Robert A. Madle (1920-2022)

Writer, Editor, Publisher, Essayist, Book Reviewer, Bookseller, Collector, Fan
Born June 2, 1920, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died October 8, 2022, Rockville, Maryland

Robert A. Madle has died. For those not familiar with him, he was a science fiction fan, an essayist on and reviewer of science fiction, a writer of letters to science fiction and fantasy magazines, and a writer, editor, and publisher of science fiction. He did all of these things and more, everything that a fan of science fiction could do and might dream of doing. He was the last surviving member of First Fandom, an organization of fans of science fiction active before January 1938. In fact, the late Mr. Madle originated the idea of First Fandom in October 1958 while visiting with some fellow fans in Bellefontaine, Ohio. First Fandom was formed at Midwestcon, in Cincinnati, on Easter weekend 1959 with he himself serving as first president.

Robert Albert Madle was born on June 2, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He enjoyed reading what he called "boy's books," and there a lifetime of collecting began. He discovered science fiction in the Tom Swift series of books, read Edgar Rice Burroughs, and was "a great Buck Rogers fan." With fellow fan John V. Baltadonis (1921-1998), he discovered pulp science fiction in the form of two issues of Wonder Stories found in a Philadelphia junk shop in 1931. He wrote his first published letter in a science fiction magazine in the August 1935 issue of Amazing Stories. Although Mr. Madle never had a story in Weird Tales, he is tied for eleventh place for most letters to appear in "The Eyrie," the letters column of the magazine. He had seventeen. Baltadonis is tied for tenth place with nineteen. From March 1936 to February 1937, Mr. Madle, then still a teenager, had a remarkable string of letters in ten straight issues of "The Unique Magazine."

Mr. Madle attended Northeast High School in Philadelphia. He served in the U.S. Army as a truck driver and teletype operator, also in public relations, from July 1942 to January 1946. He continued work with the U.S. government after the war, in the Department of the Navy and the Department of the Army. He also worked in the private sector. According to his obituary in Locus, Mr. Madle conducted psychological research in human/machine interfaces. He received his bachelor's degree from Drexel Institute, now Drexel University, in 1951. He followed that up with an MBA in 1953, also at Drexel. The Madle family lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, for many years and he remained active in science fiction fandom there. In 1943, Robert Madle married Billie Franklin Lindsay (1919-1997). They had four children together. After her death, Robert Madle married Ana Lisseth Martinez. She preceded him in death as well. He is survived by his four children, as well as a stepdaughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Robert A. Madle died on October 8, 2022, at home in Rockville, Maryland, where he lived in retirement with his family and with a vast collection of science fiction and fantasy magazines, books, and memorabilia. He was 102 years old. Although I can't say that he was the last living contributor to the original Weird Tales, he was certainly among the last, especially to the Weird Tales of the 1930s. Imagine: he read when the magazine was new in print and right off of the newsstand. He read when stories by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Seabury Quinn, and so many others were new to the world.

Robert A. Madle's Letters to "The Eyrie"

• "Edmond Hamilton's Stories" (Dec. 1935)
• "Brief Briefs" (Feb. 1936)
• "Pointed Paragraphs" (Apr. 1936)
• "No Age Limit" (May 1936)
• "An Astounding Issue" (June 1936)
• "Doctor Satan Getting Better" (July 1936)
• "An Ace Issue" (Aug.-Sept. 1936)
• "Another De Grandin Tale" (Oct. 1936)
• "Our Early Yarns" (Nov. 1936)
• "Concise Comments" (Dec. 1936)
• "More Jules de Grandin Yarns" (Jan. 1937)
• "The Theatre Upstairs" (Feb. 1937)
• "Fate Weaves a Web" (Apr. 1937)
• "The March Cover" (May 1937)
• "Concise Comments" (July 1937)
• "Finlay Frontispiece" (Mar. 1938)
• "Magnificently Composed" (May 1939) 

Further Reading

• The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom by Sam Moskowitz (The Atlanta Science Fiction Organization Press, 1954).
• All Our Yesterdays by Harry Warner, Jr. (Advent:Publishers, Inc., 1969)
• "A Personal Sense of Wonder" by Robert A. Madle:

• Part One from Mimosa 27 at this URL: http://jophan.org/mimosa/m27/madle.htm
• Part Two from Mimosa 30 at this URL: http://jophan.org/mimosa/m30/madle.htm

• "Bob Madle" at Fancyclopedia 3, here.
• "Bob Madle Turns 100 Today" by Mike Glyer at Mike Glyer's News of SF Fandom, June 2, 2020, here.
• "Bob Madle, 1920-2022" by Mike Glyer at Mike Glyer's News of SF Fandom, October 11, 2022, here.
• "Robert Albert Madle, Writer" at Prabook, here. (Not updated as of October 21, 2022.)
• "Obituary, Robert 'Bob' Madle, June 2, 1920-October 8, 2022" at the website Dignity Memorial, here.

Robert A. Madle (1920-2022).
From The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz (p. 59).

Thanks to my correspondent. Thanks also to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database for sources and links.
Original text copyright 2022 Terence E. Hanley