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Out of this World
By
One of the world's largest science fiction
archive collections, and the most important centre for science fiction
research in Britain, is based in the Special Collections and Archives
department at the University of Liverpool.
The Science Fiction Foundation, which is an educational charity preserving
and promoting science fiction, owns the collection, which is administered
by the SF Hub in Sydney Jones Library at the university.
The collection has been housed there since 1993, under the management
of librarian Andy Sawyer. It includes the archives of a number of eminent
SF writers, including John Wyndham, John Brunner, Eric Frank Russell and
Brian Aldiss.
It is the fifth biggest collection globally, with the biggest archive
being based in a university in California, "…although we have
items they have not got, particularly British SF," said Sawyer.
"Most of our collection has come from donations from private collectors,
publishers and writers - that is the great thing about it," he added.
"It was assumed a lot of magazines, for example, would be thrown
away, but surprisingly people started to collect them.
"Another source of input has been via people who have said to us
they would like to leave their entire collection of SF books to us in
their will."
"One of the most treasured items we have," remarked Sawyer,
"is the Hugo Award statuette presented to John Brunner, who was one
of the most prolific British SF writers during the 1960s and 1970s. It
was in recognition of his book 'Standing in Zanzibar'."
The archives have been dramatically built up over the years. Some SF aficionados,
including film critic Ramsey Campbell and Eric Frank Russell, have left
them large deposits of their SF collections.
The archive holdings includes 30,000 SF and fantasy novels, collections
and anthologies; 2500 critical works, including biographies and bibliographies;
large deposits of non-English material (SF is particularly popular in
Japan, China and Latin America) featuring German, French, Russian and
Polish SF; an extensive collection of SF magazines (600 titles), some
dating back to the 1920s and including a lot from the 1950s.
In addition they have over 1000 fanzines titles worldwide; runs of over
500 critical journals specialising in the study of SF and related topics
including the Science Fiction Foundation's own journal 'Foundation: the
international review of science fiction'; and archival collections consisting
of the manuscripts and literary papers of a number of noted SF, fantasy
and horror writers.
"One major problem with this vast stock of material," explained
Sawyer, "is the difficulty in preserving all the items; some of the
magazines are unreadable. We therefore keep the collection in a regulated
set temperature storage area."
Asked as to what he would most like to acquire to add to the SF Hub collection,
Sawyer stated he wanted issue one of 'Amazing Stories', published in 1926,
which includes stories by HG Wells, Jules Verne and an editorial by Wells.
He would also like to possess a complete run of 'Weird Tales', "but
they are very expensive to buy" said Sawyer, and first editions of
HG Wells books.
As well as administering the SF Hub, Sawyer also helps run the MA in SF
Studies at the university. The course, over one year, takes SF as a specialist
form of literature, and comprises the themes: What is SF?; Utopian Societies;
and Time and Consciousness.
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