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Forrest J Ackerman's World of Science Fiction
Offers a historical look at science fiction as a genre in literature, films, and television
- GenresScience FictionFiction
176 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1997
36 people want to read
About the author
Forrest J. Ackerman
257 books33 followersForrest J Ackerman (born Forrest James Ackerman; November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan. He was, for over seven decades, one of science fiction's staunchest spokesmen and promoters.
Ackerman was a Los Angeles, California-based magazine editor, science fiction writer and literary agent, a founder of science fiction fandom, a leading expert on science fiction and fantasy films, and possibly the world's most avid collector of genre books and movie memorabilia. He was the editor and principal writer of the American magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, as well as an actor, from the 1950s into the 1980s, and appears in two documentaries related to this period in popular culture: writer and filmmaker Jason V. Brock's The Ackermonster Chronicles!, (a 2012 documentary about Ackerman) and Charles Beaumont: The Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man, about the late author Charles Beaumont, a former client of The Ackerman Agency.
Also called "Forry," "The Ackermonster," "4e" and "4SJ," Ackerman was central to the formation, organization, and spread of science fiction fandom, and a key figure in the wider cultural perception of science fiction as a literary, art and film genre. Famous for his word play and neologisms, he coined the genre nickname "sci-fi". In 1953, he was voted "#1 Fan Personality" by the members of the World Science Fiction Society, a unique Hugo Award never granted to anyone else.
He was also among the first and most outspoken advocates of Esperanto in the science fiction community.
Ackerman was born Forrest James Ackerman (though he would refer to himself from the early 1930s on as "Forrest J Ackerman" with no period after the middle initial), on November 24, 1916, in Los Angeles, to Carroll Cridland (née Wyman; 1883–1977) and William Schilling Ackerman (1892–1951). His father was from New York and his mother was from Ohio (the daughter of architect George Wyman); she was nine years older than William.[13] He attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year (1934–1935), worked as a movie projectionist, and spent three years in the U.S. Army after enlisting on August 15, 1942.
He was married to teacher and translator Wendayne (Wendy) Wahrman (1912–1990) until her death. Her original first name was Matilda; Forry created "Wendayne" for her. Wendayne suffered a serious head injury when she was violently mugged while on a trip to Europe in 1990, and the injury soon after led to her death.
Ackerman was fluent in the international language Esperanto, and claimed to have walked down Hollywood Boulevard arm-in-arm with Leo G. Carroll singing La Espero, the hymn of Esperanto.
Ackerman was an atheist.
More: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009969/
http://fancyclopedia.org/forrest-j-ac...
http://www.amazon.com/Forrest-J.-Acke...
http://content.time.com/time/magazine...
Ackerman was a Los Angeles, California-based magazine editor, science fiction writer and literary agent, a founder of science fiction fandom, a leading expert on science fiction and fantasy films, and possibly the world's most avid collector of genre books and movie memorabilia. He was the editor and principal writer of the American magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, as well as an actor, from the 1950s into the 1980s, and appears in two documentaries related to this period in popular culture: writer and filmmaker Jason V. Brock's The Ackermonster Chronicles!, (a 2012 documentary about Ackerman) and Charles Beaumont: The Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man, about the late author Charles Beaumont, a former client of The Ackerman Agency.
Also called "Forry," "The Ackermonster," "4e" and "4SJ," Ackerman was central to the formation, organization, and spread of science fiction fandom, and a key figure in the wider cultural perception of science fiction as a literary, art and film genre. Famous for his word play and neologisms, he coined the genre nickname "sci-fi". In 1953, he was voted "#1 Fan Personality" by the members of the World Science Fiction Society, a unique Hugo Award never granted to anyone else.
He was also among the first and most outspoken advocates of Esperanto in the science fiction community.
Ackerman was born Forrest James Ackerman (though he would refer to himself from the early 1930s on as "Forrest J Ackerman" with no period after the middle initial), on November 24, 1916, in Los Angeles, to Carroll Cridland (née Wyman; 1883–1977) and William Schilling Ackerman (1892–1951). His father was from New York and his mother was from Ohio (the daughter of architect George Wyman); she was nine years older than William.[13] He attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year (1934–1935), worked as a movie projectionist, and spent three years in the U.S. Army after enlisting on August 15, 1942.
