The first sf club was probably the Science Correspondence Club (SCC), later known as the International Scientific Association (ISA). It’s “probably” because there’s some debate on whether it actually qualified as a club – as the name indicates, SCC/ISA was a widespread association of correspondents with only a handful of its members actually getting together as a local group in the Chicago area.
The club traces its origins to 1928 when it was created in early Spring by Aubrey Clements of Montgomery, Alabama. A month after Clements formed his club, Walter Dennis and Sydney Gerson of Chicago formed a similar club. The following year, the two clubs merged with 25 members coming from Clements's club and 24 coming from Dennis's.
The club was one with Hugo Gernsback in its belief that reading scientifiction (as sf was called at the time) would, could and probably should lead to a career in science. Even though its contents through 17 issues was more about the science in the stories rather than the stories, the club’s publication, The Comet (later called Cosmology), is generally considered the first fanzine. The first issue was published in May 1930 under the editorship of Ray Palmer, who incidentally went on to edit Amazing Stories and give us the shameful Shaver Mystery in the 1940s.
According to a letter announcing the name change from the Science Correspondence Club to the Internationale Scientific Society (sic), published in Astounding Stories and written by the organization's founder and treasurer, Walter Dennis, members included Willy Ley, Earl D. Streeter, R. P. Starzl, Robt. A. Wait, S. P. Meek, Dr. William Tyler Olcott, Lilith Lorraine, and Dr. D. W. Morehouse, president of Drake University, Iowa.
Contributors: Dr. Gafia
