Fanzine (was: non-oral-origin slang)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 6/21/03 12:44:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, dsgood at VISI.COM
writes:

> I haven't found an exact citation yet, but "fanzine" as used in
>  (organized) science fiction fandom and since then in various other
>  subcultures first showed up in print.  And the originator was deaf.
>  He's also credited with originating "prozine".

Harry Warner, Jr.  _All Our Yesterdays_  Chicago: Advent Publishers, Inc,
1969, ISBN 0-911682-00-7 (closth) 0-911682-11-2 (paper)  page 156

<begin quote>
   Patriotism in fandom appeared in such projects as Fanzine Service for Fans
in Service, a title that may have made permanent the new name that Louis
Russell Chauvenet had devised for fan magazines.  Tucker's _Le Zombie_ and my
_Spaceways_ sponsored it, starting in mid-1942.
<end quote>

Wilson "Bob" Tucker wrote the Introduction to the book, which reads on pp.
xii-xiii
<begin quote>
in 1942 the pair of us [Warner and Tucker] collaborated on a brief fling
known as _Fanzine Service for Fans [page xiii] in Service._  COllectors need not
bother fhunting for that; I believe the two-paged flyer endured for only one
issue, although the service may have later been incorporated into some other
publication.
<end quote>

Chauvenet (who has 14 entries in the index of the book) was the "deaf
originator" you specified.


The "SF Fandom Citations for the OED" Web site, URL

       http://www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_fan.shtml

has this to say:

Mike Christie submitted a 1952 cite from a letter to Planet Stories by Algis
Budrys. Geri Sullivan submitted a 1944 cite from the Fancyclopedia. Ruth
Berman submitted a 1942 cite from H.H. Holmes "Rocket to the Morgue". Keith Stokes
submitted a 1941 cite from Bob Tucker and Everett Evans' fanzine "Le Zombie".
Cory Panshin submitted a 1970 cite from Rolling Stone.
Hal Hall located a quote in Sam Moskowitz' research files from the October
1940 issue of Louis Russell Chauvenet's fanzine, "Detours". Alistair Durie
located a copy and provided a cite from it. This appears to be the coinage of the
term.

        - Jim Landau