Frederick Walter Patten

1940 - 2018

December 11, 1940 - November 12, 2018
Fred Patten – Science Fiction and Japanese Anime Fan and Historian

Fred Patten was a lifelong fan and collector of science fiction & fantasy. He joined the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society in 1960 and was an active member all his life. Graduated from UCLA where he also received a master's degree in library science in 1963. While working at his last position in this field as an industrial librarian for the Hughes Aircraft Company (1969 – 1990), he was also a partner with Richard Kyle in the Graphic Story Bookshop (later Wonderworld Books), which introduced Japanese manga to the English-speaking world. Patten then worked at Streamline Pictures from 1991 – 2002, licensing Japanese animation for theatrical and TV broadcast and home video release. He was a free-lance writer specializing in Japanese anime & manga from 2002 – 2005, when he had a major stroke. Since 2005, paralyzed and confined to a convalescent hospital bed, he remained active on a laptop computer writing and editing books as well as posting his book reviews and articles on many websites, and contributing to the Cartoon Brew website on animation. He was transported in his wheelchair to see new films in a theatre, attend local conventions, and attend invitational screenings to new animated films, held at various Hollywood studios. For his contributions to these different genres, Patten received many awards. His vast lifetime collection of science fiction books, art, and related material, and books on Japanese animation, and furry fiction was donated to the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Literature at the University of California Riverside, in 2005, where it is organized as The Fred Patten Collection. Fred continued to donate material to his collection at UCR, until the time of his death.