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The Frank Arnold Papers
Rob Hansen (editor)
ISBN 978-1-913451-35-6
Frank Arnold was a long-time regular of the London First Thursday science-fiction pub meetings from their beginning in the 1940s until his death in 1987, and kept the famous Visitors’ Book. He had been active in British SF fandom since the very early days of the 1930s. Although he published one SF collection, a handful of articles and several book reviews, most of his nonfiction never appeared in print. Rob Hansen has compiled, edited and annotated this generous selection of his essays, reviews and memoirs, including much previously unpublished work. There is an introduction by Michael Moorcock, a historical foreword by Rob Hansen and a personal afterword by Dave Rowe.
First published as an Ansible Editions ebook for the TAFF site on 1 December 2017. The cover photograph of, from left to right, E.J. (Ted) Carnell, E.C. (Ted) Tubb and Frank Arnold at the 1952 London convention is from the Vince Clarke collection. Initially 44,000 words. Expanded by roughly one-third to 58,000 words on 1 October 2024, with additional published and unpublished reviews and essays by Frank Arnold plus further investigation by Rob Hansen into his early life.
A printed paperback edition is now available, released simultaneously with the expanded ebook: click here for more. All proceeds from paperback sales go to TAFF.
See also “Our Frank” by Dave Rowe, a photo-illustrated memoir published in Outworlds 65 (February 1993) edited by Bill Bowers.
From the Introduction
by Michael MoorcockFrank’s career as an sf writer was pretty much over by the time we met. I liked him a great deal and respected him considerably so I was glad to republish the fine long essay I included in New Worlds: An Anthology (Fontana/Flamingo, 1983; revised Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004) because Frank had the scope and knowledge to give me exactly the perspective I felt we needed. It seemed fitting that one of the magazine’s founders should be included in what was intended to be a kind of memorial to my version of New Worlds, remembering that it had originally been founded by fans and professionals pooling their enthusiasm and sustained by amateurs and professionals, just as so much else is achieved in science fiction. Frank was a living corner-stone of New Worlds and his involvement with it was as much part of British science fiction as the magazine itself.
