Science Fiction League

The community of fandom arguably began with the Science Fiction League, probably the single most important fan organization of the 1930s. The SFL was a commercially sponsored club for stf readers, but through it, the first protofans met each other and came into a sense of group self awareness.

Hugo Gernsback promoted the international club as a way to drum up readership for his second pulp prozine, Wonder Stories, and fill its pages without having to pay writers. He who announced the club in the May 1934 issue. The idea seems to have come from Charles D. Hornig who had been picked from the readership ranks to become the 17-year-old editor of Wonder Stories.

The club offered fans, via Wonder Stories' pages, chartered membership certificates for SFL local branches, lapel buttons and club stationery, and, ultimately, letter columns in the magazine printed the letter writers’ names and addresses, allowing them to get in contact with each other and create fandom. (The first local club, the Scienceers, got together as a result.)

Interestingly, Gernsback announced the SFL as "a non-commercial membership organization for the furtherance and betterment of the art of science fiction." It was not noticed at the time, but by founding a club devoted to stf, he effectively gave up his idea that sf existed to promote science.

An imposing (but powerless) list of “Executive Directors,” prominent fen (meaning, at the time, prolific writers to the prozine letter columns) and pros: Forrest J. Ackerman, Eando Binder, Jack Darrow, Edmond Hamilton, David H. Keller, M.D., P. Schuyler Miller, Clark Ashton Smith, and R. F. Starzl. Hugo Gernsback himself was Executive Secretary, Charles D. Hornig, Assistant Secretary. Members were supposed to propagandize stf and promote it by "personal solicitation" (i.e. a peptalk) whenever they could buttonhole a victim. The SFL department of Wonder Stories reported activities of locals and of fandom in general, announced proposed new locals, listed new members and addresses.

The July 1934 issue announced the first 10 members to sign up, winners of autographed letters and original manuscripts from Dr. David H. Keller, provided they wrote appropriate letters first to the prozine and then to the good doctor:

1. George Gordon Clark, Brooklyn, NY
2. John Theodore Wiese, New York City, NY
3. Robert Hart, Wethersfield, CT
4. Kenneth Sterling, New York City, NY
5. William H. Dellenback, Chicago, IL
6. George Forbes, Arlington, MA
7. Jacob K. Taback, New York City, NY
8. Stephen R. Tucker, Wallingford, CT
9. Frank Phillips, Jr., Pennagrove, NJ
10. Harry Boosel, Chicago, IL

That none of them were from west of the Mississippi probably reflects the magazine’s distribution patterns and the speed of the mails rather than lack of interest from western readers.

Enthusiastic readers poured like gnurrs from the voodvork out to join up, and SFL chapters popped up wherever Wonder Stories was distributed – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Lincoln, Lewiston, Maine, even Leeds in England.

After the ISA-SFL Clash, Gernsback suffered one of his periodic financial crises in 1936, and sold Wonder Stories, passing control of the SFL to Standard Publications, which let it die of neglect. Many chapters severed all ties with the SFL, some collapsed entirely, but two (after renaming themselves) continue to meet regularly to the present day — the ones in Los Angeles (now LASFS) and Philadelphia (now PSFS). In any event, by that point the League was no longer needed — fandom was up and running, self-perpetuating and a thing alive.

The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) started out as the Los Angeles Science Fiction League (LASFL), one of the chartered clubs under the Gernsback SFL umbrella. Arguably the oldest regularly meeting sf club in the U.S., it was chapter 4 of the League, while the Philadelphia SFL (its only possible rival) was chapter 11. The Philadelphia club withdrew from the League in the 1930s and substituted "Society" for "League" in their name, becoming PSFS. The LASFL substituted "Society" for "League" when the Science Fiction League ceased to be a sponsoring organization and "Fantasy" for "Fiction" to expand their area of appeal.

In an amusing hoax, George Scithers fooled LASFS in 1980 over a refounded SFL. See Scithers SFL Hoax.

• Science Fiction League history by Doc Lowndes in Outworlds 49 (April 1987, p. 1620).

