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Vince Clarke, the long-time British sf fan whose obituary from Ansible 137 is reproduced below, left a good deal of correspondence and the text of many fanzines on computer disks. For fan historians, researchers and Vince's friends, all the material that could be recovered is downloadable from this page in two zip files. Thanks to Bridget Wilkinson for salvaging the Amstrad PCW 3" disks.
- VINCE.ZIP (1360K) -- Amstrad PCW documents, sorted by disk of origin and converted to Rich Text Format.
- VINCEPC.ZIP (48K) -- all the documents from his 386 PC hard disk.
- Link: The Jet-Propelled Anteater by A. Vincent Clarke in Kim Huett's on-line fanwriting chrestomathy Ylem.
VINCENT CLARKE (1922-1998) died in the early hours of 29 Nov, from pneumonia following a long and frustrating illness against which he'd struggled hard -- `Fight, fight, fight!' he wrote to me -- with some small victories, like eventually regaining the ability to swallow, but too many defeats. Vince was one of Britain's best-loved fannish elders. He edited the legendary Science Fantasy News from 1948; famously shared the ultrafannish `Epicentre' flat at the heart of London fandom with Ken Bulmer (with whom he collaborated on a couple of 1952 sf novels); and, though unable to make the US trip, was the first winner of TAFF in 1954. As he himself wrote, `I was active fanning between 1947 and 1960, and during that time I did almost everything in the semi-pro and fan field that it was possible to do.' In 1960 he left fandom, returning in 1982 to record his bemused impressions of the changed fanzine and Eastercon scenes in Not Science Fantasy News. My copy of #3 came with a handwritten note on the back: `I think I've managed to insult everyone in this ish. What do I do next? -- Vin¢.' For `insult', read `gently disagree with'. The 1950s Vince had a reputation for being hot-headed and willing to feud; on his return he was still mischievous but always enormously kind, and did sterling work in introducing newcomers to fandom and the joys of fanzines from his own monumental collection. He slaved away at fannish bibliographies, co-edited the popular fanzine Pulp, and worked with Rob Hansen to nail down the facts of British fandom's tangled history. Intersection, the 1995 Glasgow Worldcon, rightly chose him as Fan Guest of Honour. Vince was a wise old fan and a good friend to many of us. He is very much missed. [Dave Langford]
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