The First Side - The True Side

Meta
Title:	The First Side - The True Side
Creator:	Donald A. Wollheim
Date(s):	printed November/December 1939 in Science Fiction Collector
Medium:	Print
Fandom:
Topic:	The Great Exclusion Act
External Links:	Hosted online in the University of Iowa's Hevelin Collection
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The First Side - The True Side was Donald A. Wollheim's first-person account of events that took place at the first-ever Worldcon in 1939. Wollheim and five other members of the Futurians were barred from entry into the convention hall by three committee members including Sam Moskowitz. (See The Great Exclusion Act.) In a November-December issue of Science Fiction Collector, Wollheim rebutted a number of claims made by Moskowitz in his essay There ARE Other Sides. According to Joseph Gilbert, the article was printed in August, but other sources say that Moskowitz waited "three months and more" to address the matter, and an exchange in Le Zombie says that New Fandom advertised the article on November 5th.

The November-December issue, which also contained Morojo's rebuttal Morojo vs Moskowitz, began with a disclaimer:

We might remark here that it is the policy of the COLLECTOR to print the opinions of any fan on any subject, save religion and politics. The COLLECTOR bars no one from its pages. We might also state in printing any article, or column, we do not necessarily take the viewpoints of the article. The viewpoints of the authors are their own, and not of the COLLECTOR.

Science Fiction Collector, volume 5 issue 4, page 3 (November-December 1939)

Excerpts

I am sure that no one wants time to be wasted on this sort of battledore and shuttlecock, such as happened between myself and Sam Moskowitz in the SCIENCE FICTION FAN two years ago; but there are some things... that must be clarified... before those fans who take their fan activity seriously can rest. I have said my opinion on the main aspects of the Exclusion Act to many fans; for the first time now publicly, Sam Moskowitz has ventured forth to defend his actions and those of New Fandom. It now becomes necessary for me to defend myself...

Wollheim in the Collector, volume 5 issue 4, page 10

Wollheim says that in Moskowitz's eyes, anyone using the term "undemocratic" should be considered a Communist.

Mr. Moskowitz, of course, is not in the least undemocratic when he sets out to save fandom from itself. That is to save fandom from any possibility of making a majority decision not to his liking.... Fandom, it would seem, having been saved from the "tyranny of Wollheim and communism" (exactly when this strange regime took place would be interesting to find out), must be saved again. It is interesting to note that Jack Speer, no Communist, points out that Moskowitz had openly announced that New Fandom would be undemocratically controlled up to and including the Convention....

Wollheim then says that Moskowitz accused him of offering Olon Wiggins the FAPA presidency in exchange for banning Moskowitz from Wiggins' zine The Science Fiction Fan. According to Wollheim, The Science Fiction Fan had previously published an article by Moskowitz containing "false slanders" against him. Wollheim had written an angry letter to Wiggins at that time, resigning from the SFF staff. Wiggins wrote back to say that he'd kicked Moskowitz out of his own accord and "begged" Wollheim to reconsider his resignation. "The question of the FAPA Presidency did not come up until later and I offered it to Wiggins only because of his distance from the scene of conflict."

Moskowitz in his second article gives what he considers to be an account of the reasons for the "non admittance" of myself and five others.... He attempts to prove that we expelled ourselves, that we did not wish to be allowed in in the first place.... The gall of the man is inconceivable! Raking up the old subject of the Newark Convention, Moskowitz twists things a little more than before. He is correct in saying there were persons who wanted that convention to fail. It's announced, publicized purpose was to reform the ISA and to make a new Convention Committee. Both these purposes were directed solely out of the selfish desires of William Sykora. They were opposed by the former members of the ISA who objected to his falsifications on the topic, and opposed likewise by the legitimate original Convention Committee....

Wollheim next said that Moskowitz had misrepresented a pamphlet titled "Rejected" which was apparently circulated by the Futurians at the very end of Worldcon 1939. He claimed that one "choice bit of vicious writing" in the pamphlet was actually a reprinted quote from Moskowitz himself "that he may have mistaken for mine."

He then says that the Michelists gained the floor in the afternoon and nearly precipitated a riot. This is the rankest nonsense. In point of fact, the arguments against the Sykora-proposals were lead primarily by David A. Kyle, non-michelist, non-Communist, non-Futurian. Neither Michel, Pohl, nor myself took the floor that afternoon.

Wollheim's version is corroborated by Jack Speer's account of events in his Fancyclopedia 1 & 2, although Speer was working from interviews and wasn't present himself. David Kyle, however, would later identify himself as a Futurian.

Wollheim further accused Will Sykora of trying to "control the Convention or else destroy it". He said that his own Convention Committee had decided in the autumn of 1938 to avoid any statements on Sykora's plans because they didn't want Worldcon ("which was after all, my brain-child)" to fail. "...After it had become evident that Sykora would accept no compromise, no arbitration, no half-measures, after he had abandoned his own Newark Committee, after he had destroyed the GNYSFL which had assumed Convention control work, after he had announced New Fandom, my group and committee withdrew from the field."

The one fact which overbears everything else, Moskowitz has not given. That is that Will Sykora let the truth out of the bag when he arrived at the hall. He did not arrive till noon. When he did, both Doc Lowndes and myself had brief conversations with him in the building hall. He told each of us the same story (and told others too): that the decision to bar us from the Convention was made weeks before by the New Fandom Council in meeting. Thus it was not in his power, nor in that of Moskowitz or Taurasi, to reverse that decision.... Thus all Moskowitz's fine blather about pamphlets and promises is so much hokum. The decision to exclude us was made by New Fandom weeks before the Convention day.... At the time this decision to undemocratically violate their advertisements and notices was being made, the Futurian Society was making overtures to the QSFL to bury the hatchet and dissolve fan feuds....

These details of Wollheim's version are disputed by Jack Speer's account, which says that New Fandom had been considering banning them ahead of time, but no firm decision had been reached.

When Moskowitz puts words in my mouth to the effect that we had arrived brought nothing with us [sic], he lies. Michel and Pohl who had arrived later brought with them the five mimeographed pamplets which were lost and stolen. These pamphlets said nothing about the Convention, New Fandom, the QSFL. The yellow pamphlets were printed by David A. Kyle, and wedid not see them until the morning of the Convention. Nor did we sponsor them, plan them, or expect them. When Michel gave Kuslan a copy of one of them, he had only just read it for the first time himself. He had received it from Dale Hart whom he met in the hall entrance....

Wollheim says that Michel handed Kyle's yellow pamphlet over to a friend out of "purely innocent" motivations as he found it "alarming". He says that contrary to Moskowitz's claims, his group did not attempt to force their way in, that they never came into contact with the police, and that they had later asked an officer assigned to the street whether the police were called, to which the officer responded that he hadn't heard anything about it. Since Moskowitz claimed he had turned their booklets over to the police, Michel and Wollheim asked both police headquarters and the local precinct whether that was true, and they had found no record of it. Wollheim adds that he wrote to ask Moskowitz for the officer's badge number and precinct, and received no response.

On the following day, Moskowitz reported in his version of events, a telegram was intercepted that read, "Please Announce Futurian Meeting Tomorrow    Regards to the Tyrannous Trio. - The Exiles." Wollheim asks who was responsible for forging David Kyle's name on the receipt and then proceeding to withhold the message from Kyle.

...The impossibility of the situation, the clear truth as presented here, should surely convince all fair-minded fans that New Fandom's self-appointed leaders are really nothing more than a group of affirmed fabricators and habitual trouble-makers.