PCL MS 224 Alice J. Mills Kirk/Spock (K/S) Fanzine Collection

The Alice J. Mills Kirk/Spock (K/S) Fanzine Collection represents nearly four decades of participation in the Star Trek slash fanfiction movement, from the 1970s until Alice Mills’ death in 2015. The collection is primarily comprised of fanzines centered on the Kirk/Spock (K/S) relationship from the original Star Trek television series and subsequent movies. It is the “/” between the names of Kirk and Spock from which the term “slash” fiction is derived. In addition to Kirk/Spock, the collection also contains materials from fandoms such as Jack/Ennis or B/B (Brokeback Mountain); Garak/Bashir (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine); Love Noir Deux (A Donald Strachey Mystery Slash Zine), and several non-fandom works.  Also included are audio cassettes featuring notables such as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, a collection of photographs, and original fan art.

There are no restrictions placed on the collection for scholarly use, however researchers are responsible for securing copyright permission when using all unpublished manuscript materials as well as published works. The collection was donated in March 2015 by the Mills family.  The inventory was completed by Sylvio Lynch III, Ph.D. candidate in American Cultural Studies, in June 2016 and the finding aid was completed by Steve Ammidown, Manuscripts & Outreach Archivist in September 2016. Special thanks to Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Reference Librarian, Massachusetts Historical Society and Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook, Processing Assistant, Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, for their technical assistance in completing this finding aid.

Written by Jean Mills, daughter of Alice J. Mills

Alice Jean Mills (née Everett) (April 10, 1932 – April 23, 2015) was born in Toledo, OH but moved at the age of two to Quincy, MA, becoming a life-long resident of the Boston area until her death in Weymouth, MA in 2015. A graduate of Quincy High School, she yearned to further her education but circumstances put college out of reach. She never stopped learning, reading widely and voraciously in the areas of English literature, Greek philosophy and the sciences. She became especially interested in NASA’s space programs, astronomy, astrophysics, and neurosciences, in particular the science of the brain. These interests grew from her involvement in the Kirk/Spock fanzine movement beginning in 1979, when her enthusiasm for the television series Star Trek developed into a deeper appreciation for the series’ homoerotic subtexts. The movement also put her in touch with a vast, international network of women (Sandra Gent, Jean Hinson, Caro Hedge, Pat Stall, Bea Bula, Robin Hood, Cynthia Coleman, Jenna St. Clair, and Elke Zielonka among others), who were equally passionate about advancing a queer narrative of the show.

Mills, who wrote using her own name as well as pseudonyms such as Madison Lang and Iris, was impatient with injustice, and her stories reflect a world committed to love, desire, and passion, in all its guises—bonding, in other words, rather than bondage. She was less interested in and often critical of Kirk/Spock stories that explored violence and sado-masochism, even consensual violence, as she often said, “Only a universe based on love will advance to the next mindstep of the cosmos. There is no other way.” This was a purist/absolutist position that she applied not only to Kirk/Spock, but also to many different areas of social, political, and cultural realities; for example, she was extremely critical of a space program based on military objectives, and blamed the Reagan Administration for the adjustment away from a Gene Roddenberry-infused internationalism towards a nationalistic, militaristic agenda in space exploration. She also was disheartened by what she saw as a trend in Kirk/Spock literature towards violence, competition, jealousy, and pleasure in pain. In addition to her contributions to the world of fanfiction, she was a devoted mother of four, a wife of over fifty years, a grandmother of six, and an aunt to many nieces and nephews, but she was truly most passionate about pursuing a ‘life of the mind’, a life of ideas and future possibilities, which is what she found, I believe, in this international community of women and the slash zine fanfiction movement.

The collection consists of approximately 5 linear feet of fanzines, correspondence, audio cassettes, and fan art dating from approximately 1974-2007.

This collection may be of particular interest to scholars working in the fields of feminist theory, queer theory, fan studies, gender studies, science fiction and genre literature, as well as other aspects of late-20^th century popular culture.  The Star Trek fanfiction movement, and slash fiction in particular, was largely created in the early 1970s by women like Alice Mills- smart, interested women who wanted to carry on the joy they found in Gene Roddenberry’s creation after it left the airwaves. Even more, in his keystone work on fandom Textual Poachers, Henry Jenkins argues that “the emergence of media fandom can be seen, at least in part, as an effort to create a fan culture more open to women, within which female fans could make a contribution without encountering the entrenched power of long-time male fans” (48).  These women used their shared passion for the Star Trek universe to express fandom on their terms, to create a strong community through fan outlets such as conventions and new technology such as the internet, and to use their creativity to explore new gender and social roles in a rapidly changing society.