Purpose

Icshi.net (pronounced "ICK-shee") is devoted to presenting in-depth information on a variety of topics (mostly in the field of science fiction), illustrated with huge, high-quality images. Currently, only the Virgin Territory and Sevagram sections are online, but several more are under construction, which will appear as time permits. I'm also hosting Magnus Axelsson's classic van Vogt site, The Weird Worlds of A.E. van Vogt.

History

The site began in September 2001 as a small website about classic SF author A.E. van Vogt, called Icshi: The A.E. van Vogt Information Site. Since then it has grown considerably, and it finally reached the point where the free personal webspace with my ISP could no longer contain it all, which is what prompted me at long last to get my own domain name with a professional web hosting service.

The old van Vogt site formerly hosted on Earthlink has been taken down as of August 29th, 2011. Most of the new van Vogt section here on Icshi.net, called Sevagram, is now online, though a few items from the old site have yet to be renovated and will be temporarily unavailable. Keep an eye on the Updates page for news on how the renovation is going. However, the entire contents of the old Earthlink site are available for offline viewing by downloading here. If you have any questions on how to use this archived version of the old site, see the "Read Me" file included in the download.

The Man Behind the Curtain

Icshi.net is the website of Isaac Walwyn — hobbyist, biblioholic, cat devotee, tea connoisseur, British-comedy addict, and tremendous fan of anything sci-fi. Visit my Space Rubbish blog for more in-depth information on updates to Icshi.net. (I'm also now on Twitter, for anybody who wishes to connect with me that way. I'll be using it mainly to post random thoughts or interesting links.)

For those of you who are familiar with my previous work, Isaac Walwyn is actually a pseudonym, my real name being Isaac Wilcott. For ten years I've done all my writing and website building under my real name, but I've decided that this new beginning is also the perfect opportunity to make the transition to my pen name. Why the change, you ask? Three reasons:

Basically, I find my real surname to be hideously dull and unbearably dorky.
My real surname closely resembles a slightly different but far more common surname — Wilcox — with which it is constantly being confused. As a result, nobody's ever able to correctly remember my real surname anyway. (Interesting bit of trivia: Wilcox and Wilcott are not two forms of the same root name. Wilcox basically means "Will's son," whereas Wilcott means "cottage by the spring" and seems to originate from the village of the same name in Wiltshire, England.)
And, to top it all off, there's a more famous Isaac Wilcott active on the internet, and people often mistakenly think we're the same person. The more famous Isaac Wilcott is apparently a basketball star and cancer survivor from Oregon. We are most definitely not the same individual: The only time in my entire life I've ever played basketball was when I was forced to do so at the bidding of the glowering P.E. overlords, and despite having health problems of my own I thankfully have never had cancer. And I certainly would've noticed if I were living in Oregon!

To those who are interested, the name Walwyn (pronounced WALL-win) is an Old English name meaning "Welsh friend." I first came across the name many years ago, when the publisher Shepheard-Walwyn were first publishing their Who's Who series of books containing biographical sketches of notable people in English history. I've loved the name ever since, and was doubly delighted when I finally found out what it meant, since I love Wales and everything Celtic.

Obligatory Copyright Boilerplate

Please note that I am not a professional copyright lawyer — nor I have I sought the highly expensive advice of one — so if I have unwittingly transgressed any part of our labyrinthine copyright laws, I did so out of ignorance, not malice. Ignorance of the law is a legitimate excuse when the law consists of millions of words of unintelligible, contradictory, differently-interpreted, and selectively-enforced regulations. It should be clear to anyone that I have always acted with honorable intentions, am eager to give credit where credit is due, and have attempted to obtain permission to reproduce items whenever possible. Nothing I have done on this site is for personal gain of any kind — and certainly not monetary gain! — and all items are here because of the amount of admiration and respect I hold for the works by these many different individuals. I receive no kick-backs or remuneration of any kind for promoting their work — I do so merely because I want to share their work with others, since I personally enjoy their work myself. So, with all that in mind:

Text items — such as interviews, articles, and stories — are copyrighted by their respective owners, who are credited on the individual pages where they appear. Most of these appear here by their permission. Items used without permission fall into three categories: (1) excerpts; (2) items whose use falls under fair use (so far as I understand it!); and (3) items that are in the public domain (so far as my research has been able to indicate).

The images which appear on this website — book and magazine covers, illustrations, photographs, etc. — belong to their respective copyright holders, whose names are given where known. These images appear on this website for personal, informative, non-profit purposes, and they should not be re-used for monetary gain (i.e., being reproduced as the covers of print-on-demand books, etc.).

Unless otherwise noted in individual cases, all book and magazine images are scans made from my own collection. It took a great deal of time and effort to create these high-quality scans; I'm fine with them being used elsewhere, provided you don't purloin the whole bally lot of them, or claim you scanned them yourself. Whenever it's practical, giving credit to "Icshi.net" for the images would be greatly appreciated.

All trademarks, brand names, etc., are the properties of their respective owners, and I am in no way affiliated with or sponsored by these organizations. Their use here is solely for personal, informative, non-profit purposes. Their presence here does not necessarily indicate that I endorse or approve of them, or endorse, approve, or condone any of their policies, opinions, business practices, pumpkin pie recipes, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.