Early Femmefen
The Women Fen Don’t See
or, Women in Fandom Before Tricon[edit]
| By Leah Zeldes Smith Reprinted from Unsettled 73 (October 23, 2021). © 2021 by Leah Zeldes Smith. Used with permission. |
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Tricon, the 1966 Worldcon, was notable in fanhistory for a number of reasons, but among them is that it screened the premiere of a new TV show: Star Trek. And after that came the deluge. Common fannish lore says there were hardly any women in fandom before the Enterprise boldly flew across our television screens and fandom grew exponentially — but common fannish lore, and the poor memories and male fanhistorians who fed into it, are wrong. Men did outnumber women in early 20th-century fandom, yet there were many female actifen even during fandom’s earliest days. (It’s worth noting that, by 1959, fanspeak had developed two nongender-specific pronouns, heesh and hiser.) René Walling’s research into Worldcon membership demographics, from 1939–60, shows that women made up roughly 20 percent of the attendance at early Worldcons. While Sam Moskowitz recalled that at the first Worldcon in 1939, “Of the 30 women in attendance only about 7 were interested in science fiction, the others were wives, sisters, and friends” — how could he know what they were interested in? Much early fanboy grousing about the lack of women in fandom really meant not enough single — i.e., available — women. As Lee Hoffman recollected in Fanhistorica 1 (May 1976, p. 10): In those dark ages, a major complaint in fandom was the shortage of femfans. There were some, but not enough to go around. Young male fans in search of intellectual companionship often complained that all the active femfans came into fandom on the coattails of male fans (as girl friends or wives) and were subsequently unavailable. At the same time that they were voicing these complaints, they seemed to be taking a perverse chauvinistic pride in the predominant maleness of fandom. Jack Speer was positively dismissive back in 1944, writing in Fancyclopedia 1, “The great majority of fans are male, and it has been asserted that females cannot be the psychological type of the s-f fan, but,” he acknowledged, “there are several dyed-in-the-wool fannes to refute this.” However, he went on to say, “In addition there are a lot of sweethearts, wives, daughters, sisters, etc. of the he-fans, who tag along at fan gatherings, make some appearance in the fanzines, and assist in dirty work like mimeoing.” As if all that weren’t fanac! It’s important, though, when discussing fandom’s attitudes toward women, to compare with those of the macrocosm of the respective eras. Recollect that the first Worldcon was fewer than 20 years after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. In general, the men of fandom were at least as welcoming of women in their events and doings as other men of their times, if not more so. Fandom was never, at least overtly, considered a boys’ club emblazoned, “Girls keep out!” The surprise and delight when Lee Hoffman turned out to be Hoffwoman shows that. Male fans were, however, as blind as their mundane contemporaries to women’s accomplishments. The first Worldcon to have a female goh was back in 1946, but E. Mayne Hull was named jointly with her husband and collaborator, A. E. van Vogt. It wasn’t until 1975 that a woman pro, Ursula Le Guin, was honored solo. The first woman to win any Hugo was Elinor Busby, for Best Fanzine in 1960, but that was jointly with her husband and two other men.[1] It took till 1988 for a zine edited by a woman alone to win — Pat Mueller’s Texas SF Inquirer — and not only was it a clubzine, but before the rocket was awarded, FACT, the sponsoring club, had taken the editorship away from her in favor of a man. Worldcon didn’t name its first female fan goh until 1972: Juanita Coulson, but, again, she shared the honor with her husband, Buck. The first femmefan a Worldcon honored on her own was Lee Hoffman in 1982; it took another 30 years till the next — second-generation fan Peggy Rae Sapienza — in 2012! Yes, some women first entered the microcosm as wives, girlfriends and daughters of male fen (or sisters, cousins and aunts), but they did their share of writing for the fmz, cranking the mimeos, organizing the clubs, designing and sewing the costumes and working on the cons. Five women — Dirce Archer, Noreen Falasca, Julian May, Anna Sinclare Moffatt and Ella Parker — chaired Worldcons before 1966. They count. And — they were editing, writing and drawing for the prozines, too. We lay claim here to some female pros who may or may not have been especially fannish, but early in fanhistory, pros and fans formed one close-knit community in a way they haven’t in more recent times. Women have been an important part of the science fiction community since Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley invented the genre in 1818. ____
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- FANAC History Zoom: “The Women Fen Don’t See” with Claire Brialey, Kate Heffner and Leah Zeldes Smith: Part 1, Part 2.
