The Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, formerly known as theJ. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature,[2] is "the largest publicly accessible collection ofscience fiction,fantasy,horror andutopian and dystopian literature in the world".[3] It is housed in Special Collections and Archives of the UCR Libraries at theUniversity of California, Riverside.[4] It consists of more than 300,000 items, includinghardcover andpaperback books, SFfanzines, film and visual material, andcomic books, includingmanga andanime, as well as a variety of archival materials.[5]
Dr. J. Lloyd Eaton | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1902-07-08)July 8, 1902 |
| Died | December 22, 1968(1968-12-22) (aged 66) Berkeley, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Medical doctor |
J. Lloyd Eaton was apulmonologist specializing in the treatment oftuberculosis. While still in high school he collected science fiction and fantasy pulp literature. By the 1940s he communicated with book dealers in London and New York to acquire more books, expanding to the detective and western genres at a time when science fiction was an obscure interest. Eaton had particular interest in stories offuture war orlost race from before the 1920s by authors such asJohn Polidori,Frank Aubrey, andEdgar Rice Burroughs.[6] Eaton was also the first president of theElves, Gnomes, and Little Men's Science Fiction, Chowder, and Marching Society, and served as the editor of the group'sserconfanzine,The Rhodomagnetic Digest.[7] When Eaton's family sought a home for his collection, science fiction was considered an inferior literary product—pleasant enough as a diversion, but unworthy of serious academic study. As even public libraries did not regularly acquire science fiction, there was no comprehensive collection available anywhere outside of private hands.
Dr. Eaton's collection, acquired by UCR's University Librarian Donald Wilson in 1969, consisted of about 7,500 hardback editions of science fiction, fantasy, and horror from the late nineteenth century to 1955.[8] The development of the collection continued under University Librarian Eleanor Montague, who created the position of Eaton Curator, hiring for the positionGeorge Slusser, a Harvard-trained literary scholar. When Hal W. Hall catalogued the growing Eaton Collection in 1975 for his then-upcomingAnatomy of Wonder bibliography, he determined the collection consisted of "over 8,500 volumes, and is particularly rich in early and scarce items published from 1870 to 1930, along with some important eighteenth-century titles."[9]
During Slusser's 25-year curatorship, the Eaton collection grew to more than 100,000 volumes, ranging from the 1517 edition ofThomas More'sUtopia[10] to the most recently published titles. The collection includes first editions ofBram Stoker'sDracula,H. G. Wells'sThe War of the Worlds andThe Time Machine,Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein,Fantastic Four #1, andAction Comics #1.[11][12] Foreign works of science fiction have been added systematically, including works in Chinese, Czech, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish.[13] The collection also includes journals, comic books, and fanzines, primarily acquired as donations from collectorsTerry Carr,Bruce Pelz,Fred Patten, and Rick Sneary.[14] Some of the extensive texts maintained by the collection were used in the 1970s by Arno Press for reprints ofSupernatural and Occult Fiction andLost Race and Adult Fantasy Fiction.[15]
In recent years, films, videos, DVDs, scripts and storyboards from TV series includingAlien Nation andThe X-Files, and other illustrated narratives have been added, most of which were donated. The archival holdings comprise the papers of leading science fiction and fantasy authors, includingGregory Benford,David Brin,F. M. Busby,Michael Cassutt,Robert L. Forward,Anne McCaffrey,William Rotsler,James White, andColin Wilson.[12] From 1986 to 1991, one of Slusser's students, authorDaryl F. Mallett was instrumental in reaching out to authors and fans and asking if they would donate their archives, as well as starting a duplicate-asset trading program with the University of Michigan, which provided the Eaton Collection with its massive comic book collection.
From 1988 to 1990, the Collection published three issues ofJ. Lloyd Eaton Collection Newsletter "designed to alert scholars of new acquisitions and happenings in the Eaton Collection".[16][17]
In 2014, George Slusser was asked how he assembled the world's largest SF collection: "By silence, exile and cunning", he replied. "And I did have allies in the library, who found funds to buy books, even when academics sought to block purchases. Librarians love books, and SF had a lot of them, with interesting covers and formats."[18]
As part of its scholarly mission, the Eaton Collection hosts the Eaton Science Fiction Conference, which is biennial in odd-number years from 2009.[19] It was inaugurated in 1979[19] as the J. Lloyd Eaton Science Conference, annual for many years, including some at other sites. As of 2013, some 21 conferences have been held at UC Riverside, while others have taken place at international venues, co-sponsored by UCR and various host institutions: London Polytechnic University, 1984; theSorbonne Nouvelle, 1986;University of Leeds, 1989;Texas A&M University, 1990; the Maison d'Ailleurs, Yverdon-les-bains, and the Université de Neuchâtel, 1991;Imperial College,London, 1995; theChinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, and theScience Fiction Museum inSeattle in 2005. Conference attendees have included writers such asBrian Aldiss,Ray Bradbury,David Brin,Samuel R. Delany,Larry Niven,Kim Stanley Robinson,Robert Silverberg,Theodore Sturgeon andRoger Zelazny as well as well-known critics of the genre and scientists likeHarold Bloom,Leslie Fiedler,Harry Levin,Marvin Minsky andRobert Scholes.[12] The Conference has produced more than twenty volumes of critical essays,[20] published by various university presses.
After a three-year gap, the conference resumed at UCR with the theme "Chronicling Mars", May 16–18, 2008. The 2009 conference, "Extraordinary Voyages: Jules Verne and Beyond" was held April 30 – May 3, 2009. The 2011 conference on "Global Science Fiction" was held February 11–13, 2011 at Riverside's historicMission Inn Hotel & Spa.[21] The most recent conference was held April 11–14, 2013, on the subject "Science Fiction Media".[22]
The now biennial conference sponsors the J. Lloyd Eaton Memorial Award. From 1979 to 2001 it recognized the "best critical book of each year", although it was not precisely annual.[23] From 2008 it is a lifetime achievement award, in full the J. Lloyd Eaton Lifetime Achievement Award in Science Fiction, recognizing "contributions of lasting significance to the field". The four recipients to 2011 wereRay Bradbury,Frederik Pohl,Samuel R. Delany, andHarlan Ellison.[24]Ursula K. Le Guin is the Eaton Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2012.[22] BothRay Harryhausen andStan Lee have been named for 2013 "to honor both science fiction film culture and science fiction comic book culture".[24]
