(November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) Forrest j. Ackerman — 4e — was a fan (one of the founders of fandom), collector of books and movie memorabilia, magazine editor, science fiction writer, Esperanto enthusiast, and literary agent. He was married to Wendayne Ackerman.
Also called "Forry," "The Ackermonster," "4e" and "4SJ," Ackerman was central to creation and growth of science fiction fandom. Famous for his word play and neologisms, he coined the genre nickname "sci-fi". In 1953, he was voted "#1 Fan Personality" by the members of the Worldcon, a unique Hugo Award never granted to anyone else.
He attended the First Worldcon in 1939, where he wore the first "futuristicostume"and sparked fan costuming. He attended every Worldcon but two thereafter during his lifetime. He invited Ray Bradbury to attend the Los Angeles Chapter of the Science Fiction League, later LASFS. He became so active in and important to the club, that in essence he ran it. He was also active in the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) and was its only lifetime member. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2002.
He was the editor and principal writer of Famous Monsters of Filmland, as well as an actor and producer (Vampirella). He and Wendayne also brought Perry Rhodan to the US.
He accumulated an extremely large and complete collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror film memorabilia, which he stored in a house and museum known as the "Son of Ackermansion." (The original Ackermansion was where he lived from the early 50s until the mid-70s.) The Ackermansion contained some 300,000 books and pieces of movie and science-fiction memorabilia.
He won the 1946 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo at L.A.con III in 1996.
He was FGoH at DeepSouthCon 28 and Lunacon 17, was awarded the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1996, and received the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. He won the Evans-Freehafer Award in 1972.