Women in Fandom by 1966[edit]
This list of femmefen active by 1966, culled from convention and club membership lists, fanzines, fan directories and discussion on the Facebook Fanhistory group, is very much a work in progress, and is surely missing names. Moreover, such information as exists for many women is quite sketchy. Please do add what you can, especially for the redlinked names.
Note that lots of women had numerous name changes, so the person you’re thinking of may be there under another variant. (See “The Naming of Names.”)
- Wendayne Ackerman (Mondelle / Tilly Porjes / Mathilde Wahrman)
- Gillian “Jill” Adams
- Rose Alberti ff
- Beverly Amers (DeWeese)
- MayBelle Anshutz ff
- Florence S. Anderson (Stephenson)
- Karen Anderson (Kruse)
- Ruby A. Anderson
- Virginia Anderson (Combs / “Nanek”)
- Valeria K. Anjoorian (“Valkon”)
- Pearle Appleford
- Dirce Archer
- Eleanor Arnason
- Lynne Aronson
- Abby Lu Ashley
- Pauline Ashwell (Whitby)
- Sheila Ashworth
- Chris Atkinson
- Delcie Austin (Stuart)
- Betty Ballantine (Elizabeth Norah Jones)
- Irene Baron (Scortia)
- Evelyn Barrett ff
- Terry Bartfield (Terri Pinckard / Merat / Merrit)
- Jonne Evans Bates (Hanlon)
- Susie Beam (Rivers)
- Margaret Bertrand
- Judi Beatty-Sephton
- Virginia Beebe (Hoskins)
- Martha Beck
- Kay Becker
- Doris Beller
- Josie Benderavage
- Bess Benjamin
- Zelda Benowitz
- Beryl Bentcliffe (Watkins)
- Betty Berg
- Phyllis Berg (King)
- Jean Berman
- Ruth Berman
- Ruth Bernstein
- Diane Berry
- Margaret Bertrand
- Sandi Bethke (Gerber / Maia Nemzek)
- Helena Binns (Margaret Duce / Roberts)
- Judy Blish (Judith A. Lawrence)
- Barbara Bliss
- Gilda Blitzer
- Perdita Boardman (Lilly / Nelson / Girsdansky)
- Jean Bogert
- Shirley Booher
- Irene Boothroyd
- Barbara Bovard (Edge) ff
- Leigh Brackett
- Helen Bradleigh (Joan Domnick)
- Marion Zimmer Bradley
- Jacqui Bratton
- Catherine M. Brennan
- Kay Brickman
- Rohelen Brickman
- Marjorie Broadbent
- Marlene Broderick
- Beverly Bronson
- Jacqueline G. Brooks
- Rosel G. Brown
- Beverly Browne
- Margaret Brundage
- Marjorie Brunner
- Doris Pitkin Buck
- Daphne Buckmaster (Bradley)
- Edna Budrys (Duna)
- Pamela Bulmer (Buckmaster)
- Thelma Bunch
- Isabel Burbee
- Joyce Burke
- Kay Burwell
- Elinor Busby
- Freda Busfield
- Linda Bushyager (Eyster)
- JoAnne Calkins
- Doña Campbell (Stewart / Smith)
- Peg Campbell (Winter)
- Cynthia Carey
- Irene Carnell
- Carol Carr
- Edith Carr
- Gertrude M. Carr
- Miriam Carr (Miri Dyches / Knight / Lloyd)
- Jean Carrol (Jane McClain / Engel)
- Phyllis Carter
- Ann Chamberlain
- Penny Chandler (Bale)
- Evelyn Dolores Chappell
- Joan Chapman
- Ada Charles
- Pat Charnock
- Lorraine “Sandy” Charnoff
- Meredith Chatterton
- Lilly Chibbett
- Bev Clark
- Eugenia Clark
- Gina Ellis Clarke (Georgina, “Dutch”)
