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Forry Ackerman Dead At 92

Posted by kdawson on from the famous-monsters-wave-bye-bye dept.

rrohbeck was one of several readers to note the passing of Forrest J. Ackerman at the age of 92. Ackerman, who coined the term sci-fi in 1954, has been called the 'world's biggest fan.' Over a long career he acted as literary agent for Isaac Asimov, A.E. van Vogt, Hugo Gernsback, and L. Ron Hubbard; he published Ray Bradbury's first short story in a fan magazine in 1938. Ackerman wrote over 2,000 articles and short stories, including, oddly enough, lesbian fiction in the 1940s. In recent years, mounting health bills forced him to sell his home, the 'Ackermansion,' and most of the 300,000 items of memorabilia it stored.

5 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. costly medical care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    He must be an American or live in America. I see he had to sell off his assets to pay for health care.

    1. Re:costly medical care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most people who want universal health care actually just want it because other countries have it. They rarely delve into the details of how good or not it is "over there", or who is determining the standards of practice

      Most people who don't want universal health care actually don't want it just because they're afraid of how good it would be. They rarely delve into the details of why other countries continue to use it and are simply afraid of anything that might be considered "socialist", because they were told by their local pastor that socialists are evil. They don't exhibit any form of independent thought at all, and just mimick back talking points they've heard without thinking critically about it.

  2. Re:L Ron? by Shatrat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I picked up some of his books when I was younger and hadn't heard of Scientology yet.
    He is easily the worst writer I have ever had the misfortune to read a published novel from.
    In the novel I tried to read the hero saves the world from the energy crisis by making a carburetor which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen which is then burned by a V8 cadillac.
    In L. Ron's house, they do not obey the laws of thermodynamics.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  3. It says something about the geek.... by westlake · · Score: 2, Insightful
    To make a living in pulp fiction you needed to be both versatile and productive.
    Think a penny a word.
    A quarter cent a word for anything that might be difficult or impossible to sell over the counter.
    Payment on publication, at least in theory.*
    Still, you had a realistic chance of placing your stories somewhere.
    If you were sufficiently talented and adroit, you might chance submitting a story with strong sexual themes to a magazine like The New Yorker.
    But not every writer is destined to reach such heights.

    * - If you were being paid on acceptance, you were writing for the Saturday Evening Post, your stories were in production by MGM, and ground was being broken for your new house in Conneticut.

  4. Esperanto by rleibman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sad, sad, sad. I met him a couple of times at Esperanto gatherings (the Zamenhof banquet in Berkley) and he was always a welcome and witty character.