Mervyn Binns

Helena and Merv Binns, Continuum convention, 2009 (photo by Cat Sparks)

Fan
Name:	Mervyn ('Merv') Binns
Alias(es):
Type:	fan writer, fan club founder, zine publisher, convention organiser
Fandoms:	science fiction
Communities:	Melbourne Science Fiction Club, Aussiecon, Space Age Books
Other:
URL:
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Australian SF News no. 71, October 1996

Merv Binns Mail Order catalog Nov 1989

Merv Binns with Melbourne Science Fiction Club duplicator in the 1950s, providing the hand-on work to enable editors to publish their AFPA fanzines.

Cover of "Proud and Lonely" (2024) by Leigh Edmonds, featuring a photo of Merv.

Mervyn ('Merv') Binns (8 July 1934 - 7 April 2020) was a long-time, prominent science fiction fan and a well-known bookshop owner in Melbourne, Australia.

From his involvement with the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, Space Age Books, and the Aussiecon conventions, Merv became one of Australia's most significant science fiction activists over the course of some decades.

In 1998, he married long-time MSFC member Helena Roberts, and they were together until his death in 2020.

Melbourne Science Fiction Club

Merv later recalled his lifelong interest in science fiction and how this led him to join the Melbourne Science Fiction Group (later renamed the Melbourne Science Fiction Club) at the age of seventeen:

In my first job, employed by booksellers McGills Newsagency, I had actually discovered the name of the literature that had commandeered my imagination. It was SCIENCE FICTION! I was reading magazines such as Astounding which I had never seen before and discovering a whole a new world. Then one day one of my customers, Bob McCubbin, came into McGill’s and asked me if I would like to meet some other SF readers who were forming a club. Wow! To actually talk to people who also appreciated what I was reading was an irresistible idea, which despite my shy and introverted attitude I could not resist... In fact it was to be an event that would influence me profoundly for the rest of my life. I did not have any friends and my whole social life revolved around going to the movies, or visiting relatives with my parents, so meeting other people who shared my interests was great and many of the people I met then have remained my friends ever since.

Co-founder of the group, Race Mathews, confirmed that Merv was one of its foundation members:

The five of us - Bob McCubbin, Mervyn Binns, Dick Jenssen, Lee Harding and myself - made up the core of the Melbourne Science Fiction Group. The inaugural meeting of the MSFG took place in the living room of my home in Hampton on 9 May 1952.

Science fiction historian Dr. Leigh Edmonds testified to Merv's activism in the early years of the MSCF:

I must have met Merv for the first time towards the end of 1965 or early 1966 when I turned up to a meeting of the Melbourne SF Club. Merv put slips of paper advertising the Melbourne SF Club into every book and magazine he sold through McGills and I found out about the club because of one of those pieces of paper not long after I arrived in Melbourne at the beginning of December. I knew almost nobody in Melbourne and knew that I had to get to know some people so, when I found this slip of paper it attracted my attention and I resolved to join up.

He also acknowledged Merv's tireless fan activism:

Without Merv there would have been no Melbourne SF Club. He carried it on his back with the help of a few helpers and the support of Paul who became his faithful off-sider. I have memories of spending a couple of days over one weekend helping to paint the clubrooms (perhaps in preparation for some forthcoming event) and on another occasion being present and perhaps helping after the hydraulic lift was closed and a corridor had to be built connecting the stairs up from the ground floor and the stairs up to the next level where the club was. I must have been of some help to Merv on occasions but overall I think Merv was more help to me by keeping the club going, letting me use the duplicator there and being a constant presence in the Australian sf community.

There are three or four people I owe my presence in fandom to, and the pleasure which I have gained from it. Merv is the first of those. In many ways an unremarkable person in comparison to others, but he had stamina and perseverance in a way that no other person I’ve known had. He had set his path in life from an early age and he stayed with it through the good times and the bad. He sometimes complained that he had given up a lot for science fiction and fandom but I hope that, in the end, he felt that he had also been repaid for his endurance and fortitude. I hope that one of the things the history I’m writing will show is that Merv was a, if not the, central figure in our history.