- Joan Cleveland
- Eva Jane Clevenger
- Mildred Clingerman (McElroy)
- Audrey Clinton
- Jessie Clinton
- Helen Cloukey ff
- Martha Cohen
- Rosalind Cohen (Wylie) ff
- Esther “Es” Cole
- Eli Colter (May Eliza Frost / Harvey)
- Eva Conn
- Lillian Conway
- Peggy Cook
- Millen Cooke (Wilma Dorothy Millen Vermilyea / Belknap / Trench)
- Rita Coriell ff
- Leigh Couch
- Juanita Coulson (Wellons)
- Mary Elizabeth Counselman ff
- Lucille Counts
- Phyllisann Courtis
- Chantelle Covington
- Anne Cox (Myla Seidel)
- Marion Cox (Oakes)
- Margaret “Peggy” Crawford (Finn)
- Dian Crayne (Girard / Pelz)
- Pat Crossley
- Lora Crozetti
- Ruth Cuher ff
- Elizabeth Cullen
- Betty Cummings (Elizabeth Starr Hill) ff
- Monette Cummings
- Doris Currier
- Mary Marcarette Curry ff
- Betsy Curtis
- Clemence Dane (Winifred Ashton) ff
- Eleanor Daugherty (O’Brien)
- Virginia Daugherty (“Jim-E” or “Jimmy” Laney)
- Rose Davenport
- DEA (Margaret M. Dominick)
- Audrey Deane
- Dorothy de Courcy
- Miriam Allen deFord
- Marie DeJack
- Wilma DeMory
- Helen B. Dewey
- Shirley Dickensheet
- Ann Dietz (Ashe)
- Belle Dietz (Cohen)
- Ann Dinkleman
- Isabelle Dinwiddie
- Fay Dishington
- Sonya Dorman
- Ree Dragonette (Rita Marie Dragonetti)
- Sally Dunn (Brues / Kidd)
- Lorraine Dunkelberger
- Sheila Dvorak
- Mary Dziechowski
- Marion Eadie (Marion Turner / Fiona Turner)
- Rose Ebert
- Phyllis Economou
- Phyllis Eisenstein (Kleinstein)
- Jane Ellern (Gallion / Jacobs)
- Marjii Ellers
- Pat Ellington
- Sophie Wenzel Ellis ff
- Corinne Ellsworth
- Elaine Ellsworth
- Morjeanne Elman
- Carol Emshwiller
- Christine Entrekin
- Jill Esternik
- Frances Evans (Varley)
- Thelma Evans (T. D. Hamm / Morgan)
- Pat Everest
- Audrey Eversfield
- Edythe Eyde (“Tigrina”)
- Hazel R. Fahringer
- Djinn Faine (Virginia Russell / Dickson )
- Rory Faulkner (Dorothea / “Dotty”)
- Alicia Feather ff
- Nancy Featherstone ff
- Harriet Fellas
- Marianne Ferguson ff
- Helen Finn
- Dorothy Finn (Hasse)
- Eva Firestone ff (Upton)
- Sue Francis
- Ruth Frayne
- Polly Freas
- Wendy Freeman
- Ingrid Fritzsch
- Elizabeth Foyster
- Edith Furcsik
- Helene Gardiner
- Frances Garfield (Wellman)
- Sonia Garner
- Beverly Garrett
- Jane Gaskell
- Nan Gerding
- Robbie Gibson (Roberta Collins)
- Sheila Gilbert (Elkin)
- Bea Gittery
- Helen Glaser
- Bea Glass
- Frances Glynn (Jason / Ferguson)
- Mary Gnaedinger ff
- Evelyn Paige Gold (Stein / Eve Paige Spencer)
- Cele Goldsmith (Lalli)
- Evelyn Goldstein
- Cynthia Goldstone
- Joy Goodwin (Clarke / Sanderson)
- Phyllis Gotlieb
- Jessica "Toni" Gould (Wilson)
- Diane Goulding (Ellingsworth)
- Mary Graham
- Penny Grant
- Roberta Gray (“Bobbie” or “Bobby” Wild)
- Jessamine Greer
- Jean Grennell
- Pauline Grimm
- Joyce Grissom
- Reta Grossman
- Arniece Gurley
- Rosalyn Gutstein
- Eunice Guyy
- Ann Hafler
