ESFA
(DId you mean the Evansville SF Association?)
A club founded in December 1945 in Rahway, NJ when George R. Fox, Sam Moskowitz, Lloyd Alpaugh, Bob Gaulin and Joe Kennedy decided to start a club and to call it the NULL-A Men. Moskowitz noted that it was the only club in history named after a story that no member liked, but was quickly re-named ESFA, the Eastern Science Fiction Association. (Harry Warner describes the Null-A Men as having been "gobbled-up" by the ESFA.) Its members were called ESFAns. Other early members included Lester Mayer, and Julius Postal.
In March 1946 it organized the FPWESFC -- the First Post-War Eastern Science Fiction Conference chaired by Sam Moskowitz, who continued to lead the club. (Mike McInerney remembered that "Sam was the main force and authority in the club. His large stature and booming voice commanded attention.") In April 1946, it held a (re-)organizational meeting during which it finally adopted the name ESFA, adopted bylaws, and suchlike. There were around 15 members.
It met monthly on Sunday afternoons. During the 50s it met at Slovak-Sokel Hall, then at the (even dingier) Academy Hall and then in the 60s in the basement of the YMCA in Newark, NJ and often had New York pros as speakers. Following the formal meeting, there was usually a dinner after-meeting at a local cafeteria.
It was a very sercon organization -- towards the end of 1947 meetings degenerated into bitter arguments whether there was such a thing as fantasy music or whether to boycott Amazing for printing the Shaver Mysteries. Gerry de la Ree (and a few others) quit the club in disgust over this sort of bickering. What Joe Kennedy remembered most fondly, though, was the bull sessions after the meetings.
They ran a convention Open ESFA, which they regarded merely as an extra meeting, open to all, and some larger conventions including the 1959 Eastern Science Fiction Conference (put on jointly with the Hydra Club.)
1949 officers Dr Thos. S. Gardner Director Sam Bowne Secretary Allan Howard Treasurer
| From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959 |
| Eastern SF Association of New York City and New Jersey; Sam Moskowitz' group. It was first organized as the Null-A Men in December 1945 ("Just missed being named the Odd Johns", records Kennedy) with such members as SaM, Alpaugh, and Joe Kennedy. 28 April 1946, after this group had put on the FPWESFC, the club was reorganized as the ESFA, incorporating new blood turned up at the con. |
| Club |
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