Sam Moskowitz

Born in 1920 and active from a young age in science fiction fandom, Sam Moskowitz became one of the field's best-known historians, editors, and organizers. He was deeply involved in early fan communities and later turned that firsthand experience into books and reference works about science fiction's development.

He is especially remembered for chronicling fandom and the genre's early magazine era, and for editing anthologies that helped later readers rediscover older science fiction stories. His writing is often valued not just for research, but for the way it preserves the excitement and arguments of formative years in the genre.

Moskowitz died in 1997. For readers interested in how science fiction grew from pulp magazines and fan networks into a major literary culture, his work offers both history and an insider's perspective.