Chain Letters

from Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959

(aka Round Robin Letters, tho this name is inaccurate). In Great Britain, after the outbreak of World War II, C S Youd organized chains of fans to each of which he would circulate a page or more of news; each fan would make additions and pass the bundle on to the next guy. When they all came back, Youd made selections from the material for the first sheet of a new cycle. Some of these also came to America and on their example, after Pearl Harbor, A L Joquel and Harry Warner jr started several chains thru the US. The system here was slightly different, in that Harry sent the whole bundle on; each fan as he added a new letter withdrew his former one and sent it to Harry for file. Quasi-chain letters also grew out of the circulation of sonodiscs (and, later, magnetic recordings) and other chains were started by various fen to get material for fanzines; e. g. one by Tucker to which each person was to contribute a photo, which would be reproduced in LE ZOMBIE. These chains were not intended to circulate indefinitely, but sooner or later they always seemed to get hung up somewhere in the circuit.

from Fancyclopedia 1 ca. 1944