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Joseph Wayne DeBolt Jr.
Great interview with David Gerrold, Scott! When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One was also the first Gerrold I read, around age 12 (!) or 13.
I also got an autograph about 40 years after publication (32, actually) — Jack Williamson’ signed The Humanoids for me. He attended the Science Fiction Research Association annual conference in Denver, Colorado in 1981. He was the nicest guy. (My dad served as SFRA President two years later.)
I was fortunate to talk with Fred Pohl at that meeting as well — also a nice person. The random book I chose from dad’s collection for him to sign was Slave Ship, and as he was signing that for me he told me how embarrassed he was now to have the word “Slave” in his book title.
Small World Department: I am reading the Official Program Book of the 1976 Worldcon, including the complete membership list (recovered from dad’s house, along with as much of his book collection as I can take each trip back to Michigan since he passed away in 2016). That list includes you and David Gerrold, not to mention Jack Williamson, Fred Pohl, and other people you mentioned during this episode: Harlan Ellison, Ted Sturgeon, Lester Del Rey, John Jakes, Alfred Bester (who strangely proposed marriage to my 9-year-old sister), Robert Silverberg (who refused to give me an autograph because he was in a hurry and I was a pest) and Guest of Honor Robert Heinlein. I wanted to meet my favorite author and get his autograph, but at the Meet the Author gig on the roof of the Radisson Muelbach Hotel, there were tons of people and he was seated at a table, and he looked so sickly that I didn’t want to add to the crush of humanity around him. Plus, being only 13, I didn’t have the courage to assert myself and barge in through all the adults. Now I regret my reticence — I’m sure he could have survived my asking for his autograph But I got most of my autographs just by walking around, milling about the huckster room and such, and spotting authors.
Thanks for your great podcasts! Oh, the memories they can induce! Take care.