He was married to teacher and translator Wendayne (Wendy) Wahrman (1912–1990) until her death. Her original first name was Matilda; Forry created "Wendayne" for her. Wendayne suffered a serious head injury when she was violently mugged while on a trip to Europe in 1990, and the injury soon after led to her death.
Ackerman was fluent in the international language Esperanto, and claimed to have walked down Hollywood Boulevard arm-in-arm with Leo G. Carroll singing La Espero, the hymn of Esperanto.
Ackerman was an atheist.
More: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009969/
http://fancyclopedia.org/forrest-j-ac...
http://www.amazon.com/Forrest-J.-Acke...
http://content.time.com/time/magazine...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 4, 2017
I had absolutely no business buying yet another book or reading one at this time, but I bought this second hand from Jarred of Centipede Press for a great price. I just couldn't refuse. (If you're not familiar with his publishing company, take a look. He does some great collections with very high quality books for a great price, especially for the scratch & dents.)
If you're not familiar with Ackerman, he's the original SF fan boy, advocate, agent, & publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland. He also had a private museum of memorabilia that was unsurpassed & free to the public. After he died, some was auctioned off & a lot wound up in the Seattle SF & Fantasy Hall of Fame.
The dedication of the book is interesting for not including Robert A. Heinlein. I'm guessing that's due to RAH's dickish letter to Forry about his brother's death.
It starts out with a couple of excellent introductions, one by A.E. van Vogt. Then there's a long section on Frankenstein which is excellent. A lot of great movie art & quick explanations. I hadn't realized Andy Warhol was involved in a Frankenstein flick, Flesh For Frankenstein.
The second chapter is composed of short bio/bibliographies of some of the great SF authors. Nothing complete, some are just a short paragraph while George Orwell got several pages, but much of that was pictures of book covers. I'm most grateful for the info on the movies that he provides. I've scrawled a list of authors & stories to look for on Gutenberg & Librivox. Very cool!
The third chapter gets into the pulps in more depth with a lot of the fantastic covers by Paul Rand & a lot about Gernsback's publishing history, of course. It was fun to see cover of "Everyday Science & Mechanics" with the writing on the bottom touting the latest "Inventions, Aero-Mechanics, Shop Kinks, Television..., Radio Kinks". I guess "Kinks" was the word in the early 1930s for 'Hacks'. Again, more authors made my to-read list. (Oy! See the bottom of the review.)
The fourth chapter covers SF in film. I'm not thrilled with the way it is laid out, but there is a lot of good stuff in it: More fun factoids, great pictures, some of films, & others of posters. There's a lot of history there, too. Way too little on robots. "Forbidden Planet" was barely mentioned. "The First Spaceship On Venus", "the Blob", & too many others weren't mentioned at all. I hadn't realized just how early & often many of the films had been made.
The fifth chapter is about SF on TV. This was far more complete. I thought I was the only one who remembered some of those old 60s shows like "Time Tunnel" & "Land of the Giants". "The Bionic Man" through "V" & on to "Alien Nation" & plenty more were mentioned. It described "the Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits", & the "Star Trek" phenomenons well, if quickly. OK, books could be written on each, so this one did great in the space it could devote. I don't recall seeing "Red Dwarf", but "Dr. Who" got a quick mention. Somehow, he didn't manage to mention a single show I hadn't seen. Odd. I don't watch that much TV. I guess we all know what I concentrate on.
There is a quick section summing up with some recommendations. It was a solid blast from the past & a lot of fun. Highly recommended if you're into SF.
I'm going to jot down notes to myself now. Uncle Forry dropped a lot of names & stories. I've been reading SF for over 50 years now, but - so many stories, so little time. The list below is for me to look into more. I've read some of them, but either it's been a long time, I want to see what Gutenberg/Librivox has, &/or there are specific stories to get.
Stanton Coblentz
Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660 by Hugo Gernsback
Aldous Huxley - Ape and Essence, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
David H. Keller
Kuttner & Moore plus their pseudonyms
Murray Leinster
Abraham Merritt?
Bob Olsen
Eric Frank Russell
Richard S. Shaver
Edmond Hamilton
Stanley G. Weinbaum ('Adaptive Element' as Jessel?)
