escritoireazul: (Default)
escritoireazul ([personal profile] escritoireazul) wrote2015-08-28 09:06 pm

Fandom: Suzette Haden Elgin Papers

Copying this from [personal profile] ithiliana (original here):

Robin Wayne Bailey is making an appeal on Facebook to save a vast archive of material that belonged to the late Suzette Haden Elgin.

From his post:

An antique dealer in Arkansas who purchases abandoned storage lockers for his business recently acquired one that contained all the papers, books and original artwork of Suzette Haden Elgin.

Suzette was much loved throughout Midwest and southern fandom and seen at many conventions during the eighties and nineties. A linguist, she retired from the University of San Diego and resettled in the Ozarks. She founded the Science Fiction Poetry Society and the Ozarks Center for Science Fiction. For a list of her many books, check Wikipedia (I’m writing this on an iPhone). The antique dealer contacted LOCUS, who then contacted me. I verified with Suzette’s husband that he had no room for what reportedly are “hundreds” of boxes. If any fan group is interested in rescuing any of this material, I’ll pass along the antique dealer’s contact info. I hope someone can save it. Please share this across all fannish channels.

You can reach Bailey with a Facebook message.

I'm notifying all the archivists I know who work with sff collections, both on Facebook and private email, but I wanted to post here, and encourage people to circulate as widely as possible.

If you're not on Facebook, you can see the information at File 770.



Suzette was amazing. As a linguist and SFF writer, but also as a person. I did not know her well (I met her one year at Wiscon, and had a few exchanges with her thanks to livejournal about language and how to handle slowly watching a parent die), and still, she was unbelievable and kind to me. I hope a group can rescue this material. I wish I had the funds to do so myself, and then donate it somewhere.