Seeing Milt Rothman again after a time spent out of his company helps remind you of the varied interests of this modern day man of letters. In a recent visit he surprised his guest by commenting on how well the piano lessons have been going recently. After remarking that his music seems to be consuming more of his time, Milt went on to say that he is currently reading a lot of mysteries, as he knows too much science to enjoy a great deal of current science fiction.
This level of activity seems to characterize Milt's entire life to date. At age 16, Milt co-founded (together with Jack Baltadonis and Bob Madle) the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, which just celebrated its 60th year of existence in October of 1995. In 1936, Milt chaired the first science fiction convention, the first Philcon, which was held in the living room of his father's house in Philadelphia. For the occasion Milt invited his friend, Donald A. Wollheim, to come down from New York with a number of other New York fans, including Frederik Pohl (the secretary of the first Philcon) and David Kyle.
He followed these historic firsts by chairing the two Philadelphia Worldcons, those held in 1947 and 1953. At the latter of these, the first Hugo Awards were presented.
In addition to his activities as an organizer of SF fandom, Milt was the long time publisher of the popular fanzine, Miltie's Mag, which ran from 1939-1945. He than changed its name to Plenum and continued publishing until 1950.
As a SF writer, Milt wrote two stories which were published in Astounding in 1939. He followed this early success with a number of other stories published in Astounding, Analog and Asimov's SF Magazine, the last of which was published in the 1970's.
Like the late Asimov, Milt is a popularizer of scientific principles in a variety of books he authored, including: Discovering The Natural Laws (reprinted by Dover Books) and A Physicist's Guide to Skepticism (Prometheus Books). Currently, Milt continues to write about the skeptical approach to the paranormal and the pseudoscientific in Skeptical Briefs, his quarterly column for The Skeptical Inquirer. He now lives with his wife, Miriam, in Philadelphia.
His contributions to the world of science fiction make his selection as a Guest at Bucconeer an honor which is long overdue.
| PR One | Bucconeer |