Harry Bates - Farewell to the Master
Anthony Gilmore (Bates & Hall?)
Nat Schachner
L. Ron Hubbard - Final Blackout: A Futuristic War Novel (short story?)
Arthur J. Burks
Paul Payne - Planet Stories, first black MC? Check Vizigraph (reader's section) for dust up. Jewish guy flew to city, punched bigot in nose, & flew home on next plane?
Anthony Boucher
H. L. Gold
M.P. Shiel - The Purple Cloud
If you're not familiar with Ackerman, he's the original SF fan boy, advocate, agent, & publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland. He also had a private museum of memorabilia that was unsurpassed & free to the public. After he died, some was auctioned off & a lot wound up in the Seattle SF & Fantasy Hall of Fame.
The dedication of the book is interesting for not including Robert A. Heinlein. I'm guessing that's due to RAH's dickish letter to Forry about his brother's death.
It starts out with a couple of excellent introductions, one by A.E. van Vogt. Then there's a long section on Frankenstein which is excellent. A lot of great movie art & quick explanations. I hadn't realized Andy Warhol was involved in a Frankenstein flick, Flesh For Frankenstein.
The second chapter is composed of short bio/bibliographies of some of the great SF authors. Nothing complete, some are just a short paragraph while George Orwell got several pages, but much of that was pictures of book covers. I'm most grateful for the info on the movies that he provides. I've scrawled a list of authors & stories to look for on Gutenberg & Librivox. Very cool!
The third chapter gets into the pulps in more depth with a lot of the fantastic covers by Paul Rand & a lot about Gernsback's publishing history, of course. It was fun to see cover of "Everyday Science & Mechanics" with the writing on the bottom touting the latest "Inventions, Aero-Mechanics, Shop Kinks, Television..., Radio Kinks". I guess "Kinks" was the word in the early 1930s for 'Hacks'. Again, more authors made my to-read list. (Oy! See the bottom of the review.)
The fourth chapter covers SF in film. I'm not thrilled with the way it is laid out, but there is a lot of good stuff in it: More fun factoids, great pictures, some of films, & others of posters. There's a lot of history there, too. Way too little on robots. "Forbidden Planet" was barely mentioned. "The First Spaceship On Venus", "the Blob", & too many others weren't mentioned at all. I hadn't realized just how early & often many of the films had been made.
The fifth chapter is about SF on TV. This was far more complete. I thought I was the only one who remembered some of those old 60s shows like "Time Tunnel" & "Land of the Giants". "The Bionic Man" through "V" & on to "Alien Nation" & plenty more were mentioned. It described "the Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits", & the "Star Trek" phenomenons well, if quickly. OK, books could be written on each, so this one did great in the space it could devote. I don't recall seeing "Red Dwarf", but "Dr. Who" got a quick mention. Somehow, he didn't manage to mention a single show I hadn't seen. Odd. I don't watch that much TV. I guess we all know what I concentrate on.
There is a quick section summing up with some recommendations. It was a solid blast from the past & a lot of fun. Highly recommended if you're into SF.
I'm going to jot down notes to myself now. Uncle Forry dropped a lot of names & stories. I've been reading SF for over 50 years now, but - so many stories, so little time. The list below is for me to look into more. I've read some of them, but either it's been a long time, I want to see what Gutenberg/Librivox has, &/or there are specific stories to get.
Stanton Coblentz
Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660 by Hugo Gernsback
Aldous Huxley - Ape and Essence, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
David H. Keller
Kuttner & Moore plus their pseudonyms
Murray Leinster
Abraham Merritt?
Bob Olsen
Eric Frank Russell
Richard S. Shaver
Edmond Hamilton
Stanley G. Weinbaum ('Adaptive Element' as Jessel?)
Harry Bates - Farewell to the Master
Anthony Gilmore (Bates & Hall?)
Nat Schachner
L. Ron Hubbard - Final Blackout: A Futuristic War Novel (short story?)
Arthur J. Burks
Paul Payne - Planet Stories, first black MC? Check Vizigraph (reader's section) for dust up. Jewish guy flew to city, punched bigot in nose, & flew home on next plane?
Anthony Boucher
H. L. Gold
M.P. Shiel - The Purple Cloud
December 4, 2014
-Arqueología convencional y tendencias masivas, pero con detallitos.-
Género. Ensayo.
