Tom Reamy (January 23, 1935 – November 4, 1977) was an American science fiction and fantasy author and a key figure in 1960s and 1970s science fiction fandom. He died at age 42 prior to the publication of his first novel; his work is primarily dark fantasy. Fan, editor, convention organizer Thomas Earl Reamy was born in Woodson, Texas during the Great Depression. While still in his teens in the early 1950s, Reamy became active in science fiction fandom's fanzine and convention culture, as both a fan writer and fan artist. During this period, Reamy began to experiment with writing fantasy and science fiction stories. He was never quite satisfied with or confident enough to submit his stories to the editors of the professional genre magazines of the era, despite encouragement from friends and others who felt he had talent; Reamy continued to hone his writing for many years, while exploring other expressions for his growing creativity. Reamy, along with transplanted Texan Orville W. Mosher, founded the first organized science fiction fan club in Texas: The Dallas Futurian Society (DFS), so named after the earlier New York Futurians. The DFS was founded in late fall of 1953 when Reamy was eighteen, and the club was continually active until July 6, 1958, when it expired in a colorful fashion. During that five-year period, Mosher and Reamy traded off editing the club's fanzine CriFanAc (a fandom term for Critical Fan Activity), attracting a variety of contributors, both local and from greater science fiction fandom; Reamy became its sole editor with its sixth issue. He had been contributing both artwork and commentary to its pages, as he was also doing to other science fiction fanzines of the era. With fellow Dallas Futurians James and Gregory Benford, Reamy organized the first science fiction convention held in Texas. A rotating city and state regional convention of the era, Southwesterncon's sixth incarnation was held in Dallas on the weekend of July 5, 1958, concluding the next day, July 6; the professional guest of honor was new writer and well-known fan Marion Zimmer Bradley, who by then had replaced Fredric Brown. Longtime science fiction fan personality, collector, and literary agent Forrest J Ackerman came from Los Angeles and served at the convention's banquet as toastmaster. On the last day of the convention, the members of the Dallas Futurian Societ disbanded their club as part of Southwestercon VI's