Genre Science fiction Location(s) New York City Inaugurated July 2–4, 1939 | Venue Caravan Hall Country United States Attendance 200 | |
The First World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) was held in the Caravan Hall in New York from July 2 to July 4, 1939, in conjunction with the New York World's Fair, which was themed as "The World of Tomorrow". The convention was later named "Nycon I" by Forrest J Ackerman. The event had 200 participants.
Participants
The Guest of Honor at the first Worldcon was Frank R. Paul and the event was chaired by Sam Moskowitz. Along with Moskowitz, other organizers were James V. Taurasi and Will Sykora. Notable people attending included John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Ray Bradbury, Hannes Bok, Milton A. Rothman, John D. Clark, Jack Williamson, and Harry Harrison.
In addition to its groundbreaking role as the first of its kind, the convention was noteworthy for the exclusion of a number of politicized Futurians by convention chair Sam Moskowitz; those excluded were Donald A. Wollheim, Frederick Pohl, John Michel, Robert A. W. Lowndes, and Jack Gillespie, an event known to fannish historians as "The Great Exclusion Act."
According to Pohl, in his autobiography The Way the Future Was, the Futurians held their own counter-convention which was attended by several who went to the regular convention. He also downplayed the aspect that politics played, himself believing that it was a personality conflict between the convention organizers and the Futurians and said "We pretty nearly had it coming," continuing with "What we Futurians made very clear to the rest of New York fandom was that we thought we were better than they were. For some reason that annoyed them."
Ackerman and his girlfriend and fellow fanzine editor Myrtle R. Douglas ("Morojo") attended the convention in costumes designed and sewn by Douglas: this is considered a forerunner to modern fan costuming).