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First SF experience?

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First SF experience?
Post by DDHvi   » Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:40 am

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I noted a stairway at the back of the county library. Exploration led to the adult stacks. Further exploration led to Astounding (while "Mission of Gravity" was serialized) and Scientific American, later other magazines. After a bit I was able to get permission to check out books from the adult part of the library.
8-)
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by Weird Harold   » Tue Feb 23, 2016 1:05 am

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I'm not sure what my first SF experience was.

I was obsessed with reading through all 'leventy-thousand OZ books. so my mom and the city librarian put restrictions on me; I could only check out one OZ book at a time and had to check out something else to the limit of five books/trip.

That led me to an obsession with reading all 'leventy-thousand Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. Which led me to other mystery authors for a while.

Somewhere in that enforced diversification I started the first Tom Swift series and then the Tom Swift Jr series. That led to Heinlein's juveniles, and Asimov's robots, and a further restriction on my reading -- One OZ book, One Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew, One other Science Fiction or Fantasy, and one from the other end of the library (where the non-fiction section was) plus one "other fiction."

All of this evolved about 1959 through 1965 -- fifth through eighth grades or thereabouts. So I'm not sure exactly what my first Science Fiction was, because it depends on whether you want to count Fantasy (as in the land of OZ) or whether "pulp space opera" with dubious "science" counts (as in the lensman series, which got included in there somewhere.) Does Frankenstein count? That was an early exposure to the classics.

If pushed real hard, I'd have to say one of Heinlein's Juveniles, Podkayne of Mars was one of my early favories -- and still is a favorite.
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by The E   » Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:50 am

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My father had a collection of books by Stanislaw Lem. The first one I read must have been either Star Diaries or Tales of Pirx; from there, I started reading every other piece of SF we had at home (My father was an avid collector of books; at its peak, we had a library of over 8000 titles), which was mostly Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and Lovecraft.
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by cthia   » Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:42 am

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My parents had amassed an impressive library. It was a native tradition. We, as a people, believe in the passing along of tradition and culture through stories. Reading is very encouraged in the native culture. We had storytelling night. Private "Pow Wows" are days of that.

Because of it, my parents didn't allow televisions in the bedroom. If you were in your room, the only option was a book. Pretty much it in our culture on down to my Aunts and Uncles. Yet, it was cool. I learned to enjoy reading rather early. My mother would even assign a story for the entire family to have read by a certain time and we'd pick a night to discuss it. Those were some very entertaining nights. Before long, friends wanted in.

At any rate, to get back on topic (it was all related) my great grandfather left my oldest brother a sizeable chunk of his vast library. I remember vividly all of the wonderful books my brother inherited. Among those books were magazines titled "NEW WORLDS Science Fiction" published monthly. They had dates on them from a time before my conception. All immaculately kept. They had wonderful and colorful artwork on each cover that would beckon to you. My brother would issue them out to you begrudgingly one by one and you had to sit in his room to read them. I'm glad he did that. His collection is worth a fortune now. They were my first exposure to true Sci-Fi.

"Dreamboat" by A. Bertram Chandler was one of my first Sci-Fi loves. I have since called it Love Potion #9, as it appeared in #9 of the series. It was in the SCIENCE FICTION Stories British edition. To my young and impressionable eyes, the artwork was just so fascinating back then.

http://bertramchandler.com/magazine/mag490.aspx
http://bertramchandler.com/magazine/mag256.aspx

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by Imaginos1892   » Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:48 am

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When I was about 9 or 10 I found on the family bookshelf the 1959 Anthony Boucher collection "A Treasury Of Great Science Fiction". It sure was. In addition to over a dozen short stories, each volume began and ended with a novel:

Poul Anderson "Brain Wave"
John Wyndham "Re-Birth"
A. E. Van Vogt "The Weapon Shops Of Isher"
Alfred Bester "The Stars My Destination"

I read them all through, then started over. Robert Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon" and "Waldo" made lasting impressions, too. I later recognized Ray Bradbury's name and read "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and found a completely different experience.

It was an introduction to a whole universe of thought and ideas that far too many people just pass by.
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by Daryl   » Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:30 am

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Superman comics at about 5 years at about 1953 (early reader).
Lensman series about ten years later.
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by Louis R   » Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:29 pm

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Hmmmm... Not entirely sure...

First clear recollection is a very nice set for children called The Children's Hour that my mother purchased in installments [likely at considerable sacrifice, since I've just realised that it must have cost something close to two months rent]. Vol. 16 is Science Fiction and Readers Guide. With just under half of it SF - I recall being ticked off by that even at 6 or 7. One of the stories, as it happens, was The Black Pits of Luna, although the author's name didn't make an impression at the time.

Next thing I'm really sure of is getting my hands on Men, Martians and Machines. After that, Andre Norton. In and around those presumably I was reading comics and Tarzan and whatever surfaced at the library.
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by DDHvi   » Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:03 am

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I once read an interesting historical library data - can't vouch for its correctness. Before movable type printing Oxford University bragged about its library, it had over 150 books in it. (head turns, looking at the shelves) :lol:

Three cheers for Gutenberg and those who followed him.
8-)
Douglas Hvistendahl
Retired technical nerd
ddhviste@drtel.net

Dumb mistakes are very irritating.
Smart mistakes go on forever
Unless you test your assumptions!
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by John Prigent   » Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:39 am

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After more than 60 years I don't remember the author, the title or the storyline of my first encounter with SF. I do remember the title of Lest Darkness Fall, which was probably my first SF book purchase, and I know that I was reading Astounding/Analog in the early 50s.

Cheers
John
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Re: First SF experience?
Post by Senior Chief   » Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:57 pm

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DDHvi wrote:I noted a stairway at the back of the county library. Exploration led to the adult stacks. Further exploration led to Astounding (while "Mission of Gravity" was serialized) and Scientific American, later other magazines. After a bit I was able to get permission to check out books from the adult part of the library.
8-)


In 1958 I was eight years old had my own library card when I read my first SF novel, “The Space Egg” written by Russell R. Winterbotham. It was about a test pilot who is flying high above the earth, and has a space egg smash through the cockpit and puts a hole in his pressurized suit. Blood everywhere but he is uninjured and has no wound.

This was my first experience and I still remember how the pilot went mad and began controlling people with his strange new powers…


Not sure if reading the classics like Illiad was considered SF or Fantasy, or if reading Dorian Gray, Frankinstein counts as SF more fantasy I would think. But anyway "The Space Egg" was the first that I remember.
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