Biographical Note
Susan Frank is a fan based in Philadelphia, PA. She was born in 1948, and grew up in Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, MA. She graduated from Smith College in 1970, attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for two years, and received a doctorate in Religious Studies from Temple University in 1990. Frank was a librarian for many years at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, PA.
Frank came to Klingon fandom in the late 1980s, when she first became aware of the phenomenon. As an active fan Frank founded the long-running Klingon-themed fanzine Agonizer, and has been a member of several different fan clubs, including the Klingon Assault Group, the Klingon Strike Force, Clan Makura on KlingonSpace, The Empire, and the Ring of Fire Fleet. She has also, as have many fans, adopted an individual fannish persona - Admiral (Retired) Kishin vestai-Rustadz, of clan Shawan.
As a fan, Frank enthusiastically engaged in the same creative passions that drive many of her fellow fans. As a librarian, Frank was naturally drawn towards collecting and organizing many of the written and other materials produced by fans. This collection is the fruit of those collecting efforts. Although Frank has ceased her active collecting (due to increased online activity among Klingon fans that has reduced the output of physical materials), she still remains an active and enthusiastic fan and follower.
Please note that there is also a collection of Frank materials held at Temple University.
"Historical" Note
Klingons represent an active subset of the larger Star Trek fan community, and have been so for several decades. Klingon fans are particularly visible because of their frequent involvement in often-elaborate cosplay (that is, the use of costumes and accessories to represent specific characters, often personae created by the participants themselves).
The Klingons are an aggressive race of humanoid warriors, first seen in the Star Trek:The Original Series episode "Errand of Mercy" (1967). The Klingons started out as major adversaries of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew, Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. However, as the Star Trek franchise began expanding in 1987 with the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Klingons evolved from enemies into uneasy allies, and numerous episodes of TNG and later Star Trek series were devoted to exploring aspects of Klingon culture. They continue to occupy a major position in the overall Star Trek universe.
Klingon fandom is most notable for its adoption of the Klingon language. Klingon is a real (albeit artificially constructed) language with its own system of grammar, structure and rules of pronunciation. It was originally created by linguist Marc Okrund in the mid-1980s for the Star Trek films and was adopted into later iterations of the television franchise. Klingon has been expanded on by interested fans and language hobbyists to the point where a number of literary works have been translated from English to Klingon. Many Klingon-related fan creations are written at least partially in the Klingon language, and it is not uncommon for dedicated fans to speak it amongst themselves.
| Cushing Library
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