Thanks to a grant from the Don Ford Fund, administered by Roger Sims, we are delighted to announce that Jack F Speer (a k a John A. Bristol, juffus and the Hily Magnified Woggle Bug) was the FanHistoriCon speaker.

In 1939, Speer wrote fandom’s first history, Up to Now, spelling out his theory of Numbered Fandoms, which lasted up till the "Phony Seventh" in the 1950s, and is still used by many of today’s fanhistorians to describe early fandom. In 1944, he codified fandom’s jargon and institutions in the seminal Fancyclopedia, much of which is still in use today.

Other Speer innovations include the quasi-quote mark and the interlineation. Where would fanzines be without linos? He also invented FooFoo, the ghod of mimeography, the fearsome foe of Ghu.

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