As the year 2012 draws to a close I thought I’d add another photo gallery. I found several photos of those who have now passed on, some decades ago, some more recently, and that I have not yet posted. I have posted these first.
In Remembrance
(Left: Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988), photo by me from 1980 at Butler, MO for Robert A. Heinlein Day. Center: Paul Edwin Zimmer (1943-1997), brother of Marion Zimmer Bradley; photo from Archon 1996. Right: Wilson (Bob) Tucker (1914-2006), photo from Nebula Awards weekend, Kansas City, MO 1997.)
Jack Williamson (1908-2006) at the 1996 Campbell/Sturgeon Award weekend in Lawrence, KS. Jack was inducted into the SF Hall of Fame in 1996 and was presented with a brass telescope, housed within the box.
Another photo of Jack with James Gunn at the 1996 Campbell/Sturgeon Awards. I think Jack really liked the telescope, for regardless of where I saw him that evening it was in his hand; he just wouldn’t let it out of his sight.
I love this photo. Following the official Campbell/Sturgeon festivities in one of the university hall’s private dining rooms, and before everyone began making their way to the more casual get together in one of the dorm lounges for snacks and chat, I had gone to my car to get rid of my briefcase full of books. As you can see, it had gotten dark. I was walking back across the parking lot when Jack and Fred Pohl come walking out of the hall, some 30 yards away. Jack stopped all of a sudden, took out his telescope, and began searching the skies. Fred saw me coming and I quickly put a finger to my lips to indicate silence. I drew closer and closer as Jack kept looking through his scope, totally unaaware of my presence. While not a perfect photo by any means, it captures something about Jack that I’ll never forget, his fascination with the stars.
Left: John L. Coker III and Rusty Hevelin (1922-2011) at Bucconeer, the 1998 Worldcon in Baltimore, MD.
Right: K. D. Wentworth (1951-2012) at LACon III, Los Angeles, CA, 1996. I wish I had a better photo of her; she deserved it. Kathy edited the Writers of the Future, Volume XXVIII (2012), probably the largest of these yearly volumes, and she chose some outstanding stories. She will be sorely missed.
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Photos from LACon III, Los Angeles, CA 1996
I had never met Gardner Dozois before but knew what he looked like. I’m in the dealer’s room hawking Tangent at a table when Gardner saunters up. I ask if I could take his picture, and before I know it he picks up the latest issue and mugs for the camera. A great advertising shot, thought I. Thanks, Gardner!
Left: Robert Weinberg, fantasy art collector nonpareil. Right: Yours truly and Eliot Fintushel. He was rooming with his agent, who agreed to let us have the Tangent party there. Fin, despite his gonzo fiction, horrified me when he prepped for the party by eating these…organic wafers (the kind that look like rice krispies made of paper) smeared with organic jelly. Me, I was heading for the whiskey bottle to prime the pump.
Some of the miscreants we let into the Friday night party were: T. (Tom) Jackson King, Kent Brewster, Darrell Schweitzer, Mark Kreighbaum, and in front is Jeremy Bloom. Mark had done some reviewing for Tangent, and when I left as editor of the SFWA Bulletin in 2002 Mark was awarded the post and has been the editor ever since.
1997 & 1998 Campbell/Sturgeon Weekends, Lawrence, KS
Left: The winners of the 1997 Campbell and Sturgeon Awards respectively; Paul J. McCauley holds the John W. Campbell award for his 1996 novel Fairyland, and Nancy Kress holds the Theodore Sturgeon trophy for her 1996 Asimov’s story “The Flowers of Aulit Prison.”
Right: The winner of the 1998 Sturgeon Award is Michael F. Flynn for his 1997 Asimov’s story “House of Dreams.”
1997 Nebula Awards Weekend, Kansas City, MO
A few of the less reputable members of the so-called Analog “mafia” and their harmless looking front man, from left to right: Bud Sparhawk and Jeffery D. Kooistra (gambling and prostitution czars), Bud Webster (the enforcer), H. K. Stratman (bookkeeper), and Stanley Schmidt, the editorial brains behind it all.
Left: Analog “mafia” gambling czar Bud Sparhawk shows mafia “Don” Stanley Schmidt the new code he has concocted for hiding the organization’s ill-gotten casino profits, while later, unbeknownst to them, FBI undercover agents Gardner Dozois and Charles N. Brown have stolen the code book and are feverishly attempting to break the code. These rare photos are–after 15 years–now unclassified, since the case was never proven. As we now know, agent Brown has since deceased, while Dozois is no longer an agent and Schmidt is no longer the “Don.” Which leaves only an aging Sparhawk, who it would seem is semi-retired, for he is spotted at the track only rarely these days, places quite small bets and hopes that one day his ship will come in.
A Few Random Pics
Left: From the 1999 Pittsburgh Nebula Awards we have William Tenn, Paul Levinson, and yours truly. Scott Edelman can be seen in the background behind Mr. Tenn.
Right: Robert Charles Wilson at Readercon 11 in 1999. In 2007 the Campbell/Sturgeon weekend was combined with the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial held in Kansas City, MO and Robert’s story “The Cartesian Theater” won the Sturgeon as Best Short Fiction of the Year. He was kind enough to sign his photo taken eight years earlier.
Both of these photos were taken at the 2000 Nebula Awards weekend in New York City.
Left: Newly named SFWA Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss. Right: Newly named Author Emeritus Daniel “Flowers for Algernon” Keyes. Never in my wildest youthful dreams did I ever imagine meeting the author of my favorite SF story, much less have my picture taken with him.
Two World Fantasy Cons (in brief)
Left: In 1998 I was chosen as one of five World Fantasy Award judges. The World Fantasy Awards that year were held in Monterey, CA, and all of us made it to Monterey except Peter Crowther, who lived in the UK. The photo at left shows Peter Schneider (from New York), Janeen Webb (Mrs. Jack Dann, from Australia, and sometimes the US), me, and L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (from Utah)–photo by John L. Coker III. In the photo at right I finally met up with Peter for the 2000 World Fantasy Awards held in Corpus Christi, TX. I’d finally met all my fellow WFA judges. In 1999 Peter began his PS Publishing company out of the UK, and it’s going strong today as a publisher of novels, collections, and hc novellas aimed primarily at the collector (but with many also priced for the more economical buyer).
Also from the 2000 World Fantasy Awards in Corpus Christi we have at left Joe R. Lansdale, who appropriated our banquet table’s centerpiece as his dapper southwestern style chapeau. And at right we have Ace Books editor-in-chief and vice-president Susan Allison, Jo Fletcher, and WFA 2000 Guest of Honor Michael Moorcock.
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