[LMB] Re: Where were you in 1983? OT:

[Kathleen McClure]

On Monday, January 5, 2004, at 09:25  PM, Nicholas Rosen wrote:

> Kathleen McClure wrote:
>
>> I had started reading science fiction in about third grade
>> because my grandfather had been a well known SF writer
>> in the late 30's and 40's.  I also had an uncle by marriage
>> who had been a writer too, as had my aunt.
>
> That's interesting.  Can you let us know the names of
> these literary relatives?
>
>
> Regards,
> Nicholas
> -- 
>

My grandfather was Malcolm Jameson who wrote for the pulps during the 
late 30's, in
New York, as did many of the other SF writers of the time.  He also did 
a series of
stories about a space navy published as a book _Bullard_.  (He had been 
a Naval
officer but had to resign because of ill health.) He also had a couple 
of stories
on other subjects in some of the first anthologies.  He died in 1945 of 
cancer of
the throat at age 55.  My mother and I lived with him and my 
grandmother while
my father was in the Pacific during WWII.  Even though I was only 2-1/2 
when he died,
I have some fond memories.

His daughter, my aunt, had a couple of stories published, one in the 
Saturday Evening
Post, for sure. I don't know if she published under the name Vida 
Jameson or Vida
Cartmill.  She was married for a while to Cleve Cartmill who was a 
lovely person,
very intelligent, who treated kids like people.  His claim to fame is 
that he
published a story in early 1945 (April, I think) about an atomic bomb, 
and found
the FBI on his doorstep forthwith.  He was able to show his research, 
and the story
was not that accurate compared to what was going on in real life, plus 
the fact
that he was severely crippled by childhood polio, and presumably not 
great spy
material.  So I guess the FBI decided that pulling the 'zine off the 
shelves would
make the subject more noticed than the content of the story was worth. 
This incident
was confirmed in Time Magazine many years ago, so it is not just a 
family story.

My aunt hung around the New York SF crowd with my grandfather when she 
could (she
was a Wave in Washington, DC, part of the time).  She knew Heinlein, 
also was around
when Ron Hubbard was thinking up Scientology.  She thought he had to be 
kidding, but...

Anyway, that's how I got started in reading SF.



Kathy

Vita sine libris mors est
Life without books is death.