Earl Kemp

Earl Kemp (born 1929) is an American science fiction editor, critic, and fan who won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for "Who Killed Science Fiction", a collection of questions and answers with top writers in the field. [ [http://www.worldcon.org/hc.html#f The Hugo Awards By Category] , World Science Fiction Society, accessed Sept. 21, 2007.] Kemp also helped found , a small publishing house focused on science fiction criticism, history, and bibliography, and served as chairman of the 20th World Science Fiction Convention. During the 1960s and '70s, Kemp was also involved in publishing a number of erotic paperbacks, including an illustrated edition of the "Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography." This publication led to Kemp being sentenced to one year in prison for "conspiracy to mail obscene material," but he served only the federal minimum of three months and one day. ["An Interview with Earl Kemp of Greenleaf Classics" by Michael Hemmingson, "Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties" edited by Brittany A. Daley, Hedi El Kholti, Earl Kemp, Miriam Linna, and Adam Parfrey, Feral House, 2004. page 36.] ["Freedom of the Press: A Bibliocyclopedia : Ten-year Supplement (1967-1977)" by Ralph Edward McCoy, Southern Illinois University Press, 1979, page 163.]

Biography

Kemp was born in Arkansas in 1929 and later moved to Chicago, where he worked as a graphics artist. ["The Story of Heinlein in Dimension" by Alexei Panshin in Alexei Panshin's The Abyss of Wonder, accessed Sept. 21, 2007.]

Before Kemp left Arkansas, he discovered pulp fiction. As Kemp once wrote, "There were a number of magazines that struck my fancy for different reasons, among them were titles like "Planet Stories, Weird Tales", "Spicy Mystery Stories", etc. It was probably my emerging pubescence tilting me toward the spicy parts, but I had always been easy to tilt." [ [http://efanzines.com/EK/eI5/index.htm "Tales of Imagination and Space Travel: A Capricious Chronology"] by Earl Kemp, Earl Kemp fanzine, December 2002.]

cience fiction editor and fan

In 1952, Kemp attended his first World Science Fiction Convention. As he later said, "It was like walking into a world I had been seeking for a very long time. I felt, instantly, that I was at home at last and among my kind of people." ["SEXAPHONES, BLUE OINTMENT, AND MOTHERLOVERS" by Earl Kemp, The Unofficial Robert Bloch Website, accessed Sept. 21, 2007.]

In 1956 Kemp and other members of the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club founded , which publishes science fiction criticism, history, and bibliography. One of their first books was "In Search of Wonder", a hardcover collection of the book reviews of Damon Knight. Critics have said the book created the "foundation for all subsequent SF criticism." [http://panshin.com/critics/Monkeys/monkeys2.htm "Oh Them Crazy Monkeys: Me, Earl, and Robert Heinlein"] by Alexei Panshin in Alexei Panshin's The Abyss of Wonder, accessed Sept. 21, 2007.]

Kemp won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for his publication "Who Killed Science Fiction". To create the fanzine, "Earl sent the same five questions to 108 people, the elite of the science fiction world. And he printed the seventy-one responses he received." The fanzine was distributed by the Spectator Amateur Press Society (SAPS), a long-running amateur press association. Kemp's win caused a bit of controversy because some felt that his publication had only a single issue; afterwards the award's eligibility rules for fanzines were changed to prevent single-issue publications from winning. [ [http://www.smithway.org/history/chap5d.html "Notable fanzines of the 1960s"] Chapter Five: publications and legendry; also [http://jophan.org/1960s/chapter8.htm Chapter Eight - worldcons of the 1960s] , both accessed Sept. 21, 2007] However, "Who Killed Science Fiction" was actually the first "SaFari Annual", part of a series of fanzines Kemp was publishing for SAPS, and the "controversy" was largely based on misunderstanding. [ [http://efanzines.com/EK/eI29/index.htm The complete text of "Who Killed Science Fiction"] accessed Oct. 1, 2007.] In 2006 Kemp published a significant updating of "Who Killed Science Fiction" as the 29th issue of his current fanzine "e*I*". It reprinted the entirety of the original 1961 edition and added considerable new material. [ [http://efanzines.com/EK/eI29/index.htm The complete text of "Who Killed Science Fiction"] accessed Oct. 1, 2007.]