Chapters:

No.	Chapter	Director	Est.	Notes
1	Brooklyn SFL	George Gordon Clark	January 1935
2	Lewiston (ID) SFL	Stuart Ayres	"
3	Erie (PA) SFL	Jack Schaller	February 1935
4	Los Angeles SFL (LASFL)	E. C. Reynolds	"	Later, LASFS.
5	Monticello (NY) SFL	William Rothelder	"	Dave Kyle, secretary. Founded by Rothleder, Kyle and high-school friends Walter Scheible, Charles Kaufman, Israel Ellenberg and Abraham Wolf. They published a few issues of a clubzine using carbon copies but, Kyle said, "the amateurish efforts quickly vanished without a trace."
6	Mayfield (PA) SFL	John Tomccyzk	"
10	New York SFL] / Manhattan SFL	William S. Sykora
11	Philadelphia SFL			Later, PSFS.
14	Chicago SFL	Edward E. Chappelow		Highest membership of all chapters.
17	Leeds SFL	Douglas W. F. Mayer
20	Belfast SFL	Hugh Carswell	1935	In 1951, James White happened on a reference to it in a 1935 issue of Wonder Stories and immediately went to the address given. Harry Warner reported in A Wealth of Fable, "He encountered there a frightening woman and a grisly discovery. The woman said that Carswell was away and added that she had just thrown out all his prozines."
22	Nuneaton (UK) SFL	Maurice K. Hanson		Located in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK. Its clubzine was Novae Terrae and members includes Dennis Jacques and Maurice T. Crowley.
27	Sydney SFL		August 1935	It held its first official meeting on August 15, 1935. Members included: Charles La Costez, William E. Hewitt, Thomas M. Mallett, Wallace J. J. Osland.
34	Glasgow SFL
37	Barnsley (UK) SFL			In South Yorkshire.
	Newark SFL	Robert Bahr
	Lincoln (IL) SFL	P. H. Thompson	1934	It published the Lincoln SFL Doings, but soon faded away.
	Lebanon (PA) SFL		March 1935
	Jersey City SFL		"
	Darien (CT) SFL	Doc Lowndes		Short-lived.
	ENYSFL		1935	The Eastern New York SFL began as a sub-chapter of the Brooklyn SFL, it eventually grew larger and independent. Fl. 1935–38. It published Arcturus as a clubzine and members included Fred Pohl, Harold W. Kirshenblit, Irving L. Kosow and R. Henry Drucker.
	Muskogee (OK) SFL		1935
	Stamford (CT) SFL	Doc Lowndes	June 1935
	Minneapolis SFL	Oliver Saari	1936	Saari and Douglas Blakely, founders. Authors Donald Wandrei and Carl Jacobi attended the first meeting and presented talks at meetings, but the formal organization collapsed almost immediately. Some members — Saari, Blakely, John L. Chapman, Arden Benson and Robert Madsen — became friends and continued to meet informally over the next several years. When Clifford Simak arrived in town, this group formed the Minneapolis Fantasy Society.
	Flushing SFL	James V. Taurasi	July 1937	Early members included Richard Wilson, Robert G. Thompson, Abraham Oshinsky, and Jack Gillespie.
	QSFL / GNYSFL	James V. Taurasi		The Queens SFL expanded into the Greater New York SFL in 1938 but then retracted again in the Wollheimist-Triumvirs feuds.
	Kings SFL			A proposed off-shoot of the Queens SFL, this group was officially in Brooklyn (Kings County, NY). It failed to become a chapter of the SFL, so it became ...The Futurians.
	Bloomington (IL) SFL	Bob Tucker
	Adelaide SFL	John Devern	1938	Devern published the hektographed Science Fiction Review, a 16-page fanzine, which was the first duplicated fanzine in Australia. The Adelaide SFL did not last long, vanishing with its founder.
	Washington Heights SFL			This chapter Washington Heights in Manhattan brought Cyril Kornbluth and Chester Fein into fandom.
	Bronx SFL	Herbert E. Goudket
	Liverpool SFL
	Tri-Cities (TX) SFL	Dale Hart	1938	This chapter had more than a dozen members around Baytown, Pelley and Goose Creek, Texas, just east of Houston. The last fandom heard of this group it was trying to raise enough money to buy a duplicator.
	Oklahoma City SFL (OCSFL)	Edgar A. Hirdler	1936	Dan McPhail was a founder.
	Baltimore SFL			It was still going in the early 1940s, with monthly meetings at the home of Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr., and upwards of 10 members. Members included Virginia Kidd, Henry Andrew Ackermann, and George Wetzel.
	Glendale (CA) SFL		1936	It did not last long and appears to have withered and been absorbed by LASFS.
	Melbourne (Australia) SFL
	Millheim SFL
	Cincinnati SFL			Dale Tarr was one of its charter members and quite active. Fl. late ’30s.
	Albany SFL	Arthur L. Selikowitz
	Detroit SFL	George Young	ca. 1950	The Detroit Science Fantasy League, not part of the SFL at all.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

