Fancyclopedia 3 defines a fanthology as: A collection of fan writings, larger than a typical fanzine, usually but not always reprinted from other zines and built around a central theme, such as a "Best of" the year, a "Best of" (or representative sampling) an individual fan or even a themed collection. Corflu published a number of them.
I think the first fanthology I bought was Between Two Worlds by Terry Carr published tête-bêche with Messages Found in an Oxygen Bottle by Bob Shaw from NESFA Press.
I recognized Terry Carr as the author of Cirque, and the editor of the Universe series of original SF anthologies. I found their fan writing clever and amusing, and it referenced a depth of fandom of which I was only dimly aware.
Next up was another NESFA tête-bêche collection, Lee Hoffman’s In and Out of Quandry with A. Bertram Chandler’s Up to the Sky in Ships.
Quandry was Hoffman’s fanzine, and that side of the book reprints several fannish essays. The other side was Chandler’s SF short stories, and I must admit that I still haven’t read those. Not what I bought the book for.
Now I had developed a taste for fanwriting, particularly the style and sense of humor found in Fifties fanzines. Below are more fanthologies in my collection.
Elsewhere I’ve mentioned Warhoon #28, the Walt Willis retrospective. Dublin 2019, the 77th Worldcon was promoting Irish fandom and selling some copies at this year’s Eastercon.
Yes, that Robert Bloch! The author of Psycho continued to write fannish essays even after he had turned pro. Some pretty hilarious stuff here.
Another Terry Carr fanthology published in Sweden in 1986 by Laissez Faire Produktion AB. Don’t worry, the text is all in English. Unless you wanted a Swedish translation of Carr’s fannish essays, in which case you’d be disappointed.
These were published as pamphlets. Bob Shaw was famous in fandom for his digressive speeches and shaggy dog style essays. He did a great essay on Space 1999, and the need for bad sci-fi as a gateway to good science fiction literature.
Mimosa was a fanzine with a focus on fan history. After the first 27 issues Rich and Nicki Lynch published two best of collections and a finale. I only have the first fanthology pictured above.