- Gay Haldeman
- Vol Haldeman (Candace Ettlin)
- Sandy Hall (Alexandra or Sandra)
- Tikwis Hall
- Frances Hamling
- Joan Hammet
- Verna “Vee” Hampton
- Eclare Hannifen (Hilda Hoffman)
- Dorothy Hansen
- F. E. Hardart (Flossie Elizabeth Sheehan)
- Barbara Harmon (Gratz)
- Agnes Harook
- Clare Winger Harris ff
- Evelyn Harrison
- Dorothy Hartwell
- Laura Shay Hastings
- Harriet Hausman
- Margery Hawthorne
- Christine Haycock (Moskowitz)
- Cindy Heap (Cramer / Van Arnam / Williams)
- Helen S. Heap
- G. N. Hedinger
- Nella Hellinger
- Norma Hemming
- Gertrude “Trudy” Hemken (Caroline Ferber)
- Zenna Henderson
- Charlotte Hensley
- Freddie Hershey (Curtis)
- Mary Hershey (Gibson)
- Rosemary Hickey (Becker)
- Carolyn Hickman
- Carolyn Jo Higgs
- Alma Hill
- Hyacinthe Hill (Virginia Rose Cronin/Anderson)
- Dora Holland
- Joan Hunter Holly
- Caroline Prescott Hoar ff
- Lee Hoffman
- Doreen House
- Addie Huddleston
- Katya Hulan (Katherine Jean Wheat / Kathy Atkins / Stevens)
- E. Mayne Hull (van Vogt)
- Carole Ingersoll
- Margaret Irwin
- Sherry Jackson
- Sylvia Jacobs
- Lilian “Lily” Jaggers
- Mary Jameson ff
- Vida Jameson ff
- Elsie “Else” Janda
- Julie Ann Jardine
- Val Jeeves (Valerie Williams)
- Barbi Johnson
- Bertha Johnson
- Helen Johnson
- Marijane “Janey” Johnson
- Flora Jones
- Margaret Jones
- Marsha Jones (Elkin / Brown)
- Bertha Jordan
- Deborah Josephson
- Janet Kagan
- Marcia Kamien
- Sheila Mae Kamper
- Helen Weinbaum Kasson
- Joyce Katz (Worley / Fisher)
- Betty Keat ff
- Margaret Ford Keifer
- Bernice Keller ff
- Celia Keller
- Dorothea Keller
- Nancy Kemp
- Anne Keylock
- Rita Khrone
- Virginia Kidd (Emden / Blish)
- Betty Knight
- Gail Knuth (Joey Knuth / Gail Daniels / Thompson / Whiskin)
- Mary Kolb
- Harriett Kolchak
- Mary Kornbluth (Byers)
- Irene Korshak (Odenheimer)
- Anna Krenzel ff
- Eva "Wildcat" Kreuger
- Frances Krueger
- Bridges Kuhn
- Betty Kujawa
- Karen Kurz (Cooper-Johnston)
- Gertrude “Trudy” Kuslan (“tKuslan”) ff
- Ziva Kwitney (Sheckley)
- Ruth Kyle (Landis)
- Janie Lamb
- Marion Lansdale (Linwood)
- Deedee Lavender
- Lois Lavender
- Denise Laws
- Betty Leedham
- Alberta Leek
- Kathleen Leerburger
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Jonquil "Johnny" Leiber (Stephens) ff
- Louise Leipiar (L. Major Reynolds)
- Madeleine L'Engle
- Dorothy Les Tina
- Suford Lewis (Susan Hereford)
- Barb Lex
- Olga Ley
- Frances "Fran" Light
- Annie Linard
- Pauline Lincoff
- Ethel Lindsay
- Fran Lipton
- Amelia Reynolds Long ff
- Lilith Lorraine ff
- Audrey Lovett
- Pat Lupoff
- Lesleigh Luttrell (Couch)
- Pam MacInnes
- Lil MacKay
- Renee MacKay
- Constance "Connie" MacKenzie
- Katherine MacLean (Kate Dye / Mason / West)
- Florence Magarian
- Bea Mahaffey
- Pat Mahaffey (Lake)
- Mary Mair
- Marion Mallinger
- Faye Manning
- Mercedes Mansfield
