The Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy is one of the world's the largest, richest, and deepest collections of science fiction, fantasy, horror, utopian literature and related genres. It is housed at the UC Riverside Library's Special Collections & University Archives in the Tomás Rivera Library.
The collection is a major resource for research and is visited by scholars from around the world for both its American and international holdings. It features over 300,000 items including:
- Over 100,000 hardback and paperback books.
- Full runs of many pulp magazines.
- Nearly 100,000 fanzines.
- Film and visual material, including 500 shooting scripts from science fiction films.
- Comic books, anime and manga.
- Collectible ephemera and realia, including cards, posters, pins and action figures.
The collection also includes papers from writers Gregory Benford, David Brin, F. M. Busby, Michael Cassutt, Robert L. Forward, Anne McCaffrey, William Rotsler, Colin Wilson, and James White.
Contents
Fanzines[edit]
The Eaton Fanzine Collection, numbering more than 100,000 issues, grew out of the collections of four prominent fans: Terry Carr, Fred Patten, Bruce Pelz, and Rick Sneary.
History[edit]
In 1969, UC Riverside became the first academic institution to develop a dedicated science fiction and fantasy collection for the purposes of research and education. Since then, the Eaton Collection has grown to become an extraordinarily comprehensive, deep-rooted, rich collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and related genres in the literature of the fantastic. The Eaton Collection was first established when the UCR Library acquired Dr. J. Lloyd Eaton's personal collection of more than 7,500 books.
The Eaton Collection received another significant contribution in 2012, when Jay Kay Klein donated his collection of thousands of photographs to the UCR Library. In the last half of the 20th century, Klein photographed science fiction luminaries including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and many more.
People[edit]
J. Lloyd Eaton (1920-1968) was born in Berkeley, California. He attended UC Berkeley and the UC Medical School (now UC San Francisco) and practiced medicine in the Bay Area until he retired in 1960. An avid book collector and one of the pioneering science fiction fans in the region, Eaton was personally acquainted with such writers as Anthony Boucher, Ray Bradbury, and Robert A. Heinlein. Eaton maintained an extensive card file in which he made critical comments and personally evaluated his collection. This file is available to researchers today.
From 1979 to 2004, George Slusser held a joint position as Eaton curator and professor of comparative literature. During his tenure the collection grew in printed titles and other materials, including the acquisition of the major fanzine collections.
Notable Holdings[edit]
- Dracula, Bram Stoker
- The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
- The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
- Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
- Fantastic Four #1
- Action Comics #1
Notable Popular Culture Collections[edit]
- Alien Nation
- Star Trek
- Andromeda
- The X-Files
- Comic books
- Fanzines
- Manga
- Anime
The Eaton Journal[edit]
The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online journal hosted by the University of California at Riverside, affiliated with the UCR Library's Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Graduate student editors run the Eaton Journal, with scholarly review provided by an interdisciplinary executive board made up of SF scholars, research librarians, and archivists.
The Eaton journal creates a space for science fiction scholars to share their findings and their experiences within the several archives dedicated to science fiction found throughout the world. The Eaton Journal is also the only journal dedicated to providing a place for archival librarians to discuss the challenges of managing significant science fiction collections and to share their best practices for facilitating as well as conducting archival research in SF.
External Links[edit]
| Fanhistory | Website | 1969— |
| This is a fanhistory page. Please add more detail. |
