Rusty Hevelin’s collection of pulps, fanzines and books went to the University of Iowa after his death. Now the librarians are sharing what they’re discovering as they open the boxes. You’ll find these snapshots from the history of science fiction at Tumblr — http://hevelincollection.tumblr.com
Highlights so far include:
- A 1941 issue of The Fantasite, the Minneapolis Fantasy Society zine, with material by Rusty (“Rustebar”) and Bob Tucker;
- Science Fiction Echo #21, edited by Ed Connor (1974), with a Tim Kirk cover and letters by Robert Bloch and Ursula K. Le Guin; and
- Two fanzines notable for their material by Ray Bradbury — an issue of The Damn Thing featuring Ray’s cover art and a short story, and a copy of Ray’s own Futuria Fantasia with a Hannes Bok cover.
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Great stuff!
The image of all the boxes containing Rusty’s collection is amazing. I’m so glad to see it being treated well. One nit to pick however, is the mention of Rusty being a founder of two Iowa conventions. He was their Forever Toastmaster to be sure, but both conventions were founded by fans in Iowa after a club was formed at the University of Iowa by members of Joe Haldemans’s science fiction writing class at the University of Iowa in the spring of 1975.
It’s evident that the people at the University of Iowa who are doing the unboxing of this material and posting those photos have no real knowledge of SF fandom and thus don’t have the context to really know what they have. The photos posted thus far imply that those no-doubt well intentioned folk simply don’t know the wheat from the chaff. I suspect that this has become some grad student’s project and fear that we’ll eventually see someone at UI writing dissertations on “Claude Degler: Fanzine Pioneer” or “The Sociological Implications of Twiltone”.
Actually, now that I think about it, I’d kind of like to read that last one myself…
Curt Phillips
Let us not forget The Great Staple War.