The great John Campbell
story Who Goes There has been made in 1954 as the thing from another world and then
The Thing and then the remake of The Thing and then
Alien, Aliens, Alien 3,
Alien vs. Predator. It's all Who Goes There. We need new themes
and we need brilliant minds to be stimulated by the old brilliant minds
and then come up with new ideas because science fiction
points the future to the future direction
for scientists. Over the last thirty years
Ed Marsh has accumulated what has become one of the most significant science
fiction collections in the world.
He is donating a large portion of the collection to San Diego State
University's Love
Library. This collection is very relevant to our curriculum and to our
research interests.
We have a history of science fiction
in our teaching and in some of the authors who have graduated from
San Diego State.
For instance, Greg Bear, J. Michael Straczynski.
We have a number of people who are very famous science fiction authors.
But this collection is really a defining collection for research at San Diego State.
The central figure the collection is science fiction master L. Ron Hubbard.
I started collecting him fiercely, and the more I found out about him
the more I began learning about others
associated with him. I found out that he was really part of a
science fiction society of writers. All the chance that
started writing, well not in these, but in later editions of
the sci-fi pulps, astounding science fiction,
the unknown and so on.
He helped along
Robert Heinlein in writing. And that
Hubbard himself was helped along by John Campbell the senior editor
at Street & Smith. So it just started growing out.
Marsh's collection includes many signed first editions
of authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury,
Ernest Hemingway and Albert Einstein. It also includes press clippings,
notes and autographs. As a collector I adore the inscriptions and that's where
the author has made a presentation of
this particular book or has been asked to sign it
for a fan or a relative or a friend or an associate.
And some of them really tell tales. There's one,
Death's Deputy, by Hubbard
were he says
"To a great sailor,
a gentleman, an extremely tolerant landlord"
Washington DC 1949
and then he signed it. I mean that tells you something doesn't it.
It really is a collection
where people can look at first additions. They can compare those additions to the
changes that were made in later editions
they can study manuscripts related to the authors, to those additions,
they can see the social and political events that were influencing the
authors at the time
and over the evolution of their different works. There's a manuscript by
Robert Heinlein that he typed himself he drafted himself
and he added his own hand written notes and
the title of this is Discovery of the Future
and it's a very famous speech. It's the most famous speech
by Heinlein certainly and maybe in the entire genre.
There's so much that could be called that wow piece.
There is a Jules Verne work
that is one of two known in
the world. There's a George Orwell
first edition signed of Animal Farm.
The collection will eventually be displayed in the Edward Marsh Golden Age
of Science Fiction room
in Love Library. This is a collection
that will have worldwide renown,
that will define not only the research collections of San Diego State
but will be a significant collection in California and in the country.