Edythe Eyde

Fan
Name:	Edythe Eyde
Alias(es):	Tigrina (as fan), Lisa Ben (as publisher of Vice Versa)
Type:	Artist, poet, zine contributor, editor, lyricist
Fandoms:	Science fiction, weird fiction
Communities:
Other:	1921-2015
URL:
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Edythe Eyde, known as Tigrina in fannish circles, was an early female member of science fiction fandom. She wrote a letter to Voice of the Imagi-Nation as a college sophomore in 1941 and became a contributor for a short time before lapsing due to her study load. She later returned, and was also involved with a number of other fanzines, including Fanews and Shangri-L'Affaires.

Activity

Her interest in Satanism and the occult was an object of fun and argument in her early days in VOM, with several members writing in to describe her as a "silly girl" with no real understanding of Satanism. In 1941 she published Hymn to Satan, a fanzine containing music and lyrics for a potential LASFS Black Mass.

She took exception with VOM's inclusion of nude art, saying in one letter that, "I was glad to see that there were not so many of those horrid ((dressless)) pictures this time. I feel that I must, however, express my extreme disapproval of the damsel in this edition of your magazine. My, she is not even pretty! If all women appeared thusly, I think that they should be exterminated. Ugh, she is posilutely rePULsive! And the title of the picture makes it doubly so.... I can readily see how one might call the small picture on the cover of your magazine 'art', that is, if you like that sort of thing."

From 1945-1947 she served as club secretary for the LASFS. Her longtime friend Forrest J. Ackerman, who had begun corresponding with her after her letter to Voice of the Imagi-Nation, proposed marriage to her in a 1945 issue of Fanews, and she responded with a letter several weeks later expressing surprise and avoiding an outright yes or no.

In 1947, under the penname Lisa Ben, Eyde began publishing Vice Versa, the first known lesbian magazine in the US. Ackerman contributed as a columnist under the name Laurajean Ermayne.

Opinions

While I approve of Tigrina's return to the sacred pages, I sincerely hope that the two years of her absence have allowed the fetish-worship that had grown up around her to die out completely. As one of the contributors, the gal's ok; as a subject of conversation, she's as trite as religion or nudes.

Walt Liebscher in Voice of the Imagi-Nation Issue 37, 1944

Many of you held an antagonistic attitude toward me in bygone days. I can see how you came to the conclusion that I was a spoiled young school girl. Consider my position, however. There I was, for the first time away from the confines of homo [sic] life. What was more natural than that I should immediately take advantage of my new "freedom", and delve heart and soul (?) into the study of Black Magic, etc., and all the things that had been so strictly denied me? I was like the youth who, being denied the use of liquor at home, went to his first cocktail party, imbibed with great gusto, not discriminating in his choice of liquors, and who, as a result, became slightly confused. Today, I remain just as interested in the Black Arts and other subjects pertaining to the Left Hand Path, but not solely for the purpose of "gaining power and revenge". Many of you seemed to think that my interest in the Black.Arts and Fantasy and was a result of a desire for vengeance and power. This was not so. I have been interested in occult matters and fantasy ever since I can remember.

Tigrina, ibid.

Further Information

• They Were Always Here: Tigrina, by Angeline B. Adams
• Making Gay History episode 3: Edyth Eyde