letterhack

letter +‎ hack

letterhack (plural letterhacks)

1. (dated, fandom slang) A fan who is a prolific writer of letters to periodicals.
   • 1946 Fall, Tom Jewett, Startling Stories, volume 14, number 2, page 102:

     Nowadays a letter-hack says things simply, which is, after all, the best way. Take any good story. You don't find long, stilted sentences with long-winded descriptions (which was one reason I put ‘The Dimension of Chance’ last). So listen and learn, letter-hacks.

   • 1958, Ralph Merridette Holland, Ghu's Lexicon, page 12:

     LETTERHACK - An actifan who specializes in writing letters for zines. One of the simplest and yet the most effective phases of fanac. Give the letterhack a ream of paper, stamps, and one or two other letterhacks for him to argue with, and he will keep happy and tractable for months.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:letterhack.

• epistolarian, loccer

letterhack (third-person singular simple present letterhacks, present participle letterhacking, simple past and past participle letterhacked)

1. (dated, fandom slang) To write letters to periodicals very frequently.
   • 1976 November, Ted White, “Twenty Five Years? That's--”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, number 6, page 23:

     It was in those letter columns that I was first exposed to the concept of fandom. Letterhacking was in high bloom in 1951; the letter columns were filled with chatty letters from all sorts of people, the names of whom I soon came to recognize.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:letterhack.

• fanac

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “letterhack”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 110.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “letterhack n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.