Other Peoples' Collections

My summer job, at the moment, is cataloging a collection of amateur fanzines from the fifties to the seventies that belong to my supervisor, Bart Beaty.  It is a collection he inherited from a friend, and that friend supplemented his own fanzine collection with those of others.  The result is quite wonderful, and the last week has been filled with amazing finds.  I will be starting up yet another blog to showcase some amateur comics I've come across, assuming I can arrange permissions of some kind, but I thought I'd post one or two cool things here too.  Collections are everywhere, and often within them are interesting things that don't really fit.  That's what I'll show you here over the next couple of days.

The first piece I discovered today in a science fiction fanzine called Ciln.  It appears to be from 1962, though may be a year or two earlier.  At the bottom of the page is a short, six-line poem by a young man named Rog Ebert.  If that name sounds familiar, it's because this is likely the same "Rog" Ebert, famed film critic, who passed away a few weeks ago.  A reference to his early life on Wikipedia states that he "became involved in science fiction fandom,writing articles for fanzines" in the late fifties and early sixties.  Later in the same zine there is a two-page science fiction story accredited to the same writer.  While I've not been able to absolutely verify that these are by the famous critic, the dates and names appear to line up.  So, I present a little-known piece of Roger Ebert ephemera:  (of course, if the copyright in this belongs to you, please let me know.  I'm not trying to profit from it, just to present it because I think it's neat and important)

  

I will be scanning one or two other pieces, and will post them over the next couple of days.  The cataloging portion of the project is just about completed, but you never know what else I'll find!

As far as this being something that doesn't quite fit the collection, the poem is not a science fiction inspired piece.  Indeed, it reads more like social critique.  The rest of the zine contains pieces on film, science fiction, and conventions, including the aforementioned story by Mr. Ebert.   The poem seems somehow out of place, which perhaps adds to its profundity.