Individual Entry: Alas poor Forry . . .
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December 08, 2008

Life : Alas poor Forry . . .

Alas poor Forry . . .

. . . I knew him, as did most of Science Fiction Fandom.

Last week, at the age of 92, Forrest J. Ackerman (“Forry” (or 4E) to just about everyone) died, and Science Fiction as a genre and as a community is poorer for it.

For those who are not SciFi fans, Forry (among many other things) was the guy who coined the term “SciFi”. He also discovered and encouraged a teenager with a gift for writing that you may have heard of – Ray Bradbury. Actually his contributions to Science Fiction as a writer, publisher, agent, actor, and collector are numerous – the media would often refer to him as “Mr. Science Fiction”- but first and foremost Forry was a fan with a heart for Fandom as a community.

I met him a couple of times at World Science Fiction Conventions, and was always impressed with his openness to talk to anyone who shared his passion for Horror or Science Fiction. He was always willing to lend a hand (or even money) to fellow fans. There are many science fiction writers today who owe their careers to a “leg up” from Forry. His home (the “Ackermansion”) was probably the best science fiction museum in the world with over 300,000 items he had collected over the years; and every Saturday, Forry opened his home to anyone who wanted to tour it (no charge). That’s the kind of man he was.

From 1959 to 1999, Forry was responsible at WorldCon for giving out the “Big Heart Award” to a fan (whether professional or amateur) who has served the community with generosity and magnanimity. I was there at LACon-IV in 2006 when the community not only gave the award to Forry; but renamed it the “Forrest J. Ackerman Big Heart Award.” No one disserved the honor more.

Forry, you will be missed.

Posted by Steven at December 8, 2008 05:00 AM

Comments

Ackerman to me will always be the Perry Rhodan series of books that he brought to America from Europe. I think I had 140 of them and there were something like 700 more...

The forwards of those books introduced me to FJa and his involvements in science fiction as a whole. He told a lot of his stories there.

Posted by: janbergs at December 8, 2008 08:29 AM

I had forgotten his work as translator/importer!

Yeah, he loved to tell stories. Fandom has lost one of its better repositories of community memory.

Posted by: Steven at December 8, 2008 12:09 PM