Editor John R. Douglas, who is being honored with a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award this year, died August 3.
Douglas, an influential editor in the sff field for several decades, began his career at Berkley in 1978. He later worked at Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, Avon Books and HarperCollins. He was responsible for acquiring and editing hundreds of sf and fantasy titles as well as mysteries, thrillers, other genre fiction and many kinds of non-fiction. He had been an editorial freelancer since 1999, continuing to work with words in many different ways.
He also served as editor of the newzine SF Chronicle after it was sold by founder Andrew Porter.
John R. Douglas, born in Toronto, Canada in 1948, started reading sf when he was about 14. He went to his first convention in 1969 while he was in college — LunaCon in New York. A year later he met fellow fan, Ginjer Buchanan. In 1975 he moved to the United States and they married.
He was among the fans who co-founded the Ontario Science Fiction Club in 1966. The group later sponsored TorCon 2, the 1973 Worldcon; Douglas was the treasurer.
John is survived by Ginjer; they were married for 48 years.
[Thanks to Steven H Silver for the story.]
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Sad news.
May his memory be a blessing and a continuing inspiration to his family, friends, fellow editors, writers and acquaintances. R.I.P.
Such a sad shock! Another old friend gone. My deepest sympathy to Ginjer. Peace and mercy be upon him.
Denise and I send our sympathy and condolences to Ginjer. I enjoyed talking with John at the occasional convention and working with both of them as editors. What a loss for for the field.
Heartfelt condolences to Ginjer Buchanan. Ginjer, you helped friends and acquaintances go from fanfic to pro. Thank you.
If the award is still to be given at WorldCon, it’s my hope you can stand for him. HUGS.
I’ve just scanned in more than 20 photos I took of him over the decades. I thought I first met John when he drove to a Midwestcon with other Toronto fans—Mike Glicksohn, Susan Wood, others—in the mid-1960s, but this says his first con was a LunaCon. Dunno. I was, with John, on the bidding committee for TorCon in 1973.
So I’ve known him, it feels like, forever.
The news of his death was a shock. And yet, like so many others, his death marks another passing of the fandom I first knew more than half a century ago. Sigh…
I just found a photo I took at a mid-1960s Midwestcon with John in it, with Susan Wood and Bruce Newrock. So that information about his first con being a later Lunacon is, apparently, wrong.
Andy, are you sure those photos aren’t from the early 70s? (You should be able to tell by the appearance of the motel. They weren’t at a chain facility in the ’60s.) I know that Mike Glicksohn and Susan Wood were at the ’73 Midwestcon, as well as Phlange 1 (1970) and 2 (1971) in Pittsburgh. I think I met John Douglas for the first time at Phlange 2. I ought to get my sf photos copied and donated while I still remember details. Yes, that kind of fandom is gone forever.
My information comes from an interview John R. Douglas gave to an SF Canada publication in 2004, where he said, “In 1969 when I was in college I went to my first convention, Luna-Con in New York City. Going to conventions became a way of life after that.”
I figured he ought to know.
Condolences to Ginger and their extended family. I believe I met John at my first con, Phlange 2, and we were friendly acquaintances ever since then. He had a fine smile and an easy laugh, bless him. Another irreplaceable person, to be sure.
I, like Dan, probably met John at my first con, Pghlange 2. Probably because I was still in college and I drank a lot at my first con.
I moved from Pittsburgh to D.C. in the mid ’70s (after college and before I hiked a big chunk of the Appalachian Trail one spring, then bicycled across Canada the next summer), and then to NYC around 1981. That was a fortunate decision. I moved to Queens and worked for Sandy Frank Film Syndication until he fired me.
Very soon after that fortunate decision, David Hartwell offered me work as his slushpile reader. A few years later John took over David’s slushpile, and handed me the reader job. I loved working for John. Those were the days!
I still can’t process hearing of John’s death. This is just wrong. Sigh.