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Futurian Press Futurian Press i(A37533 works by) (Organisation) assertion
Born: Established: ca. 1950 Coogee, Randwick area, Sydney Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales, ;
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BiographyHistory

Futurian Press was a small independent publisher founded by Vol Molesworth as a means by which he and several associates from the Futurian Society of Sydney could publish limited editions and select fantasy. Among those closely involved with the new press were fellow University of Sydney students, Nick Solntseff and Michael McGuiness, along with Graham Stone. The press began operations in September 1950 after Molesworth purchased a new Adna printing press and registered Futurian Press as a business. Its first publication was the limited edition 22-page booklet Checklist of Australian Fantasy (to 1937), compiled by S. L. Larnach. Released in November 1950, only 100 signed copies were made available. The Checklist was followed in 1951 by the science fiction journal Woomera. One issue of Woomera had been independently published by Nick Sointseff in 1950, albeit in a more amateur format (qq.v.).

The first Futurian Press issue of Woomera ,under the editorship of Solntseff, became available in February 1951. By the following year the Coogee-based press (operating out of Moleworth's residence at 160 Beach Street) was also publishing poetry and short stories. Among the first of these were Molesworth's novella Blinded They Fly (1951), a short story by Graham Stone (Zero Equals Nothing, 1951). Molesworth's Let There Be Monsters!, which was also published the following year had been serialised in Woomera in over it's first four issues (qq.v.)

Among the small volumes of poetry published in 1951 were The Lincoln Anthology 1951 (edited by Richard Preston and A. L. McLeod, Lex Banning's Everyman His Own Hamlet (1951), and John Hilbury's Nine Poems (qq.v.). In 1957 Molesworth organised the publication of Futurian Press's first commercially-orientated publication - a sports book focusing on the track and field events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Graham Stone established the Australian Science Fiction Society (ASFS) around the same time that Futurian Press was founded. Although Moleswoth, Solntseff, McGuiness and Stone had long been active members of the Futurian Society for many years, it was accorded little mention in Woomera. The ASFS on the other hand was given a full page promotion in all four issues (February 1951 onwards).

Last amended 15 May 2013 11:15:20
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