Anne McCaffrey
Encyclopedia
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American
-born Irish
writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern
series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award
and a Nebula Award
. Her book The White Dragon
became one of the first science fiction novels ever to land on the New York Times Best Seller List
.
The Science Fiction Writers of America in 2005 named her the 22nd Grand Master, a now-annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
inducted her on 17 June 2006.
, a girls boarding school
in Staunton, Virginia
, but graduated from Montclair High School. In 1947 she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College
with a degree in Slavonic Languages and Literature.
In 1950 she married Horace Wright Johnson (deceased 2009), who shared her interests in music, opera, and ballet. They had three children: Alec Anthony, born 1952; Todd, born 1956; and Georgeanne ("Gigi", Georgeanne Kennedy), born 1959.
Except for a short term in Düsseldorf, the family lived most of a decade in Wilmington, Delaware
. They moved to Sea Cliff, Long Island
in 1965, and McCaffrey became a full-time author.
At this stage in her career McCaffrey served a term as Secretary-Treasurer of the Science Fiction Writers of America, 1968–1970. Beside handcrafting the Nebula Award trophies, the responsibilities covered production of two monthly newsletters and their distribution by mail to the members.
Anne McCaffrey emigrated to Ireland
with her two younger children in 1970, only weeks after filing for divorce. Ireland had recently exempted resident artists from income taxes, an opportunity that fellow science fiction author Harry Harrison
had promptly taken and helped to promote. Anne's mother soon joined the family in Dublin. The following Spring, McCaffrey was Guest of Honor at her first British national science fiction convention (Eastercon
22, 1971). There she met the British reproductive biologist Jack Cohen
. He would be an important consultant regarding the science of Pern, not only its flora and fauna.
Many experiences from her own life became sources of inspiration for her writing.
. Her second story "The Lady in the Tower" was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction by editor Robert P. Mills
and purchased again by editor Judith Merril
for The Year's Greatest Science Fiction. McCaffrey said, "she thought of the story when wishing herself alone, like a lady in an ivory tower".
Judy Merril matched McCaffrey with her long-time literary agent Virginia Kidd
(deceased 2003) and invited her to the Milford Writer's Workshop
, where everyone brought a story and joined in intense criticism. She returned many times. After her first "Milford" in 1959 she worked on "The Ship Who Sang", the story that started the so-called Brain & Brawn Ship series. In the end, the spaceship Helva sings "Taps
" for her human partner. Decades later son Todd called it "almost an elegy to her father". She considers it her best story and her favorite (1994 to 2004). "I put much of myself into it: myself and the troubles I had in accepting my father's death [1954] and a troubled marriage."
McCaffrey then wrote two more "Ship" stories and started her first novel. Regarding one motivation for Restoree (1967), her son quotes "I was so tired of all the weak women screaming in the corner while their boyfriends were beating off the aliens. I wouldn't have been—I'd've been in there swinging with something or kicking them as hard as I could." Recently she explained that it doesn't need a sequel: it "served its purpose of an intelligent, survivor-type woman as the protagonist of an S-F story".
Regarding Decision at Doona (1969), which she dedicated "To Todd Johnson—of course!", her son says that he was directed to lower his voice as an actor in the fourth-grade
school play, with his mother in the auditorium. That was the inspiration for Doona, "an overcrowded planet where just talking too loud made you a social outcast".
McCaffrey made a fast start in Ireland, completing for 1971 publication the works in progress Dragonquest and two Gothic novels for Dell
, The Mark of Merlin and The Ring of Fear. With a contract for The White Dragon, which would complete the "original trilogy" with Ballantine, her writing stalled. During the next few years the family moved several times in the vicinity of Dublin and struggled to make ends meet, supported largely by child care payments and meager royalties.
The market for young adults provided crucial opportunities. Editor Roger Elwood
sought contributions of short work to anthologies. McCaffrey started the Pern story of Menolly. She delivered "The Smallest Dragonboy" for $154 and four stories that later became The Crystal Singer. