Seth A. Johnson
(April 3, 1911 – March 11, 1969)
Seth Johnson was a longtime actifan living in New Jersey. He was a regular letterhack, active on the N3F Welcommittee and operated the N3F's Fanzine Clearing House. He placed ads in the back of prozines — “Discover fandom for $2” — and sent bundles of fanzines to protofen.
Bjo Trimble credits Johnson with pushing her to set up Project Art Show. He was a long-time member of ESFA, a member of the Federation of East and West, a member of the ISFCC and the ISFS, and published The Vaux Hall Fanatic in the early days of N'APA.
He was an enthusiast for round-robin letters and in 1961 reported that he'd launched over 130 of them in the previous five or so years.
TNFF (April 1969, p. 7) reported:
The Fanzine Clearing House was only one of Seth Johnson’s brain-children. Primarily his approach to fandom was to write letters, and in welcoming new members to N3F he often continued writing either in usual singleletters or in RRs he initiated. In these (and he was responsible for 125 or thereabouts) he would discuss whatever subjects were brought up, and also he initiated quite a few subjects himself. In the process of this extensive correspondence he initiated many ideas that have become standard projects in the club. Sometime an article or column should list all these, plus some projects that weren’t confined to N3F but were his initially. In a way the Fanzine Clearing House could be a memorial to Seth—if we keep it going. The purpose behind it was to discover people interested in fandom, and so he advertised bundles of "amateur magazines" and wrote each person who sent a dollar for a bundle. The letter, plus the material in the fanzines themselves, served to introduce many fans to science fiction fandom and also, quite often, to N3F. Seth would tell enough about the various possibilities for activity and Information that he interested a large number of fans to our club. He felt that because the pulp lettercolumn was once the contact-place for locating new fan prospects and that now this area is almost non-existant, that some other method should be found for this contact.
- “Finding New Fans: Seth Johnson and his Fanzine Clearing House” by Leah Zeldes Smith, Spirits of Things Past 3 (September 2001, page 8).
- The Vaux Hall Fanatic (for N'APA)
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1965 — Kaymar Award
| Person | 1911—1969 |
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