(Har skrivit första utkastet till ett föredrag jag tänkt hålla på Baltcon-delen av Eurocon. Engelskan är inte så hårt genomkollad och det skall nog till både tillägg och strykningar. Omt t ex Atom-Noak har jag MASSOR med mer material och kanske lägger till en hel del. Kommentarer tas gärna emot. En sak: är det någon som har en bra och stor utskrift av Dénis Lindbohms Strate-insändare i Året Runt? Jag hittar inte det numret av Året Runt och har bara en inscanning i usel kvalitet. Jag har för mig att den fanns i en SFF-Bulletin, men det hittar jag förstås inte heller... --AE)
The Early Unknown History of Swedish Fandom This will be about some "near misses" regarding the start of science fiction and sf fandom in Sweden. We will move over vaguely charted territories, through muddy marshes of uncertain claims, pass firmer grounds of knowledge, and finally arrive to the lands we can begin to recognize. I will briefly talk about three magazines and three clubs, in one way or another related to sf and/or sf fandom. Relationes Curiosare, 1682, and Stella, 1886-1888 I have for a long time been interested in really old genre-related stuff. For instance, I "discovered" a magazine of the fantastic published in 1682! (That is, it had earlier been mentioned in general press histories, but nobody in the sf community had known or written about it before.) That was a German magazine published in Hamburg by one Eberhard Werner Happel, named "Grosste Denkwurdigkeiten der Welt oder sogennante relationes curiosae". The interesting thing is that it *the same* year was translated to Swedish and re-printed in Stockholm. "Relationes Curiosae" means approximately "curious news" and it was a magazine about strange inventions, weird creatures like mermaids or dragons, wonders of the world, odd things like unknown people living in another world underground, speculations about space and the planets, and so on. According to the literary style of the time, RelationesCuriosae was written in a semi-fictional style, and that makes it at least a
candidate for being the firt sf magazine in the world. (I wrote an article
about it in the British sf research journal Foundation, No 72, in the
spring of 1998.)
Relationes Curiosae's Swedish edition exists. It's in the Royal Library in
Stockholm.
But it is more uncertain if another claimed early Swedish sf magazine
exists. Sam J Lundwall, editor of Jules Verne Magasinet, have for a long
time now been talking about a magazine named Stella, which is supposed
to have been a supplement to the weekly magazine Svenska Familj-
Journalen Svea (Swedish Family Journal Svea), and published with four
issues between 1886 and 1888. As said, he has talked a lot about it, but
given curiously little information. He has published a postage sized
reproduction of one text-only cover, but nothing else from this claimed
Stella. Swedish sf fans have dug deep into different research libraries
and found no Stella. One Hans Persson has interesting information, and
says:
"If you look into the April issue of Illustrerad Familj-Journal for 1886
you find somethig interesting. Here is a two-page adveritising
supplement with an installment of a serial by Jules Verne and a short,
anonymous story. On the back cover of the magazine itsel there's an
illustration with the caption 'Stella'. Until proof of the opposite is
presented, I maintain that there never has been a magazine by the name of
Stella."
"Illustrated Familj-Journal" (Later "Allers Familj-Journal"), published
around this time, had for a long time a sub-department with a heading
reading "Between fantasy and reality", but it was definitely a *general*
family and story magazine (with some "jules-vernian" tales - like all
magazines had at the time). Maybe Sam J Lundwall saw this illustration
named "Stella", remembered the department "Between fantasy and
reality" from another magazine, and somehow mixed it all up into an sf
magazine called "Stella"?
Kamraten (The Comrade), 1893-1911
But Sam J Lundwall's next finding certainly existed. It is the youth-
magazine Kamrated (The Comrade) published 1893-1911, founded by
one Frithiof Hellberg (who curiously enough 1886-1887 also edited
Svenska Familj-Journalen Svea), who edited until 1903 (he died in
1906). After this one Erik Pallin took over and the magazine was housed
on Klara Södra Kyrkogatan No 16 in Stockholm (the house has been torn
down since long).
Kamraten had a sub-heading reading "Illustrerad tidning för Sveriges
ungdom" ("Illustrated Magazine for Sweden's Youth") and published
short stories, some of them sf, correspondence from the readers and
articles of interest to youngsters. It was published two times per month
with 16 pages per issue. Lundwall dedicates the whol May issue 2007,
No 532, to this subject, with a historical summary, faksimils and
illustrations from the magazine and several stories culled from it.
Many of the stories were of course of a science fiction slant. That wasn't
unusual for magazines of the time, because one of the most popular
writers of the time was Jules Verne. Such stories were often called
"jules vernian tales" or "jules-verniads". Especially one writer, using the
pen-name "Yngve" (it is hinted that this "Yngve" later landed in a mental
hospital, but nobody knows his real or full name).
Popular sf authors of the time was, except Verne of course, Camille
Flammarion, Marie Corelli of England,of France, Kurd Lasswitz of
Germany, Claes Lundin of Sweden, and H G Wells had begun making a
name for himself.
