Sam Moskowitz

Sam Moskowitz was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1920, and came of age alongside the pulp magazines that would define his life's work. A voracious reader and collector, he plunged into science fiction fandom in the 1930s, becoming a tireless organizer, editor, and chronicler of the community that surrounded the genre's golden age.

Moskowitz produced a series of foundational works of science fiction history and criticism, including 'Explorers of the Infinite' (1963), 'Seekers of Tomorrow' (1966), and 'The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom' (1954). He also edited numerous anthologies that rescued forgotten stories from the pulps, and his essays established the biographical and bibliographical bedrock for the study of early SF.

Moskowitz's work was greeted with enthusiasm by fellow fans and scholars for its encyclopedic breadth, though his strong opinions and preference for the pulp era drew criticism from those who favored a more literary or theoretical approach. He received the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1953 and the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award, cementing his status as a central figure in the field's self-understanding.

Moskowitz's histories remain indispensable reference works, consulted by every subsequent generation of SF scholars. His insistence on documenting the lives and careers of pulp-era writers ensured that figures like Stanley G. Weinbaum and E. E. Smith would not be forgotten. Though later scholarship has refined his judgments, his role as the discipline's first systematic historian is secure.