Graham was born in Adelaide, South Australia on Thursday, 7 January 1926, the youngest of four sons to Nelson Brice Stone and his wife Jeannie Campbell McAnna (married 1911, Adelaide, South Australia). He had two older surviving brothers, a third brother having died in infancy. Nelson was was a telephone technician until his death in 1933, when Nelson was only 7. He was raised by his widowed mother who ran a boarding house, then a rental library, to support the family.

Graham developed an early interest in science fiction, like the weekly English story papers for boys including The Champion, The Triumph and The Modern Boy, and later following the comic strip adventures like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and such like as a boy, along with books by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells which were in the modest home library. He sought out more in a mechanics institute and libraries. Late in 1939, Jeannie took him to Sydney. According to his own reminiscences, he was elated at finding “civilisation” at last with an abundance of imported science fiction being available in the much larger city. He got together with Bert Castellari and a group of other schoolboys who had founded a science fiction club in 1939. Graham joined their Futurian Society of Sydney in 1940, but, sadly, the older members were called up for military service and the society lapsed.

Journalism had been his career of choice, and he worked as a copy boy for The Sun and The Sunday Sun newspapers in Sydney until Jeannie took him back to Adelaide in 1944, where he joined the Citizen Air Force and later the RAAF. At the end of his service, he was discharged and returned to Sydney, where he became involved with the Book Collectors’ Society, as he helped to revive the Futurian Society, all while studing and contributing to trade journals.

Graham established the Australian Science Fiction Society in 1951, and also started a newsletter which contributed to a resurgence of interest science fiction. The first Australian science fiction convention was held in Sydney in March 1952. The annual convention continued in Sydney to 1955, each attracting more people. Additionally factions began to grow in the science fiction community and an acrimonious split occurred in 1954.

Graham met Joy Anderson at one of the conventions, and they married in September 1956 on the same day as Joy’s half sister, Peggy (Margaret). He and Joy divorced in 1965; Joy asked for a divorce, not just because Graham refused to accept her Christian faith, but because he continued to make disparaging remarks in that regard.

Interest in Sydney dwindled, and the conventions moved to Melbourne. However, Graham maintained the Futurian Society library and his Science Fiction News (1953-1959) in Sydney and he also published a rather slim index to Australian science fiction magazines.

Graham was awarded a bachelor of arts from the University of Sydney in 1962. In 1964, after working for the Public Library of NSW for over a decade, an opportunity arose to join the National Library in Canberra.

Graham served in the bibliographical section of the Library before becoming a cataloguer in the film collection.

In 1965, he was married again, to Patricia Cowper, becoming step-father to Tim and later, father to Dorinda.

Graham’s period at the Library was very productive for his science fiction research. He published editions of his Australian Science Fiction Index in 1964 and 1968, the Journal of the Australian Science Fiction Association (1965-1970), the first edition of his Index to British Science Fiction Magazines 1934-1953 and an index of book reviews (1973). He also published the Index to British Science Fiction Magazines in seven parts, 1968-1975.

In 1972, Graham served in the Library’s film division, which provided a lending service of 40,000 films a year. However, the next year, he resigned. In 1976, he separated from Pat and returned to Sydney.

Back in Sydney, he assisted with another revival of the Futurian Society and began selling secondhand books. He continued research into past newspapers and magazines which revealed significant previously unidentified works of Australian science fiction, some of which were quite significant.

In 1999, Graham was awarded in absentia, the A. Bertram Chandler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction from the Australian Science Fiction Foundation.

He was survived by his stepson Tim, daughter Dorinda and five grandchildren.

A comprehensive biography was written by Chris Nelson: Nelson, C. 2014 “Graham Stone, 1926-2013: a life in science fiction” in Mumblings from Munchkinland 34, available at efanzines.com/MFM/MFM-34.pdf, December 2014.