Kamraten became the organ of a youth organisation called
Kamraförbundet ("The Comrade Federation") which organised camps
and meetings. Among the activies were sports, chess, stamps and
literature. They would arrange "Comrade Meetings", of which the first
was arranged in 1898, June 1-2 on Hotell Kinnekulle, outside Lidköping
in mid-Sweden. The meeting would have excursions in Mother Nature,
dancing with live music (young boys and girls dacing with each other
without the parents present was quite daring at the time!), games, singing,
and discussion circles - Jules Verne and his type of stories were
probably discussed. It is also said they attempted a balloon trip, but it
is
hinted it wasn't too successful.
Sam J Lundwall does his best to beef-up the claims that this was "some
sort of Nordic youth movement, or fandom". For instance, when Jules
Verne turned 70 in 1898, they wrote to their hero, and got a kind reply,
which was also published in the magazine. But I'm still reluctant to call
it a fandom, since science fiction or "that Jules Verne stuff", was only a
small minority of the activities. Lundwall reproduces a readers'
correspondence page, and one would think he'd pick one with lots of
Jules Verne-discussions to strengthen his hypothesis - but the
correspondence page has only vague mentions of fantastic literature.
Instead it seems that the Comrade Federation more than anything else
was into sports. They founded the IFK clubs. The letters stands for
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna ("Sports Association the Comrades") and
167 such IFK sports clubs *still* exists in Sweden, and also in Finland.
A better claims for some sort of fandom is the student club Saga (as in
the old Nordic Sagas) that existed in the Norra Real high school in
Sweden, and where ignature Yngve and later editor Erik Pallin were
members. This club would according to Lundwall have instance have
literary evenings, and they had a special room in the school, the Saga
Room, which is said to still exist. Further investigations into this school
club Saga could be worth while.
Erik Pallin was only editor of Kamraten barely two years, 1903-1904.
The magazine then hade a quick succession of editors, Hjalmar Kumlien,
S T A Hasselquist and finally J Paulus Palm who stayed until 1908.
Lundwall doesn't say or know who edited Kamrated the last years, "until
it was finally relieved of its suffering and was discontinued" in 1911.
Atom-Noak upa (Atomic Noah Ltd), 1945-1980s?
The next group I'll talk about was a group of engineers who in 1945
founded the association Atom-Noak upa. "Upa" stands for "without
personal responsibility" ("utan personligt ansvar") and is a sometimes
used abbreviation for a "limited" company or association. So it would
translate as "Atomic Noah Ltd".
This association had a clear interest for science fiction questions, like
atomic power and space travel, and as lecturer and associate member
had the Swedish Nobel Prize laureate Harry Martinson, famous for his
epic space poetry in Aniara. The association was founded as an
"economic association" by five engineers of ASEA (now a part of
ABB). An "economic association" is a hybrid between a commercial
company and a non-profit association. The founders where inspired and
scared by the news of Hiroshima, and feared that mankind would wipe
itself out. To survive, they discussed and planned for "space transport
systems" to move Earth's population to another planet. They even
applied for a patent on some sort of atomic rocket engine that would
work by nuclear fission, but weren't granted a patent since they couldn't
at the time show how this in practice would be achieved.
There were a number of articles written about Atomic-Noah in 1945, in
the dailies Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and the technical journal
Teknisk tidskrift. This association isn't exactly unknown, though it was
very small. It has been described briefly in literature about Harry
Martinson and is known by Harry Martinson Sällskapet (The Harry
Martinson Society) where I have been in contact with one Åke
Widefeldt. The director of the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Svante
Lindqvist, has also helped me with information (the museum actually has
binders with records of Atomic Noah).
There is actually a lot known about Atomic Noah and some day me or
someone else should cover the subject in more detail. At the time (1940
to 1947) we had the weekly Swedish pulp magazine Jules Verne
Magasinet (a much different magazine from today's JVM, re-launched in
1969 by Bertil Falk, since 1972 edited by Sam J Lundwall). It would
have stories about travels to other planets and stars and it is very likely
that the people in Atomic Noah read JVM. When Harry Martinson in
march 1948 held a lecture for the association, the editorial secretary of
the magazine Teknik för Alla ("Technology for All") was also invited -
and the publishing house was the same as for JVM. From this lecture we
learned that Martinson as a little boy read about the sinking of RMS
Titanic, and he said that "through life the memory of the sinking of
Titanic came back and contributed to the creation of Aniara, a Titanic of
Space."
Another thing we learn is that Martinson in the spring of 1941 visited
Copenhagen and met the Danish atomic physicist Niels bohr in his
institute and there is said to have "witnessed atomic fission" He said that
"the Wilson instrument liked like a compass house and the path of the
atomic particles through the enclosed chamber looked like very distant
shooting stars against a night sky." He shuddered before the huge
energies, it is said.