- Carmela Marceau
- Katherine Marcusson
- Cylvia K. Margulies (Kleinman)
- Shirley Marriott
- Mary Martin
- Adrienne Martine
- Winifred Marx
- Barbara May
- Julian May (Judy Dikty)
- Anne McCaffrey
- Orma McCormick
- Joyce “Lin” McDaniel (Potter / Johnstone / Jumper)
- Winnifred McGill
- Dorothy McIlwraith
- Shirley McKeown
- Renee McKie
- Carol McKinney
- Ann McKnight (Newell)
- Buddie McKnight (Lillian Heim Jacoby / Evans)
- Helene Mears
- Jean Mehegan
- Beryl Mercer (Henley)
- Judith Merril
- Lois Miles
- Terry Mill
- Virginia Mill
- Lynette Mills
- Pat Milnes (Doolan)
- Lesley Minard
- Zeda Mishler
- Anna Sinclare Moffatt (“Stfanna”)
- June Moffatt (Poulson / Konigsberg)
- Dora Hepner Moiteret
- Gisela Molander
- Laura Molesworth
- June Casey Monroe
- Frances Trego Montgomery
- Belle S. Mooney
- C. L. Moore (Catherine Lucille Kuttner)
- Nancy Moore (Shapiro)
- Ronnie Morgan (Takacs)
- Morojo (Myrtle R. Douglas) ff
- Daphne Muggoch
- Mary Munro
- Jeanette Nagle
- Monica Naughton
- Ann B. Nelson
- Lil Neville
- Ruth Newbury
- Marjorie Hope Nicolson
- Marilyn “Fuzzy Pink” Niven
- Jo Noble
- Andre Norton (Alice Mary Norton) ff
- Marge Nuttall
- Marijane Nuttall (M J Nuttall)
- Betty Nystrom
- Edith Ogutsch
- Judy Oppenheim
- Enid Jacobs Osten
- Patty Paccassi
- Pennie Palmer
- Cory Panshin (Seidman)
- Ella Parker (Canada)
- Ella Parker (U.K.)
- Ellen Parkes
- Celia Parks
- Ann Patrizio (Temple)
- Pat Patterson (Lyons)
- Amelia Pemberton
- Jan Penney (Sadler / Kauffman / Samuels)
- Jo Perew
- Leslie Perri ff
- Helen Perry
- Luise Perrin (Petty)
- Betty Peters
- Elaine Phillips
- Charlotte Picard
- Margaret Picken
- Marjorie Pickles
- Mavis Pickles
- Brenda Piper
- Audrey Plimpton
- Pogo (Mary Corinne “Patti” Gray / Russell / Wood) ff
- Carol Pohl (Metcalf / Ulf / Stanton)
- Nancy Pooley
- Elizabeth Pope
- Irene Potter (Gore)
- Lou Ann Price
- Valerie Purnell
- Dorothy Quick ff
- Dorothy Quinn
- Mary Quinn
- Jane Quirk
- Evonne Rae
- Joni Rapkin (Markwood)
- Nancy Rapp (“Kabu” / Nan Share)
- Dorothy Ratigan (Jacobs)
- Vanessa Redgrave
- Kit Reed
- Mary Reed (Legg / Long)
- Eugenie Reid
- Diane Reinsberg
- Jeannette Reol ff
- Carol Resnick
- Mona Lee Rhines
- Trina Robbins (Perlson / Castillo / Petit)
- Lottie Robins
- Chris Robinson
- Joan Rock
- Elenore Rockey
- Doreen Parker Rogers
- Mary Evelyn Rogers ff
- Sidonie “Sid” Rogers
- Felice Rolfe (Maxam)
- Su Rosen
- Betty Rosenblum
- Marilyn Ross
- Dori Rothman
- Agnes Rundle
- Joanna Russ
- Florence Russell
- Marion Ryan
- Virginia "Ginny" Saari
- Margaret St. Clair ff
- Alice Sander
- Dorothy Sanford
- Peggy Rae Sapienza (McKnight / Pavlat)
- Josephine Saxton
- Helena Schaumburger
- Barbara Schmidt
- Virginia Schultheis
- Gretchen Schwenn (Boggs)
- Phyllis Scott
- Harriet Segman
- Daphne Sewall