Lo que nos cuenta. Con prólogo de Alfred E. Van Vogt y presentación de John Landis, repaso muy subjetivo a poco más de un siglo de Ciencia-Ficción a través de la visión personal (mucho) que el autor, más famoso por su labor que mezcló la de coleccionista, portavoz, agente, evangelista y representante diplomático del género que como escritor propiamente dicho, tuvo de la Sci-Fi (término que acuñó el mismo) en diferentes medios como libros, series, revistas y películas.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ensayo.
Lo que nos cuenta. Con prólogo de Alfred E. Van Vogt y presentación de John Landis, repaso muy subjetivo a poco más de un siglo de Ciencia-Ficción a través de la visión personal (mucho) que el autor, más famoso por su labor que mezcló la de coleccionista, portavoz, agente, evangelista y representante diplomático del género que como escritor propiamente dicho, tuvo de la Sci-Fi (término que acuñó el mismo) en diferentes medios como libros, series, revistas y películas.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
March 7, 2011
The tone is like hearing someone who lived a portion of literary history tell you his favorite parts-if he does not tell it very well and you cannot ask questions. That is the glory and frustration of this book. Ackerman was around early enough to make-up the term “sci-fi,” was agent for dozens of writers, read the sci-fi pulps from the very first, watched the different trends in film and TV, but in telling about his favorite authors, books, stories, films, and TV shows, he seldom gives a sense of why he includes one instead of another, and just as bad, he virtually omits radio sci-fi altogether. Most of the others get their own chapter. Time and again I wished this were a conversation so I could ask why a writer was so interesting to him, because time and again he does not say. What is there can be enjoyable to read and many of the illustrations are wonderful, but the book is basically a failure. That it receives a generous three stars is testimony to how readable it is and how fascinating many of the illustrations are.
June 6, 2017
Certainly not for the sci-fi expert, but an enjoyable read, well illustrated, about the history of science-fiction. To savour with a hot cocoa; you might even find a few sci-fi titles to add to your to-read and to-watch lists.
July 14, 2015
Yes, kids, George Lucas did not invent science fiction . . .
April 2, 2023
Fun, but often repetitive overview of Forrest Ackerman's varied endeavors and contributions to science fiction. This is mainly a coffeee table style of a book, so many will simply be pleased with looking at the covers of many of the pulp fiction magazines mentioned. I was also interested in the brief biographies of what Forry considers the best of the sci-fi writers.
October 31, 2022
Historia de la ciencia ficción hasta finales de los 90. Es un resumen de lo más destacado: no hay mucha información. Lo mejor las imágenes de los escritores, ediciones de libros, revistas pulp, escenas de películas, etc.
de-no-lectura
May 5, 2019Esta obra (titulada en español simplemente como Ciencia ficción) es una enciclopedia realizada por Forrest J. Ackerman, autor, editor y gran aficionado a la ciencia ficción (género que, en buena parte, ayudó a moldear).
Como es habitual en este tipo de obras, el aspecto visual es importante, incluyendo numerosos pósters de películas, portadas de revistas y libros, fotogramas de películas y series...
Aun cuando no aporta una gran cantidad de información (en este sentido está muy lejos de obras similares como la Enciclopedia ilustrada de ciencia ficción de John Clute o la Crónica visual de la ciencia ficción de Guy Haley) los artículos son interesantes, pues aportan el punto de vista de una figura importante dentro del género durante el siglo XX.
[+] Reseña completa de "Ciencia Ficción (por Forrest J. Ackerman)" en Alt+64 wiki: http://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?title...
Como es habitual en este tipo de obras, el aspecto visual es importante, incluyendo numerosos pósters de películas, portadas de revistas y libros, fotogramas de películas y series...
Aun cuando no aporta una gran cantidad de información (en este sentido está muy lejos de obras similares como la Enciclopedia ilustrada de ciencia ficción de John Clute o la Crónica visual de la ciencia ficción de Guy Haley) los artículos son interesantes, pues aportan el punto de vista de una figura importante dentro del género durante el siglo XX.
[+] Reseña completa de "Ciencia Ficción (por Forrest J. Ackerman)" en Alt+64 wiki: http://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?title...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews