|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
The Bruce Pelz Fanzine Collection
Bruce Pelz was a lifelong fanzine fan who
collected amateur SF magazines exhaustively throughout his
life. A UCLA librarian, he passed away in 2002. His entire
collection of an estimated 190,000 fan magazines of all sorts
has been physically relocated to the Special Collections
Department on the 4th floor of the Rivera Library. Out of its
boxes, it occupies the exterior shelves of the Special
Collections running all along the east wall, and around the
south wall. It is in the preliminary stages of being sorted in
alphabetical order according to title, a massive operation in
itself. Once the riches of the Pelz Collection have been fully
classified and catalogued, it will permit scholars (fan and
academic alike) to fill in enormous blanks in our knowledge
about SF fandom, and indistinguishable from fandom, the
development of SF literature and criticism. Even the most
casual perusal of the Pelz fanzines show us that fanzine
editors and contributors come from many walks of life. Yet,
whatever their profession, or degree of fan seriousness, all
are interconnected in fanzine pages by a shared fascination
with the tales of scientific and technological advancement that
form the corpus of science fiction. If the Pelz
Collection convinces us. in the end, that the fanzine remains
an American product, then SF fans, and fanzine fans in
particular, represent the culture that gave rise to the
extraordinary development of scientific research in 20th
century America. The Pelz documents contain invaluable data as
to their tastes, ideas, beliefs. As such, they will prove an
invaluable resource for 21st century researchers, as they seek
to unravel the agonies and glories of the time when America
came of age.
HERE are the samples of interesting fanzine titles, taken at random
from the shelves of the Pelz Collection. Hopefully they will
intrigue the viewer, and lead students and scholars of fan
culture to further exploration of this rich trove of artifacts.
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|