Morris Scott Dollens' Dream of the Stars

February 19, 2013 8:26 PM

Morris Scott Dollens was an active and creative science fiction fan from the earliest days of sci-fi fandom, starting with making the fanzine Science Fiction Collector via hectography at age 16. He went on to illustrate covers for various other fanzines and wrote short stories, but largely left those creative endeavors for technological hobbies and jobs related to photography and recording from the 1950s to 1960s. Following the moon landing in 1969, he began creating small-scale astronomical paintings that he mailed to sci-fi conventions all over the country, where they were part of convention art shows. He also made miniature scenes of space exploration, which he crafted as teasers for a movie, Dream of the Stars, which he sent to magazines and book publishers, but his movie was never made.

Dollens made slides of his space scenes, which he sold to schools. The University of California at Riverside maintains a collection of Dollens' photographs, negatives, slides, and other material, though none of it is online. Dollens' photo of a young Bradbury, taken in 1950 (Google books preview), is included in Imagining Mars: A Literary History.

posted by filthy light thief (2 comments total)

This post is all kinds of wonderful, thanks.
posted by marxchivist at 5:27 AM on February 20, 2013

Thanks for the excellent post.
posted by Minus215Cee at 10:21 AM on February 20, 2013