Alicia Feather
(???? – ????)
Alicia Feather was an early UK fan from Anglesey in Wales active in the 1930s and 1940s. She likely qualifies as the first known female fan in the UK.[1]
Novae Terrae #13 (June 1937) listed new members of the Science Fiction Association among whom were 'Miss A. Feather (Anglesey)'. In Generation Femizine, Rob Hansen asserts that she is 'the first and last British woman to be named a member of the SFA in the pages of Novae Terrae'. A D. E. Essam had attended a meeting of the Nuneaton branch of the SFA some months earlier as a 'prospective member' but there is no evidence that she ever joined.
Feather had a letter published in Amazing Stories, June 1937, where her name is rendered as 'Alicia Feelther' although the Anglesey address leaves little doubt it's the same person:
After reading some of your rival magazines, I quite endorse the statement that A. S. is the aristocrat of Science Fiction. The covers alone of your rivals are enough to make any sane person bolt in the opposite direction. I have been reading A. S. since 1930 (that was when I could get a copy,) and I still consider it the finest mag. on the market.
Thrilling Wonder Stories (August 1937) reported her as among 'new members foreign' of the Science Fiction League.
Feather appears in the lettercolumn of The Futurian #7 (Winter 1940) and is mentioned several times in the pages of Futurian War Digest. In October 1942, a fan called W. Skelton then serving in Egypt wrote that:
I've had correspondence recently with Harold Gottliffe, and through him was second recipient of a bundle of stf sent out by the kind-hearted Alicia Feather.
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- ↑ Marion Eadie of Glasgow was active in the Junior Astronomical Association from 1933 and edited its journal Urania from 1935. However, this was technically, as the name suggests, an astronomical society rather than a science fiction organisation. See Early Femmefen.
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