ObituarY: In Memorium

Sam Moskowitz

by John L. Coker III

Sam Moskowitz, widely regarded as the leading authority on science fiction (SF) and fantasy, died April 15, 1997, at the age of seventy-six.  During his lifetime, he witnessed the evolution of modern SF fandom, and significantly influenced its development for seven decades.  Sam’s exhaustive interdisciplinary approach to the genre led him to earn a unique reputation as fan, collector, correspondent, conventioneer, author, biographer, reviewer, literary agent, critic, researcher, publisher, editor, anthologist, archivist, scholar, and historian.

Born June 30, 1920 in New Jersey, Sam lived his entire life in Newark or the surrounding area.  His parents were Russian immigrants, and as a youth, Sam helped in the family businesses and enjoyed boxing, soccer and baseball.  He discovered SF in the pages of Astounding and Amazing in the early 1930’s, but it was several years before he could afford to begin buying magazines.  It is estimated that when he began in fandom in the mid-1930s, there were approximately one hundred active SF fans in the world, and Sam knew all of them, either by correspondence or reputation. 

Sam was a pioneer with many first-time accomplishments.  In May 1935, he co-founded the Newark Science Fiction League, and in 1936 began his first fan correspondence with Julius Schwartz, the editor of Fantasy Magazine.  A charter member of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association in 1937, he remained active for the rest of his life.  Sam chaired the first World Science Fiction Convention in New York City (July 2-4 1939).  He founded the Eastern Science Fiction Association in 1946, and remained active for more than forty years.  In the early 1950’s, after serving as Hugo Gernsback’s managing editor for Science Fiction Plus, Sam edited several prominent trade journals in the field of frozen foods.  He is credited with teaching the first college-level course in creative SF writing in 1953 at City College, New York.

Sam had more than sixty hardcover books published, and sold hundreds of articles and stories to many magazines.  His books on the history of SF are in the reference sections of every major library in the United States.  The Immortal Storm (1954), an incredibly detailed history of SF fandom from its earliest days through 1939, is considered by many to be Sam’s most important book.  Included in his non-fiction works are Explorers of the Infinite (1963) and Seekers of Tomorrow (1966), collections of essays profiling the influences of literary figures on SF.  Among the dozens of anthologies edited by Sam are Editor’s Choice in Science Fiction (1954), Exploring Other Worlds (1963), The Coming of the Robots (1963), Masterpieces of Science Fiction (1967), Futures to Infinity (1970), and Out of the Storm (1975).  These featured rare stories, extensive introductions and heavily-researched background information. 

Sam’s personal collection of SF and fantasy was one of the world’s largest, and was designed especially for research.  It featured a complete set of every SF magazine published in English as well as most of the fantasy, supernatural and associational magazines.  It also included nearly every fan publication from 1930-1950, more than 6,000 hardcover books, thousands of photos, original artwork, author’s manuscripts, and all of the written correspondence that Sam received over the course of sixty years.

The passing of Sam Moskowitz marked the close of an extraordinary career, leaving a vacuum that simply could not not be filled.  In spite of his large body of publications, it was the staggering loss of Sam’s first-hand knowledge and the sheer volume of information which he possessed and was willing to share that is so tragic.  His overall contribution to the field is almost impossible to estimate, but it would be accurate to state that without Sam Moskowitz, SF fandom would likely never have flourished to reach its present state.