The treasures of Uncle 4e

No, this "4e" doesn't refer to D&D 4th Edition. It's one of the nicknames for the late and legendary Forrest J. Ackerman, who in addition to being a writer, agent, and founder of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, was probably the biggest science fiction fan ever.

For many years, he graciously opened his home, the "Ackermansion", to fans from all over the world so they could see one of the largest and most important collections of sci-fi, fantasy and horror memorabilia ever assembled.

Uncle Forry passed away last December, after ill health caused him to move to a smaller home and sell much of his collection to pay medical and other expenses. Today and Friday, the last and most personally significant pieces he had left are up for auction. The full story is at this LA Times blog posting. You can find the auction catalog here.

As one of the commenters said at that blog post, the real tragedy of this is that the collection is being dispersed and not kept intact for future fans to see in a proper museum setting.

And, of course, the man himself isn't here to lead the tour.