Nerd History: Claude Degler

I feel like I'm cheating this week, but I've tripped up on the story of Claude Degler, arguably the historical epitome of what constitutes a "fan." His story is a little bit all over the place - institutionalized in the 1930s, presenting a talk at a convention in 1940s that he claimed was written by Martians, claiming sci-fi fans would usher in a new age of evolution, and then briskly disappearing.

If you're ready for your brain to hurt a little bit, feel free to dive down this rabbit hole a little bit. I'm struggling to really make heads or tails of most of it, but it's too interesting not to share. Available is a Fanclopedia entry on him, as well as his Cosmic Circle and an attempt to track him down. Who knows what parts are truly believable and what are more the memories of people who love a good story, but...