Austin, TX

There was fan activity in Austin, Texas beginning in the early 1930s, when SF fan D. R. Welch went into business of buying and selling SF publications.

His business was located near the campus of The University of Texas and was conducted under the name of the Science Fiction Syndicate. In an attempt to further his business, Welch compiled (and William Crawford published) the Science Fiction Bibliography.

Today there are countless SF bibliographies on individual authors and the several different fields of genre fiction. In the early 1930s, however, there were no such reference works. Although it listed only a handful of professional and amateur SF publications, Science Fiction Bibliography is credited with being the first such publication. In The Immortal Storm SF historian Sam Moskowitz stated that Welch's work is *a collectors' item of great interest."

There were various SF clubs at The University of Texas over the years, including one formed in the late 1960s-early 1970s, sponsored by Chad Oliver and Jon D. Swartz, who were on the faculty at the time. Guests at club meetings included authors Walter M. Miller and Randall Garrett. The club met for over a year and produced a club fanzine.

In the late 1970s -1980s Oliver was part of a group of area genre writers that included Neal Barrett, Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Howard Waldrop, Leigh Kennedy, Steve Utley, and Lisa Tuttle.

The Fandom Association of Central Texas (FACT), with headquarters in Austin, sponsors a number of fannish activities, the main one being the annual ArmadilloCon, which has been held in Austin since 1979.

---

Locale

This is a locale page. Please extend it by adding information about the city, state, or country, the history of fandom in this locale, major fans, clubs, conventions, good stories, etc. See Standards for Locales.