Charles N. Brown

Who was Charles N. Brown?

Charles Nikki Brown was the co-founder and editor of Locus, the long-running news and reviews magazine covering the genres of science fiction and fantasy literature. He was born on June 24, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended City College until 1956, when he joined the military; he served in the United States Navy for three years. Following his discharge from navy service, Brown went to work as a nuclear engineer but later on changed careers and entered the publishing field; he became a full-time science fiction editor with Locus in 1975.

Along with Ed Meskys and Dave Vanderwerf, Brown founded Locus in 1968 as a news fanzine to promote a bid to host the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. Originally intended to run only until the site-selection vote was taken at St. Louiscon, the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis, Missouri, Brown decided to continue publishing Locus as a general science fiction and fantasy newszine. It quickly began to fill the void left when the decades-old newszine Science Fiction Times ceased publication in 1970 during the same time period. Locus gradually evolved into the field's professional trade journal and remains so today. In 1970 it was first nominated in the category of Hugo Award for Best Fanzine. The following year at the 29th Worldcon, the first Noreascon that Locus was founded to promote and support, Brown's newszine won its first of a record 29 Hugoes.