University of California, Riverside
An Eye to the Future
With over 300,000 items, UCR’s Eaton Collection is a priceless repository of all things science fiction, fantasy, and related genres for scholars and fans alike
When the family of collector J. Lloyd Eaton was looking to donate his trove of thousands of hardback science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels, they were turned down by several colleges and universities before finding a home at UC Riverside in 1969. A pulmonologist and avid science fiction fan from Berkeley, Eaton was personally acquainted with giants of the field such as Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein and had amassed roughly 7,500 titles from the 19th to mid-20th centuries. While other public libraries saw little value in the genre, Donald Wilson, the university librarian at UCR at the time, believed they would be important for future researchers and acquired the collection, saving it from being split up and sold.
The Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy, part of UCR Library’s Special Collections & University Archives, now numbers over 300,000 items, and is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world. Books, documents, photographs, action figures, and other materials from its expansive holdings have been loaned for various purposes, including current exhibits at the Academy Museum and USC’s Fisher Museum of Art, and featured in PBS documentaries. No longer seen as niche, science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, and other genre books, movies, and television shows have become a central part of the cultural landscape, making the Eaton’s vast collection even more relevant today.
“The great thing about science fiction and fantasy is that it’s so broad and so mainstream now that people get really excited for it,” said Phoenix Alexander, the Jay Kay Klein and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian, who curates the collection. “Who doesn’t love ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Pokémon,’ ‘Transformers,’ or ‘Frankenstein’?”
Eaton curator Phoenix Alexander holds the original cover art for Ursula Le Guin’s 1969 novel “The Left Hand of Darkness,” which was recently acquired by the collection. (UCR/Stan Lim)
The Eaton Collection houses many items from such iconic works, from rare books by pioneering authors like H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and Jules Verne to conceptual art and toys from franchises like “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.” And just as the genre has grown and changed, so has the collection in the types of materials it acquires and the way it engages with scholars and fans.
“We have the old school, the old guard,” Alexander said. “We have an exhaustive collection of pretty much every major periodical and print book you can think of. But we also have an eye to the future. This is a living collection that is reflecting the breadth and shape of the science fiction field as it’s developing right now.”
Alexander, who took over as the collection’s curator in June 2022, realized that the library’s collection strategy had not changed since the early 1970s. In March 2024, he wrote updated collection development guidelines that define the different genres and subgenres of speculative fiction that are important for the collection.
“Who doesn’t love ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Pokémon,’ ‘Transformers,’ or ‘Frankenstein’?”
“‘Science fiction’ alone has been a historically slippery — not to mention controversial — genre to define, cross-pollinating with fantasy, horror, surreal, weird fiction, and the even more nebulous ‘speculative fiction,’” Alexander writes in the new strategy. “In this light, the Eaton Collection is in concord with the philosophy of the genre magazine ‘Strange Horizons,’ which maintains that ‘speculative fiction has a vibrant and radical tradition of stories that can make us think, can critique society, and can show us how it could be otherwise, for better or worse.’ Crucially: ‘speculative fiction must be a global, inclusive literature.’”
With fantasy, the definition in the new strategy includes stories in the sword and sorcery subgenre and those that include imaginary worlds, but succinctly describes it as “fiction about the impossible.” Within that scope, fantasy includes imaginary biography, speculative poetry, magical realism, and Afrofuturism, among others.
Most notably, the updated strategy also cites the importance of including works about and by people of color, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ authors, and non-English works. Two recent additions include “Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology,” a 2021 award-winning anthology featuring contemporary Latino authors, and “Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction,” a 2020 showcase of Indigenous and queer authors.
As genres that imagine alternative realities and realities that could be, the presence of LGBTQ+ authors and stories are central to science fiction and fantasy, Alexander said, noting it’s not just a matter of reflecting the broadening diversity of the science fiction and fantasy creative and fan community as the field has grown, but including those who’ve been part of its history from the beginning who might have been marginalized or weren’t considered part of the canon before.
“It’s more accurately reflecting the scope of science fiction and fantasy as it was and as it is now, encompassing the greater view of it as opposed to a narrow view,” he said.
Over the decades, the collection has also seen an increased emphasis on different types of media. In addition to over 100,000 hardback and paperback books and complete runs of many pulp magazines, it has thousands of comic books, graphic novels, manga, and anime. Other items include collectible cards, posters, pins, T-shirts, action figures, and board games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Its movie and television archive continues to grow, with 500 shooting scripts that includes “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager”; the pilot episode of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”; and the 1976 remake of “King Kong.” The collection also has early conceptual art for “Star Wars” by illustrator Ralph McQuarrie and production documents from the “Alien” film franchise.
The vast array of materials are housed on the fourth floor of the Tomás Rivera Library, beyond the main reading room in rows of bookshelves. The stacks begin with about 20 rows of monographs, in between oversized and mini books and science fiction works in foreign languages. Complete runs of almost every notable notable science fiction and fantasy magazine take up another 10 rows, while fanzines and fan collections span almost the entire side wall of the stacks, with items including figurines, clothing, and memorabilia. At the far end of the hall are the archival collections, which are stored in acid-free boxes to preserve them.
“This is a living collection that is reflecting the breadth and shape of the science fiction field as it’s developing right now.”
Other important parts of the Eaton Collection are the personal and professional papers of notable authors and editors from the genre — early manuscripts with annotations, correspondence with editors and publishers, contracts, research documents, and other materials — offering deeper insight into their work. The collection has papers from more than 30 authors, including Poul and Karen Anderson, David Brin, and Anne McCaffrey. In early 2024, Eaton acquired papers from science fiction and fantasy editor Terry Carr. In addition to materials relating to his work with many iconic authors, his holdings included the original painting for the cover of Ursula Le Guin’s award-winning 1969 novel “The Left Hand of Darkness,” regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.
The library also has a close relationship with UCR faculty members who are science fiction and fantasy authors. Nalo Hopkinson, a former creative writing professor at UCR, donated her papers to the Eaton Collection, including an original manuscript, and continues to send boxes of additional work. John Jennings, a graphic novelist and professor of media and cultural studies, provided artwork from his award-winning 2017 graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s “Kindred,” and designed a new space-themed logo for the Eaton Collection last year.
The Eaton Collection is a valuable repository for the history of science fiction and fantasy fandom, housing fanzines, convention programs, and photographs, including more than 60,000 convention pictures by photographer and fan Jay Kay Klein, for whom the collection curator title is named. A recent acquisition includes over 40 boxes of papers from the collection of Fred Patten, a historian of science fiction, manga, and anime.
The Eaton’s holdings are searchable through an online database, with digital scans of some of the books and photographs available to scholars around the world. Faculty and students also visit the library for research projects or classroom assignments, pulling items to study in the reading room.
Associate professor of English andré carrington described the Eaton Collection as a “treasure.” A scholar of race, gender, and genre, carrington consulted the Eaton Collection for his doctoral work at New York University in 2008, calling it a formative experience. Since joining the UCR faculty in 2020, he’s accessed it for hard-to-find books and other materials, sometimes making scanned copies to share in his classes. For a new collection of Afrofuturist works that he edited called “The Black Fantastic,” carrington sourced stories from material in the Eaton Collection archives.
“It’s always the first stop when I’m looking for a published work of science fiction or fantasy,” he said. “I can almost always find the periodicals or anthologies where stories were originally published, and when I discover new materials that we don’t have yet — including texts, films, and comics — I can always recommend them for acquisition so other scholars will be able to access them in the future.”
“The job of any curator is to find those connections to the present because there is nothing that exists in a historical vacuum.”
Sherryl Vint, a professor of English and media and cultural studies whose research focuses on speculative fiction, has used the Eaton Collection for projects including a history of science fiction and a 50th anniversary celebration event for “Star Trek.” She found it to be an immersive experience to read old pulp magazines in their original contexts and to discover “Star Trek” memorabilia she didn’t know existed. Vint has also taken small class groups to visit the collection, working closely with librarians who guide students on how to research the vast archives. She says many graduate students she’s worked with came to UCR specifically because of the Eaton Collection.
“There’s something about the objects themselves and their materiality that is important for students to connect with when it is possible to be in an archive and experience the physicality of these objects,” Vint said.
An important part of the Eaton Collection is not only making it available to scholars with a deep interest in the genre but also connecting it to other disciplines, Alexander said. The library has collaborated with departments including psychology and physics and astronomy to show the different ways science fiction manifests in those subjects. At UCR’s Camp Highlander for local elementary school students, they explored how science fiction informs science and engineering.
A photograph of a young Ray Bradbury with film star Marlene Dietrich on display during last year’s “Eaton at the Movies” exhibition. (UCR/Stan Lim)
The Eaton Collection is also finding new ways to highlight notable items from its collections and engage wider audiences through exhibitions. Last year’s “Eaton at the Movies” showcased an array of film and television-related items, some of which had never been publicly exhibited. In putting together the exhibition, Alexander dug through unprocessed boxes in the collection’s archives and discovered a photograph of a young Ray Bradbury, the famed science fiction writer, with film star Marlene Dietrich, an example of some of the unexpected treasures he sometimes come across. One display focused on the 1927 film “Metropolis” even included a poster Alexander bought from the 2023 “Beyoncé: Renaissance” concert film, showing the singer in a sleek silver metallic bodysuit that references the robot from the Fritz Lang classic.
“The job of any curator is to find those connections to the present because there is nothing that exists in a historical vacuum,” Alexander said. “Everything can be traced back to a reference or an idea that’s been explored before and pushed in different ways. It was really fun for me making that contemporary connection.”
As a fan, scholar, and author, Alexander is an enthusiastic ambassador for the genre and the Eaton Collection’s role in helping to preserve and study it. His office, across from the entrance area to the stacks, is filled with books and decorated with toys and posters, including a large replica of a frozen Han Solo from “The Empire Strikes Back” on the frosted glass door panel that greets visitors.
“It’s a privilege to be able to solely focus on one subject area, which in itself is huge,” Alexander said. "Science fiction and fantasy spans so much, and finding ways to engage younger students and patrons with the material is really exciting.”
Meet the Librarian
Phoenix Alexander, Jay Kay Klein and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian, has served as curator of the Eaton Collection since he joined UCR in 2022. His interest in reading and science fiction and fantasy developed as a child after moving from his native Cyprus to England at the age of three. Speaking little English, his mother would take him to a local library in Ingatestone, a small village in Essex, where he learned the language through reading.
Phoenix Alexander, Jay Kay and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian, in his office. (UCR/Stan Lim)
“I was sort of always in a library from a very young age, but I didn’t know I could work in a library until much later,” Alexander said. “I was always drawn to science fiction and fantasy. A lot of children’s books have that element of fantasy in them, fantastical figures or creatures, and I loved all that.”
The “Goosebumps” series by R.L. Stine were an early favorite, along with books by British authors Enid Blyton, Michael Morpugo, and David Almond.
“I loved how the fantastic could be a safe way to start thinking about or understanding difficult concepts from a young age,” Alexander said.
He wrote his first piece of fiction when he was about six or seven-years-old after a family member’s cat went missing for a couple weeks, turning it into a tale about the cat’s journey back home and making friends with an otter and butterfly along the way.
Alexander remained a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy as well as non-genre literature, but initially set his sights on a career in fashion, going to design school for three years. He changed course after realizing that his true passion was in the books he was always carrying with him. Jamaica Kincaid’s novel, “The Autobiography of My Mother,” was particularly influential, showing him how a literary text can use genre touchstones to explore unique stories.
“At some point the circle connected and I thought, you can obviously still read science fiction and fantasy as escapist pleasure, but you can also use it in a very sophisticated way,” he said.
Alexander completed a doctorate in English and African American studies at Yale University, where he worked as a curatorial assistant at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. One of his projects involved collecting and processing the archive and library of famed science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany.
Before joining UCR, he was the Science Fiction Collections Librarian at the University of Liverpool, Special Collections and Archives, overseeing the largest collection of cataloged science fiction in Europe.
“It was a fantastic experience because it’s exactly what I do here, but here it’s on a larger scale,” Alexander said. “The collection’s bigger and there are more avenues through which to collaborate.”
In addition to his work as curator of the Eaton Collection, Alexander is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and has been a presenter and organizer at events including Worldcon and the 2024 Nebula Awards. Hi is also an author in his own right, with work published in several magazines, and has completed his first novel currently awaiting publication.