- Lila Shaffer
- Sandy Shapiro
- Marie-Louise Share (Shoemaker)
- Juanita Sharp
- Noreen Shaw (Falasca)
- Sadie Shaw (Sarah)
- Monna Sheller
- Nancy Sherry
- Wilmar H. Shiras
- Ina Shorrock
- Maril Shrewsbury
- Nancy Shriner
- Thelma Shull
- Bella Siegel (Lifshitz)
- Barbara Silverberg (Brown)
- Rosemary G. Simmons
- Pat Sims (Oswalt)
- Lee Sirat
- Rosalie Sisson
- Margaret Skiffington ff
- Joan Skirvin
- Joyce Slater
- Ricky Slavin (Rhoda Katerinsky)
- Riva “The Bat” Smiley
- Clarrissa Smith (Honey Wilcox) ff
- Cindy Smith
- Evelyn E. Smith
- Jeannie Smith (Jeanne Craig MacDougall) ff
- Mary Southworth (Young)
- Ruth Stage
- Sue Stanley
- Rose Stark
- Barbara Steedman
- Genevieve K. Stephens
- Inga Stephens (Pratt / Clark)
- Anne Steul
- Francis Stevens (Gertrude Mabel Barrows Bennett)
- Lyn Stier
- Julia Stone
- Leslie F. Stone ff
- Joni Stopa (“Kitty” Doyle / Cornell)
- Mae Strelkov
- Evelyn Stroud
- Betty Sullivan
- Kathleen Swearingen
- Frances Swisher ff
- Frances Alberti Sykora (Quarterman) ff
- Frances Helen Sykora (Racic) ff
- Chrystal Tackett (Allen)
- Frances Tanner
- Millie Taurasi ff
- Beatrice Taylor
- Joan Teagle
- Joan Temple
- Diane Tenglin
- Diane Terwilleger
- Zylpha Thailing
- Jeanette Marie Thomas
- Maggie Thompson (Margaret Curtis)
- Dorothy Tomkins
- Suzanne Tompkins (“Suzle”)
- Lee Anne Tremper (Lavell)
- Jan Trenholm
- Verna Smith Trestrail ff
- Bjo Trimble (Betty JoAnne Conway / McCarthy / Wells)
- Irene Tubb
- Marilyn Tulley
- Hellen Tullis (Nagy)
- Leslie Turek
- Eleanor “Ellie” Turner
- Mary Ellen Tyrrell
- Marie Uney
- Beatrice Unger (Gilsenberg) ff
- Helen M. Urban
- Sophia van Doorn
- Fran Varley
- Helen Vasquez
- Bea Venable
- Marilyn "Lyn" Venable
- Catherine Verrastro
- Suzanne “Suzy” Vick
- Jessie Walker
- Simone Walsh (Restall)
- Mary Helen Washington
- Ardis Waters
- Beryl Watkins
- Doreen Webbert
- Jane Wells (Janie Ely)
- Margaret Wells (Hughes)
- Elma Wentz (Miller / LeCron)
- Helen Wesson (Vivarttas)
- Mari Beth Wheeler
- Betty White
- Peggy White
- Phyllis White (Price)
- Robin Postal White
- Sylvia Dees White
- Thelma "Pat" White
- Evelyn Adams Whyte
- Kate Wilhelm
- Allison Williams (Phillips)
- Cecile Williamson
- Madeleine Willis
- Genie Willmorth
- Gabrielle Wilson (Cummings)
- Liz Wilson
- Mary Wilson
- Helen Winick
- Mari Wolf (Graham)
- Eva Wolff
- Elsie Wollheim
- Honey Wood (Graham)
- JoAnn Wood (Schmidt)
- Natalie H. Wooley
- Barbara Wrede
- Marjorie Z. Wright ff
- Belle Wyman ff
- Geneva Wyman
- Rose Wyn
- Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
- Cathie Youden
- Donna Young
- Jean Young
- Mabel Young (Mae Sims)
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ff = First Fandom, active by 1939.
See also: Femmefen.
| Fanhistory | 1920s—1966 |
| This is a fanhistory page. Please add more detail. |
