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Esperanto and Science Fiction. Part One

© David Poulson

I will begin this discussion of Science Fiction and Esperanto with two significant quotations.

1 "I first encountered Esperanto in 1930 in an issue of Science Wonder Stories in a story by one of the pioneering 'stf' (Scientifiction) authors of the Gernsback era, Francis Flagg. The Esperanto-introducing story was, I believe, 'An Adventure in Time,' and I seem to recall that there were several words identified as 'the language of the future,' Esperanto. Frankly, I thought that the author made them up, like H. P. Lovecraft with his Necronomicon, so realistic that Weird Tales readers began asking for it at libraries."

2. "Since I first encountered Esperanto through the medium of science fiction, it seems reasonable to devote a few words to the relationship between the two - especially since, I suspect, many readers of this work will also be fans of the literature of the future."

The first quotation comes from, "Esperanto the Universalanguage," part of the "Ackermuseum" website, http://www.best.com/~4forry/esper.htm and was written by Forrest J. Ackerman. I doubt whether science fiction has had or ever will have a more dedicated fan than Mr Ackerman, editor during the 1950's and 60's of the magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, who has previously been introduced to readers of these articles in connection with Esperanto and the Cinema. (Francis Flagg, by the way, was the pseudonym of George Henry Weiss (1898-1946) who wrote for Amazing Stories and Weird Tales in the late 1920's and 1930's. Some of his later science fiction stories were written in collaboration with Forrest J. Ackerman, and his only novel, The Night People, was published posthumously in 1947.)

The second quotation is the opening paragraph of Appendix 2 of The Esperanto Book by Don Harlow, whose regular contributions to the Esperanto Topic discussions are as welcome as they are well-informed. Don has constructed one of the very best Esperanto sites on the World Wide Web and it is high time to make his "Esperanto Access" one of the Esperanto Topic's most highly recommended links. You will find the rest of "Appendix 2" at http://www.webcom.com/~donh/Esperanto/ap...
but I should also mention that the rest of this site is so rich in resources, and such a useful guide to other people's web pages, that it is the only Esperanto link that I have felt it necessary to include in my own, private, home page (which is mostly a collection of educational resources and which has little relevance to readers of the Esperanto topic).