How did A. E. van Vogt pronounce his last name? Does it rhyme with joked, goat, or go? I'm looking for an authoritative answer, preferably a direct quotation from Van Vogt himself or a personal acquaintance. The following remarks, quoted from the Wikipedia talk page, are not very convincing:
Ben Bova introduced me to Van Vogt at the WorldCon back in '76 and I thought he pronounced it "Vo" as in "go", but I could easily be wrong about this....
The witness could have misheard or misremembered, or Van Vogt may have been too polite to correct a common mispronunciation of his name.
Vogt is pronounced as "vote." The "g" is silent. My encounters with this pronunciation include a pun, I think by Forry Ackerman, something about "he gets my Vogt for" a distinction; and visits to a few science fiction conventions where Van was introduced.
No doubt Ackerman would have known the correct pronunciation. However, it was not his pun; Ackerman quoted it in his introduction to Van Vogt's collection Monsters, attributing it to the 19-year-old fan Ray Bradbury in a 1940 letter to the editor of Unknown Fantasy Fiction. Anyway, "vote" and "voked" are close enough for a pun.
Update. After posting this question, I found an answer in L. Sprague de Camp's Science-Fiction Handbook (first edition, Hermitage House, New York, 1953), p. 163:
Alfred E. van Vogt (rhymes with "joked"), "Van" to intimates, was born in 1912 in Manitoba of Dutch descent. He lived in various parts of Canada until in 1944 he moved to Los Angeles where he has resided ever since, recently becoming an American citizen. He is a tall moose-like man with angular features; a pince-nez secured to one prominent ear by a golden chain gives him a quaintly old-fashioned air. He has a gentle, courteous manner and loves to talk about theories of education and psychology. During the last couple of years he has been a dianetic auditor. Between Dianetics and the revision of his novels for book publication he has produced little magazine copy lately, but expects to do more henceforth.
I was considering submitting this as an answer and accepting it; however, Richard's contrary answer is even more convincing.
Update. Thanks to all who answered or commented. The information about the etymology of the name Van Vogt and its pronunciation in High German, Low German, and Dutch is very interesting, maybe more interesting than my original question. My question, however, was not about the authentic "old country" pronunciation, nor about how Van Vogt pronounced his name as a child speaking Low German, nor about how the mature Van Vogt would pronounce the name in the company of his parents, blood relatives, or childhood friends, now was it about how anyone else named Vogt may have pronounced it. The question was about how Van Vogt himself, as an adult (or better yet, as an established author), in an English-speaking setting, would pronounce his own name, or how he would advise English speakers to pronounce it. The only plausible choices for an anglicized pronunciation of Vogt are "voked" (as in "revoked") and "vote". I accepted Richard's answer because it cites earwitness testimony to Van Vogt personally endorsing the "vote" pronunciation. As noted above L. Sprague de Camp voted for the "voked" pronunciation, and he should have been in a position to know; however, it's understandable that Van Vogt might have refrained from "correcting" someone trying to approximate the original pronunciation of his name.
