Happy 80th birthday, Fandom!
Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.com reminds us that on December 11, 1929, the world’s first
club devoted to science fiction met for the first time in a Harlem apartment. They called
themselves the Scienceers and within three years would count Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz among their members, along with the original Ray Palmer. Years later, in 1961, one of their original
number recalled those days in a fanzine article which can be read here.
And within a year, there was already a schism in the group, starting a tradition that continues to this very day.