Kemp also served as chairman of the 20th World Science Fiction Convention. The following year he edited "The Proceedings: CHICON III," published by Advent:Publishers. The book included transcripts of lectures and panels given during the course of the convention, along with numerous photographs.

Kemp edited a number of science fiction fanzines up until 1965, including "Destiny" and "SaFari". After a 37-year break, Kemp returned to editing fanzines with "e*I*", which focuses on his memoirs of the science fiction world and is available online. [ [http://www.earlkemp.com/ei_1/ei_home1.html "One is the loneliest number . . ."] by Earl Kemp, "e*I*1" accessed Sept. 21, 2007.]

Pornography and gay books

During the 1960s and '70s, Kemp was involved in publishing erotic paperbacks through a company, Greenleaf Classics, where he was employed by William Hamling. In an example of détournement, Kemp published an illustrated edition of the "Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography". The book was "replete with the sort of photographs the commission examined." ["Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide" by Joseph W. Slade, Greenwood Press, 2000, page 119.] Kemp eventually was sentenced to a one-year prison sentence for distributing the book ["An Interview with Earl Kemp of Greenleaf Classics" by Michael Hemmingson, "Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties" edited by Brittany A. Daley, Hedi El Kholti, Earl Kemp, Miriam Linna, and Adam Parfrey. Feral House, 2004. page 36.] (as was Hamling). However, both served only the federal minimum of three months and one day. The story of their arrest and prison time was covered in Gay Talese's "Thy Neighbor's Wife". [ [http://efanzines.com/EK/eI7/index.htm "William Henley Knoles: The Life and Death of Clyde Allison"] by Lynn Munroe, "e*I*1," Vol. 2 No. 2, April 2003, accessed Sept. 22, 2007.] ["Thy Neighbor's Wife" by Gay Talese, Dell Publishing, 1981, page 459.]

Kemp also was involved in publishing gay-themed books while at Greenleaf, one of the earliest editors to do so, leading novelist Victor J. Banis to call Kemp the "Godfather of gay publishing" ["That Man from C.A.M.P.: Rebel Without a Pause" by Victor J. Banis, Fabio Cleto, Haworth Press, 2004, page 329.] (even though, as Banis says, "Earl himself was resolutely heterosexual"). [ [http://www.vjbanis.com/bio.php Victor J. Banis biography] , Victor J. Banis website, accessed Sept. 22, 2007.] Among the books Kemp edited in the 1960s were Banis's novel "The Why Not" and a series of gay pulp fiction spy parodies called The Man from C.A.M.P. Banis says once Kemp and Greenleaf proved how much of a market there was for erotic gay fiction, other publishers soon joined in. [ [http://www.vjbanis.com/bio.php Victor J. Banis biography] , Victor J. Banis website, accessed Sept. 22, 2007.]

"Desert Resident"

Kemp appeared in a late 2007 segment of "WIRED Science" titled "Peak Water", identified only as "Earl Kemp, Desert Resident," in which he discussed the realities of water supply in his home near Kingman, Arizona. [ [http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/218-peak_water.html "WIRED Science", "Peak Water"] ]

Bibliography

* "The Science Fiction Novel", edited by Earl Kemp, Advent:Publishers, 1959.
* "Who Killed Science Fiction", collection of interviews with science fiction writers and others, winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.
* "The Proceedings: CHICON III", edited by Earl Kemp, Advent:Publishers, 1963.
* "The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography", edited by Earl Kemp, Greenleaf Classics, Inc., 1970.
* "Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties" edited by Brittany A. Daley, Hedi El Kholti, Earl Kemp, Miriam Linna, and Adam Parfrey. Feral House, 2004. Winner of an Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Pop Culture Book of 2006.
* "The Science-Fiction Book Index" by Earl Kemp in::* "", edited by T. E. Dikty, Fell 1955.::* "", edited by T. E. Dikty, Fell 1956.::* "", edited by T. E. Dikty, , 1958.

References

External links

* [http://efanzines.com/EK/eI29/index.htm The complete text of "Who Killed Science Fiction"] , winner of the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.
* [http://efanzines.com/EK/ Earl Kemp's science fiction fanzines] .
* [http://www.earlkemp.com/ Earl Kemp's personal website] .
* [http://panshin.com/critics/Monkeys/monkeys1.htm "Oh Them Crazy Monkeys: Me, Earl, and Robert Heinlein"] by Alexei Panshin. An account of Kemp's