional correspondent of Trap Door and Prolapse in the 2000s.

He was the author of a few professionally published stories, starting with 'The Human Seed' for Authentic Science Fiction #85 (October 1957) and then five other short stories published under the name Gordon Walters in various venues in the 1960s . He was however far better known as the the author of several bibliographic works for SF collectors, including Science Fiction First Editions (1978) and the A Spectrum of Fantasy volumes. His particular specialism was pre-1914 inter-planetary fiction. He was also the publisher of William Temple's somewhat fictionalised version of life at The Flat, 88 Gray's Inn Road.

Links

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• George Locke in Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• George Locke interviewed for The Bookdealer in January 1996 at sheila-markham.com

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Deadwood [1964-66] (for FAPA)
• The East Fanglian Times [1963-4] (for the 1964 Eastercon)
• Eye Tracks [1960] (for OMPA)
• Lockjaw [1961]
• Prose of Kilimanjaro [1961-62]
• Search & Research
• Smoke [1959-63] (for OMPA)
• Topee or Not Topee [1961] (for OMPA)

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Person

1936—2019

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