David Grinnell

Donald Allen Wollheim was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms. A founding member of the Futurians, he was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the 20th-century United States. Ursula K. Le Guin called Wollheim "the tough, reliable editor of Ace Books, in the Late Pulpalignean Era, 1966 and '67", which is when he published her first two novels in Ace Double editions. The 1979 first edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls Wollheim "one of the first and most vociferous SF fans." He published numerous fanzines and co-edited the early Fanciful Tales of Time and Space. His importance to early fandom is chronicled in the 1974 book The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz and in the 1977 book The Futurians by Damon Knight. Wollheim organized an event later considered the first American science fiction convention, when a group from New York met with a group from Philadelphia on October 22, 1936, in Philadelphia. The modern Philcon convention claims descent from this event. Out of this meeting, plans were formed for regional and national meetings, including the first-ever Worldcon.