from SFL Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959 The Science Fiction League, launched in 1934 by Gernsback and Hornig, sponsored by Wonder Stories. An imposing (but powerless) board of directors included prominent fen like Ackerman. Members got insignia and stationery 'n stuff blazoned with the group's emblem (illustrated on the Fan-Dango Award); they were supposed to propagandize stf (little stickers were planned for the purpose) and promote it by "personal solicitation" (i.e. a peptalk) whenever they could buttonhole a victim. The SFL department of Wonder Stories reported activities of locals and of fandom in general, announced proposed new locals, listed new members and addresses, and carried the Science-Fiction Tests. Under TWS the League was continued, but more commercialized, and the department was often used to blurb future issues. In the course of time the League enrolled several thousand readers, tho most of these never did anything more than send in their names, and some were duplicate enrollments or pen-names. It was hoped that the SFL could become the general fan organization, but this was dashed when non-payment of young authors (the fault of a department of the company not under Hornig's control) and natural rivalry brought on the ISA-SFL war and the expulsion of Wollheim, Sykora, and Michel. The chief importance of the SFL in fandom was in the chapters that were set up, of which the most important were LASFL, QSFL, GNYSFL, Leeds SFL and other locals with different names, like the PSFS. In these titles by "SFL" we understand "chapter of the SFL". By the rules only one chapter could be established in a city, except in cities over 1,000,000. Three members were required for setting up a chapter; most such three-man chapters were short-lived. A rule which soon lapsed made the chapter-member with the lowest serial number Director. Of other rules there were few; one was that members promise to answer with reasonable promptness all (non-commercial) correspondence addressed to them as members. The organization was moribund before the end of 1941.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

from SFL Fancyclopedia 1 ca. 1944 The Science Fiction League, launched in 1934 by Gernsback and Hornig, sponsored by Wonder Stories. An imposing Board of Directors included Ackerman and Darrow, but they had no power. The SFL department of Wonder Stories reported activities of locals and of fandom in general, announced proposed new locals, listed new members and addresses, and carried the B Stf test and results. Under TWS the League was continued, but more commercialized, the department often being used to blurb future issues. In course of time the League enrolled several thousand members, tho most of these never did anything more than send in their names, and some of the memberships are duplicate enrollments or things like Peggy Gillespie. It was hoped that the SFL could become the general fan organization, but this was dashed when non-payment of young authors (it should be added that this was up to a department of the company not under Hornig's control) and natural rivalry brot on the ISA-SFL war and the expulsion of Wollheim, Sykora, and Michel. In those cases, "SFL means "chapter of the SFL". Only one chapter can be established in the same city, except in cities over 1,000,000. Three members are required for setting up a chapter; most such three-man organizations are quite short-lived. There is an old rule, no longer observed, that the member with the lowest serial number shall be director. Of other rules there were few; one was that members promise to answer with reasonable promptness all (non-commercial) correspondence addressed to them as members. The emblem was reproduced on lapel buttons and stationery which were for sale.

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Club

1934—1941

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