Charles N. Brown, ‘Locus’ publisher, 1937-2009
Sadly, and yet appropriately, from Locus itself:
Locus
publisher, editor, and co-founder Charles N. Brown, 72, died peacefully
in his sleep July 12, 2009 on his way home from Readercon.Charles
Nikki Brown was born June 24, 1937 in Brooklyn NY, where he grew up. He
attended the City College of New York, taking time off from 1956-59 to
serve in the US Navy, and finished his degree (BS in physics and
engineering) at night on the GI Bill while working as a junior engineer
in the ’60s. He married twice, to Marsha Elkin (1962-69), who helped
him start Locus, and to Dena Benatan (1970-77), who co-edited Locus
for many years while he worked full time. He moved to San Francisco in
1972, working as a nuclear engineer until becoming a full-time SF
editor in 1975. The Locus offices have been in Brown’s home in the Oakland hills since 1973.Brown co-founded Locus
with Ed Meskys and Dave Vanderwerf as a one-sheet news fanzine in 1968,
originally created to help the Boston Science Fiction Group win its
Worldcon bid. Brown enjoyed editing Locus so much that he continued the magazine far beyond its original planned one-year run. Locus was nominated for its first Hugo Award in 1970, and Brown was a best fan writer nominee the same year. Locus won the first of its 29 Hugos in 1971.During Brown’s long and illustrious career he was the first book reviewer for Asimov’s;
wrote the Best of the Year summary for Terry Carr’s annual anthologies
(1975-87); wrote numerous magazines and newspapers; edited several SF
anthologies; appeared on countless convention panels; was a frequent
Guest of Honor, speaker, and judge at writers’ seminars; and has been a
jury member for various major SF awards.As per his wishes, Locus will continue to publish, with executive editor Liza Groen Trombi taking over as editor-in-chief with the August 2009 issue.
A complete obituary with tributes and a photo retrospective will appear in the August issue.
Charlie was a hoot and a half, always around taking an incriminating photo of you. It is nearly impossible to imagine science fiction as we know it without his contributions to the field. He will be missed.
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An auction will be held at the Chicago Comic-Con (nee Wizard World Chicago) the evening of Saturday, August 8, 2009 to raise funds for comics veteran 
First it was Doctor Who meets Captain Picard in Hamlet. Now it’s James Bond meeting Wolverine.
One of the things that I love about Pixar is that they
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Shore Leave 31
Sad but true. Ten blocks away from DC’s corporate headquarters, Superman and Batman were arrested yesterday by police– Superman was even charged with resisting arrest. Was the big red “S” being mind controllled?
