Charles Hornig

Charles Hornig (May 25, 1916 - October 11, 1999) was one of the earliest contributors to the science fiction genre. He not only created one of the very first fanzines in 1933, as a teenager, he became the managing editor for Wonder Stories magazine from November, 1933 to April, 1936.

Charles D. Hornig was the third child born to Gertrude Lesser and Charles Edward Hornig. He had two sisters, Gladys and Dorothy, 7 and 5 years older than him. Charles was born at home in Jersey City on May 25, 1916 and was named Charles Derwin Hornig, after his father and a woman, Mrs. Derwin, who had been a friend and helper to Gertrude. Charles was a very frail infant and young child and did not start school until he was 7 years old. He believes his frailty stemmed largely from malnutrition due to poverty.

In an interview with Dr. Jeffrey M. Elliot, Charles tells the story of his sickly childhood. He also talks about moving around a lot when they were unable to pay the rent. He mentions as well the way his eldest sister mistreated him. He goes on to tell the story of how he was able to buy himself “goodies” with pennies earned by selling magazines and newspapers door to door and on street corners. He thought the most wonderful thing that happened to him was the discovery of Science Fiction when he was 14 years old in 1930. It was the “glaring” cover of an Amazing Stories that got him hooked. On the September 1930 cover was a picture of a New York skyscraper being torn from its roots in a sea of flames. Every quarter he could earn doing odd jobs was spent buying as many issues of Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, Astounding Stories and Weird Tales as he could afford.

There were a few other young fans of Science Fiction who made contact with each other via the professional magazines that published the names and addresses of those that wrote to the magazines such as The Time Traveller and Fantasy Magazine. Some of these fans such as Julius Schwartz, Mort Weisinger, Connie Rupert, and Milton Kaletsky became friends with Charles. Charles had the idea that he would like to publish his own science fiction fan magazine and was encouraged by these friends. He was pleasantly surprised when H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth and other writers agreed to send him some manuscripts that had been rejected by the paying magazines. So he convinced Connie Rupert to hand set and print 250 copies, 12 pages each of the first issue of The Fantasy Fan. This was when he was 17 years old. He published The Fantasy Fan from 1933 - 1935. He sent these to many science fiction fans including editors and publishers of magazines, one of whom was Hugo Gernsback who offered him a job as managing editor of Wonder Stories.

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