[ExI] Forrest Ackerman auction

[PJ Manney]

For those of us who knew him or knew of him, the inevitable is
happening.  Forry Ackerman's collection is going on the auction block.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_J_Ackerman

My father will twist in agony that he can't bid on Ackerman's signed
first editions of Frankenstein and Dracula.  [That is when he
remembers that the auction is being held...  :-(  I won't be reminding
him.]  Even though he once had his own 1st ed. copies of both, he
still had biblio-envy for years over Forry's Dracula.  It was enough
that Forry owned it.  But to have his childhood horror heroes also to
have signed it?  Priceless.

I was desperate for Robby the Robot.  But I'm sure I won't be able to
afford it, if it's even being sold.  <sigh>

PJ


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-ackerman5-2009feb05,0,4533587.story

>From the Los Angeles Times
Ackerman trove to be auctioned
Associated Press

February 5, 2009

He always vowed that he wouldn't die unless he could take it with him.

But now that Forrest J Ackerman really is gone, the grand old man of
science fiction's memorabilia collection is on the auction block.

Thousands of items, including the Count Dracula ring worn by Bela
Lugosi in the 1931 horror classic "Dracula," the vampire cape Lugosi
wore for decades -- even the actor's outfit from the "worst film ever
made," Ed Wood's cheesy "Plan 9 From Outer Space" -- are going up for
bid.

So are such notable pieces as a signed, first-edition copy of Mary
Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" and a first-edition copy of Bram
Stoker's "Dracula" that was signed not only by Stoker but also by
Lugosi, Boris Karloff and numerous other horror film notables.

The auction, tentatively scheduled for the last week of April, is
expected to raise $500,000, said Joe Maddalena, president of Profiles
in History, which is handling the sale.

Ackerman, the science- fiction writer, editor and literary agent
widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," spent a lifetime
collecting tens of thousands of pieces, ranging from the junky to the
very rare. He died in December at age 92 at his home in Los Angeles.

Maddalena said that Ackerman's will stipulated that his estate's share
of the profits be divided among his friends.