Merv's activities were many and varied, as Bob McCubbin acknowledged in 1953:

The (MSCF) Library consists of novels, pocket books and magazines, donated by Melbourne, country & interstate fans, to whom we again give many thanks. Under the able control of Mervyn Binns, the Library is going very smoothly... For many of the Group, the major interest is publishing. Merv Binns, Dick Jenssen, Race Mathews, Lee Harding and Ian Crozier formed Amateur Fantasy Publications of Australia (hereinafter referred to as AFPA), and by pooling resources, purchased a duplicator and supplies. One of AFPA’s first good deeds was to relieve me of my News-letter ... It was completely remodeled, reconstituted and published by Ian Crozier under the title of ETHERLINE. It is now published fortnightly at 6d per copy.

In 1999, Bruce Gillespie acknowledged Merv's long-standing activism:

Merv Binns was a founder member of the Melbourne SF Club, and is the main reason why it continued through hard times in the late fifties and early sixties. The Club became a focal point for fabulous fanac during the late sixties, as the Australian fannish renaissacne got under way, Australian Science Fiction Review put us on the world map, and conventions became bigger and sometimes better. The Club’s successful venue was 19 Somerset Place, Melbourne, in a lane behind McGill’s Newsagency, of which Merv was the manager. In 1971, Merv began Space Age Books in Swanston Street, and also kept the Club alive until it went to its present quarters in Brunswick.

Space Age Books

Space Age Books in 1976

Space Age Books

After leaving McGills, Merv founded Space Age Books in 1971, and it became a hub of activity for the MSFC and other multifandom activities. Authors (including international SF authors) often visited the shop, such as David Gerrold in 1985. Many local fans, including John Edwards Davies, testify how Space Age Books was important in linking them up with local fan communities.

Bruce Gillespie recalls the relatively sudden downturn of Space Age Books in 1985 and speculates as to its demise:

In 1971, Merv and friends had turned a disaster — being forced to leave Somerset Place — into a triumph, but in 1985 a much more disastrous disaster struck. In August, Space Age Books was one of the places where everybody met, up and until after Aussiecon 2, the second world convention to be held in Melbourne. Within a few months, shop trade was way down, and Merv faced bankruptcy by the end of the year. The immediate reason for this was a great change in the direction of passing foot traffic along Swanston Street. Everybody who had walked past Space Age to Flinders Street station was suddenly walking to the new Melbourne Central station for the City Circle. Also important was the opening of a superficially similar store nearby in Swanston Street. It attracted a new, younger clientele, as much interested in media memorabilia as books.

In November 1985, it was announced in Ethel #6 that the MSFC would be moving its library out of Space Age Books because:

Merv Binns has announced his intention to close Space Age Books by Christmas".

Two months later, Phil Pribaz eulogised the shop:

For those who don't already know, Space Age books has closed down for good. Many of us can remember first getting into Science Fiction and buying our books from this wonderful shop, that one could spend hours in. I guess I could say this on behalf of many fans that Space Age books will be dearly missed.

Aussiecon

Merv later wrote about the link between Space Age Books and the bid for Aussiecon, Australia's first World Science Fiction Convention in 1975:

When I opened SPACE AGE BOOKS with Lee Harding’s and Paul Stevens’ help, the World Con bid was also in full sway. The two things grew together and Space Age was able to help publicise the bid and all the cons that would be held in Melbourne.

Ongoing Science Fiction Activism

Merv published a number of fanzines and mail order catalogues, and was GoH at varied conventions. He and his wife Helena were made Honorary Life Members of Continuum conventions and MSFC. They attended various conventions and other local SF events as circumstance permitted, although they were both beset with health issues in later years. They also continued to attend dinners at a local hotel with friends.

Merv suffered from heart issues towards the end, and he died during the first year of COVID (lockdowns did not permit a funeral).

Legacy

In memory of Merv and Helena Binns, and to honour their seeding grants, Continuum Conventions runs a community grants fund that offers free memberships to deserving fans.

Leigh Edmonds eulogised Merv:

He was the recipient of many awards and prizes for his activities and achievements during his long career. He remained a well-remembered and respected member of the science fiction community around Australia and the world up to the time of his death.