There are many confirmations that Harry Martinson was interested in
modern science, science-fiction like things and most probably science
fiction itself.
Apart from Martinson members included for example August Uno Lamm
and Bertil Stålhane. The latter seems to have been the contact man, the
one pulling the strings and keeping the records of the activities. Atomic
Noah seem to have had regular meetings several times yearly into the
1950s, with a lecture and a dinner afterwards. In the 1950s activity
shrank, but there were probably less frequent meetings for a time.
And this is the piece de resistance: they called themselves Föreningen
Atom-Noak (The Association Atomic Noah), abrrevieted FAN. They
called themselves FANs! But the association was rather small (just a
handful of members) and as far as I know never had contacts with the
more commonly known sf clubs that began appearing in the shift between
the 1940s and 1950s.
Strate-Organisation 1949-1951
Then we come to the first sf clubs in Sweden that lead to a continued
fandom. It is often said that the first Swedish sf club was Futura, founded
in Stockholm in 1950 by Sture Lönnerstrand (and the oldest one still
active is Club Cosmos in Gothenburg, founded in 1954). But the it is
clear that the Father of Swedish sf fandom instead was Dénis Lindbohm,
in Malmö, with his forst Club Strate-Organisation in 1949. This club
was the forerunner of his later and more well-known club Meteor,
founded in 1952, but it was a real club, with meetings, activities and 5-
10 10 members.
Dénis Lindbohm, who unfortunately passed away in 2005 in cancer,
briefly mentions Strate-Organisation in his fannish memoirs "Den gamle
och fandom" ("The Old Man and Fandom", published in the fanzine VÄ
1979-80) but also in wrote a long reader's letter about the club in the
weekly magazine Året Runt (No 24, 1951), from "Ernst Dénis Lindbohm,
Autarch of Strate-Organisation, P O Box 302, Malmö 1" noting that "The
author of these lines is since two years back boss od a Swedish rocket
circle with the shimmering name Strate-Organisation /which for example
deals with/ fantasy and dreams and the central subject of rocket flight."
There's a nice picture of a rocket model they had built.
"Strate" comes, obviously, from "stratosphere" - something flying high.
Lindbohm writes that the full scale rocket would be 23 metres high and
powered by an atomic reactor. He "hopes to be able to build such a
rocket ship. The only things missing are a few tens of millions of crowns
and of course full knowledge in how exactly an atomic reactor should be
constructed..."
I was in contact with Lindbohm who says that the club started in the
summer of 1949 when Dénis and a friend of his had just left their
military service. He started thr club with two friends, Mathiason and
Bessing. Mathiasson is said to have been very enthusiastic and went out
to actively recruit members.
All members had read the JVM pulp. They had meetings where they
dicussed sf literature, built rocket models and planed making amateur
films (Dénis later went through with this and did the classic "Den stora
nattens vålnad", "The Ghost of the Great Night"). This club lead dirctly
to club Meteor.
Other members included one Johansson, known as Panther-Johan, since
he had panther-like rushes in his face, and one Eldh who later started a
photo firm. People like Ingvar Fällman and Arvid Gyllenberg may have
been Strate-members (Lindbohm weren't sure - but they were definitely
in the later club Meteor).
"It was the spark starting the fire", Lindbohm told me. "I had begun
readin sf already in the mid 30s and bought all the JVM issues, so I was
loaded with sf. I was called the Autarch already then. One mamber said I
had delusions of grandness when I sketched how Strateborg would be
built in the heart of Sahara. I drew a Strateborg which would be 3 km
high and strech 3 km down into the sand. A brilliant fantasy. The
acitvities slowly died down, but blossomed again in 1952 when I got
club Meteor started. We got some new members and some earlier ones
disappeared. I had contacts with Mathiasson again a few years back, but
now he had no longer any interest in science fiction."
He also said that he already in 1949 had the idea of building a robot
shell (that would have a person in it) and get a camera and make a film
about the robot. (He later in the 1960s built the robot Arxi, and shot a
short film which was shown in the TV program "Tid för annat", "Time
for something else".)
By this, we are near the end of my little exposé. I'm sure there in other
countries are similar stories to tell about early science fiction,
near-miss
sf clubs and similar things. (I've heard fascinating stuff from Finland and the 1950's for instance!). In my view, I think it must be without doubt established that Swedish fandom began in the 1940's, either through Atomic Noah (though that club was Limited) or Strate-Organisation, both groups with had members and meetings and acitivties. And I'll now take questions and comments. --Ahrvid Engholm -- ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxxx/ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx/tel 073-68622[53+mercersdag] Pangram för 29 sv bokstäver: Yxskaftbud, ge vår wczonmö iqhjälp! Gå med på SKRIVA! http://www.skriva.bravewriting.com ----- SKRIVA - sf, fantasy och skräck * Äldsta svenska skrivarlistangrundad 1997 * Info http://www.skriva.bravewriting.com eller skriva- request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx för listkommandon (ex subject: subscribe).
