John Briston

(???? – )

John Briston was a UK fan from Surrey active in the 1940s and 1950s. He was a member of the British Fantasy Society (BFS) and attended Loncon in 1957.

Briston was in contact with Futurian War Digest from at least March 1941 and was a relatively early member of the BFS.

He is listed in the Directory of Anglo-Fandom of 1945 but not in later directories.

He was however at the 1957 Worldcon, his first convention, where he met Bob Madle and Sam Moskowitz as reported by Madle in A Fake Fan in London:

Sam and I had intended to look over Ken Slater's enormous book display which was located on the landing between the first and second floors of the hotel. This appeared to be a likely time to do it – as Ken was just about ready to pack up and call it a convention. While Sam pawed through the musty old tomes, I struck up a conversation with a couple of gentlemen who, in turn, mentioned that they enjoyed very much the questions and answers, as they were S-F readers from the year one. Their names are John Briston and Mr. Wren (his first name eludes me). Their knowledge of S-F amazed me and I asked them if they would care to join us in dinner and continue the conversation. Wren had previous plans, but Briston, a local Londonite, accepted and we had a good old gabfest on current S-F as contrasted with Gernsbacian stuff. Forry Ackerman and his charming companion, Mary Dziechowski, joined us at the restaurant and added much to the conversation.

Sometime after I returned to the States I was quite pleased to receive a letter from John Briston, who expressed surprise that Sam and I, who were very well-known to him, should spend so such time with someone who had never attended a convention before and who, in fact, had never even had a letter in a lettercolumn. John didn't realise that both Sam and I are continuously looking for John's type: the general reader who has an intensive interest in S-F, yet never entered fandom. In fact, we agree that entering fandom is a rare freak of chance, and there are thousands of genuinely interested readers of S-F, all of whom are potential fans. Many of these potential fans send for fan magazines upon seeing them reviewed in prozines. And it is necessary that something in the fanzine they send for pertain to the field they know and love - science fiction. Otherwise they go back to their reading and collecting lost to fandom forever.

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Person

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