View source for Eofan

An '''eofan''' is somebody who was doing [[fanac]] and making inroads toward [[fandom]] before fandom really existed. '''Eofandom''' was generally comprised of folk with no sense of group existence whose interests were in [[collecting]] [[stf]] and scientificomics, and who eagerly hunted down any items with any sort of [[stfnal]] significance. The start of this period is disputed, but it’s generally considered to have ended, and [[First Fandom]] commenced, around 1933.

Such [[fanzines]] as ''[[Science Fiction Digest (Ingher)]]'' and ''[[The Comet]]'' were the mags of the day. Primitive trilobites crawled about on the ocean floor. Letter-writing was a major activity, and [[stfnists]] depended on [[HC|hcs]] of the past as much as, or more than, [[prozines]] for sustenance.

[[Jack Speer]] became one of [[fandom]]'s earliest historians, introducing his concept of [[Numerical Fandoms]] (which see), initially covering [[First Fandom]], [[Second Fandom]] and [[Third Fandom]]. Fairly early on, [[Speer]] was told he hadn't started his history of the [[microcosm]] early enough ... so, on revising his original, he dubbed this earlier period "eofandom" and the [[fans]] who were active there became "eofans". Its usage makes it possible to write a sentence which makes perfect sense when read but seems like nonsense when spoken aloud: "An eofan can never be a [[neofan]]."

One of Speer’s critics was [[Don Wollheim]], who said [[fandom]] started crawling out of its primeval ooze in 1929 in [https://fanac.org/fanzines/Fan_Slants/fans3.pdf#page=5 his view of its origins], published in ''[[Fan Slants]]'' 3 (June 1944).

{{fanspeak}}
[[Category:Fanhistory]]