Around the world, the town of Milford in eastern Pennsylvania is famous for its role in the development of science fiction.
Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison, Gene Wolfe, James Blish, Virginia Kidd, and Anne McCaffrey are just a few of the luminaries who have traveled to Milford to be part of the scene.
What brought them here?
Why do authors still come to visit?
How did Milford influence their world?
To find out, I joined literary agents Christine Cohen and Vaughne Hansen (of the Virginia Kidd Agency) and writers Bill DeSmedt (The Archon Sequence) and Michael Libling (The Serial Killer’s Son Takes a Wife) for a panel discussion at this year’s Milford Readers and Writers Festival.
The following is part one of an edited transcript of our discussion.
Part One:
In which we meet the panelists and learn about Arrowhead, the Anchorage, and the Authors who helped establish the Milford Method.
Lawrence C. Connolly: Welcome! We are here at the center of science fiction in Milford, PA, where we are celebrating how this town became a mecca for science fiction as we know it today. And here to help unpack the story is Bill DeSmedt, a Milford resident and author of three sf novels: Singularity, Dualism, and Triploidy—which together form the Archon Sequence. Moreover, I will tell you from personal experience that he is a fine guitar player and singer.
Bill, what else should our audience know about you?
Bill DeSmedt: Not a whole lot. I live outside Milford, and the town has been a source of constant inspiration. I’m just looking forward to today’s panel.
LCC: Also joining us is Michael Libling, World Fantasy nominee and author of The Serial Killer Son’s Takes a Wife, which was released last year, and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels. Mike has some terrific stories to share with us about working with Virginia Kidd at Arrowhead. Beyond that, Mike—what else do we need to know about you before we begin?
Michael Libling: I’m from Montreal, and I’m one of the world’s greatest living authors (along with my fellow panelists), and I think that’s pretty much it.
LCC: That sums it up, I think.
ML: I’m also very handsome … and I’m 32 years old.
Friend in the Audience: Now that’s science fiction!
[Laughter]
LCC: I neglected to mention that Mike is also the world’s greatest living sf humorist, but moving along … also on our panel is Vaughne Hansen. Vaughne is an agent at the Virginia Kidd Literary Agency, where for 35 years she has represented some of the top names in science fiction. Vaughne, what else should we know about you?
Vaughne Hansen: Well, some of you already know me because I’ve lived here in this area most of my life. This is a special place, and we’re all lucky to be here.
LCC: We are. And last but not least, Christine Cohen is also an agent at Virginia Kidd, and she is going to tell us about the Milford Method and the Milford Writing Workshop, both of which got their start in 1956.
But Christine, before we begin, is there anything else you’d like to add by way of an intro?
Christine Cohen: Well, I’m very pleased to see some beautiful faces here today. This is a really great crowd, and you guys keep us going with your support. There’s such a history here, and so many people walk around Milford but have no idea that a slightly decrepit and slightly haunted house on the edge of town is home to modern science fiction.
LCC: Thanks, Chris. And thanks for putting together the science fiction component at the Milford Readers and Writers Festival.
[Applause]
As for me, my connection to Milford is more tenuous than that of my fellow panelists. I’ve been represented by the Virginia Kidd Agency since they negotiated a film option for my story “This Way to Egress” in 2000.
Philip Klass (aka William Tenn), one of the original Milford writers, recommended the agency shortly after he moved into my neighborhood. And in addition to putting me in touch with the agency, he and his wife Fruma told me some wonderful stories about Milford. I’ll endeavor to share some of those tales with you this afternoon. But first, Christine, can you tell us about the Milford Writing Workshop, the Milford Method, and how they helped shape science fiction as we know it today?
CC: It started with professional science fiction writers wanting to gather and workshop away from the heat of the city. So they all jumped in cars and drove for two hours in every direction. The goal was to find the best places to rent in the coolest town they could find. As the story goes, James Blish proposes that they gather in Milford. He and Virginia Kidd had rented houses there before, and they were big proponents of Milford. And so, Milford became sort of a mecca.
Around that time, Damon Knight rented a giant old Queen Anne-style home behind Old Milford Road, where the Meyer County Hotel is today. In fact, if you stand at the office door of the Meyer Cabins and look across Route 209, you will see a long motel. Behind that is a small road cutting through the trees against a sloping hill. That road is Old Milford Road and The Anchorage was at the very end of it.
The Anchorage burned to the ground in 1987, but to this day you can still see the old wall that surrounded the property and the steps from the road to the yard. And in winter, when the foliage is gone, you can see the lonely two-story chimney in roughly what was the center of the old house. It stands to this day. I check every year.
So there was Damon’s house and then there was Virginia Kidd’s house, and people would come and stay and sleep everywhere. It was like camp for writers, and the Milford Method, or the Milford Conference as they called it, was basically at Damon’s house.
They would tape notes to the kitchen door so when you stumble downstairs at whatever hour to have your Cheerios, you’d know whose stories were being workshopped that day.
All the writers would sit in a circle, and whoever was holding the manuscript would deliver the critique. And the writer of the story had to just sit there and say nothing–other than yes or no in response to questions like, “Did you mean for this character to be Phil on one page and Joe on another?” You know, that kind of a thing. And only after the manuscript had gone around the circle was the author allowed to respond.
No one was teaching at the workshop. It wasn’t like a class. You had to be a published author to take part, so it was already a little bit of a who’s who. They were peers, and they were all learning from each other, which made it unusual. Usually, in a workshop there’s one or two teachers and a room full of students, so this was high-level learning.
LCC: Can you give us a few more names of the people who were there?
CC: Yes. There was Damon Knight and his wife Helen. James Blish and Virginia Kidd. There was Judy Merril, Anne McCaffrey, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov was here a few times, Kurt Vonnegut … really interesting people! And so from 1956 to 1972, this town was the world capital of science fiction, and as a result, thousands of books exist today thanks to Milford, PA, which is mind-blowing!
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