John Gutteridge
(???? – )
John Gutteridge was a UK fan from Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex active in the early 1950s. He is one of the few fans known to have joined the early 1950s BSFA, an organisation predating and unconnected to the present-day BSFA which was formed in 1958. He received a membership card telling him he was member 254.
Gutteridge attended the Medcon and the London SF Con where he was described by Vin¢ Clarke in the Science Fantasy News Loncon supplement as a 'youngfan'.
New Worlds #15 (March 1952) carried a letter from him asking, recursively, 'Would it not be possible to make a small space for readers' letters?' In #17 (September 1952) he wrote to say that:
It is a pity that some fans are still obsessed with the illusion that British magazines may be favourably compared with their American contemporaries. ... I defy any fan to name one American magazine which even approaches the same type of stories that are published in New Worlds. As you stated in the last issue, the rift between British and American magazines is widening fast.
In March 1953 he wrote to Hyphen #3:
Re: Hyphen: This was the world's worst fanzine. It was pure and utter crud. It was moronic, vile, tripe, illegible, irritating, nauseating low grade pulp copy... If Slant is really coming out more frequently it'll be worth the subscription, as long as you keep out the crud you stick in Hyphen. And then you tell me Hyphen is only for stuff of a strictly fannish appeal. To my way of thinking, 'fannish' implies nationwide, or even worldwide, and doesn't confine to the bounds of the London Circle, Belfast Triangle and the American bloc (pun).
Walt Willis published the letter in Hyphen #29 (July 1961), eight years later, 'because Time's healing hand has finally dried my tears' and noting that a copy of #3 had recently fetched ten times its cover price at a LASFS auction.
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