Karen Kruse Anderson

(Did you mean Seattle fan Karen G. Anderson?)

(September 16, 1932 – March 17, 2018)

June Millichamp "Karen" Kruse Anderson’s first awareness of prozines came with the discovery of some Astoundings in the garage in 1944. In 1952, after her family had moved to the D.C. area, she discovered the Washington Science Fiction Association (was its secretary in 1952–53, and worked on Disclave 3), attended the Worldcon in Chicago, and began publishing her first fanzine in SAPS. The fanzine's full name was Die Zeitschrift fur Vollstandigen Unsinn (The Journal for Utter Nonsense); that was soon abbreviated to The Zed.

She overthrew Walter Coslet as OE of SAPS for overreaching. She was a member of The Cult. Her publishing house was Operation Voldesfan.

At the Chicon, she met Poul Anderson, John W. Campbell, Jr., Anthony Boucher, Gordon R. Dickson, and many others. Correspondence with Anderson, during one year's study in the drama department and partying with physics and engineering majors at Catholic University, convinced her that scientists were more fun than actors and SF writers even more; she would rather have the life of a writer's wife in California than stay in school and try for the stage.

Poul was already making his living selling science fiction to Campbell and Boucher, some of it in collaboration with Dickson, when they had roomed in the same house in the University of Minnesota district. Campbell's Astounding and Boucher's F&SF couldn't support them fully, and he also whipped out space opera for the likes of Amazing and Planet Stories. When their daughter Astrid was born, Poul took a job at the Western Research Lab of the USDA.

They were both active in the Elves', Gnomes', and Little Men's Science Fiction, Chowder, and Marching Society, and were fully involved in SFCon, the Worldcon put on in San Francisco by the club. Karen appeared at the masquerade as a typical Bergey Beauty cover illustration for magazines such as Planet Stories. She later joined LASFS.

Carol Pohl, left, and Karen Anderson in the “A Galaxy of Fashion” Show at Tricon, 1966.

She began her costuming career at Chicon, and later won numerous regional and Worldcon costume prizes, including that "Countess Dracula" at Southgate (1958) which went on to be revived into "The Bat and the Bitten" with Astrid in St Louis, 1969. Another was a "Dragon Mistress" which fortunately did not come into competition with Bruce Pelz's "Heavy Trooper."

Over the years, she staged a number of fannish plays and filk operettas, including: Mag Net in 1956, Alice in Thrillingwonderland in the late 1950s or early ’60s, The Birth of a Notion (by Robert Bloch) in the ’50s, HMS Trek-a-Star at Baycon in 1968, and Hatty, or St. Simon's Bride in 1995.

She modeled in the “A Galaxy of Fashion” Show at Tricon, the 1966 Worldcon, sponsored by The prozine Galaxy.

In May 1960, John Trimble published A Fanzine for Karen Anderson.

• File 770 Obituary.
• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Alif (for The Cult)
• Ampersand
• Calmatema (for The Cult)
• Goliard (for FAPA)
• Henry Kuttner: A Memorial Symposium [1958]
• Vorpal Glass

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1976 -- Sampo Award
• 1984 -- Omacon 4
• 1985 -- ConClave X, Con-Version II
• 1987 -- Xanadu 4
• 1989 -- Life, the Universe, & Everything 7
• 1997 -- ConClave XXII
• 2000 -- Philcon 2000, Baycon 2000 (Special Guest)
• 2001 -- Marcon 36
• 2003 -- Filk Hall of Fame
• 2004 -- FilKONtario 14
• 2006 -- GAFilk 8, Raiders of the Lost La-La Con
• 2009 -- OVFF 25 (Interfilk Guest)
• 2010 -- Forry Award
• 2011 -- Boskone 48 (NESFA Press Guest)

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Person

1932—2018

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