Forrest J Ackerman died on Thursday. He was 92 and a very important influence on my life.

He was known as "Uncle Forry" to many but I never cared for that name. To me he was just Forry. And I wanted to be like him; I wanted to put together a collection on a par with his legendary acculmulation and be an "uber" fan. I wanted to live the Science-Fictional life. And I did.

I've been selling books since I was 15 and it was because of Forry I started my fledgling business. I found a stash of cheap Famous Monster magazines, which he edited at the time, at a store in St. Paul and convinced my dad to let me take $50 from my college fund to buy extra copies to sell and make a profit. I bought about 100 mags for $50 and made almost $300 selling them, mostly through the mail. I bought more and sold more. When my stash ran out, I bought out the SF stock of an adult bookstore that was getting rid of the "window dressing" at the front of it's store to look respectable. The cycle continues.

I first went to the original Ackermansion when I went to LA for my senoir class trip and took a day away from the group and took a bus from somewhere near Knott's Berry Farm to the Hollywood Hills. The collection was impressive and I hoped to put together one just as good. I'm still collecting and selling books more than 35 years later, all because of Forry.

Goodbye Forry.

Greg