Tesseract

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Tesseract

Tesseract was a science fiction fanzine published by C. Hamilton Bloomer in San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. and later edited by Raymond Van Houten.

Tesseract was the official publication for the Science Fiction Advancement Association, created by C. Hamilton Bloomer in the 1930s. Early members were Bloomer, Claire P. Beck (editor of The Science Fiction Critic), Roy Test, James Blish (editor of The Planeteer), Raymond Van Houten (later editor of Fantasy-Times), William H. Miller Jr. (Fantasy Fiction Pictorial), Nils Helmer Frome, Willis Conover (Science-Fantasy Correspondent), Robert Madle (editor of Fantascience Digest), and H. P. Lovecraft. Bloomer produced early issues of Tesseract using an office duplicating machine called the multigraph which he later sold to Nils Frome who would use it to produce Supramundane Stories. Bloomer acquired a mimeograph machine and began producing new issues of Tesseract in November of 1936. The April 1937 issue was dedicated to H. P. Lovecraft, and included the first publication of his revision of "The Crawling Chaos" with Winifred V. Jackson (The United Co-Operative).

C. Hamilton Bloomer was the editor up until the Vol 2 No. 5 issue of May 1937. By Vol 3 No. 1, released in October 1937, Bloomer was busy with NAPA (National Amateur Press Association) for which he went on to produce at least four issues of his amateur magazine The Bloodstone. He appointed Roy Squires as his successor at SFAA, and Tesseract was then edited by Raymond Van Houten and was retitled New Tesseract. The last issue was published in March 1938.

Featured in Tesseract were articles such as "Story Writing Hints" by Clark Ashton Smith, "All About Weinbaum" by Robert Bahr, "Degeneration: A Note on Stanton A. Coblentz" by Peter Duncan (Stanton Coblentz was a writer and publisher of Wings), and poetry such as "Atlantis" by Clark Ashton Smith.

Tesseract is also notable for the publication by a 15-year-old James Blish of an article which he attributed to Nils Frome that Frome did not write, which resulted in some controversy and rebuttal in the pages of Frome's fanzine Supramundane Stories.

Other contributors included Forrest J Ackerman (Imagination!), Robert Bloch, Miles J. Breuer, M.D., Willis Conover, Jr., J. Harvey Haggard, Russell A. Leadabrand, William H. Miller Jr. (Fantasy Fiction Pictorial), Edward E. Smith, Louis C. Smith (Tellus, Unknown Index), and Roy A. Squires.

Raymond Van Hounten would go on to win the first Hugo Award for Best Fanzine for the publication Fantasy-Times, co-published with James Taurasi.

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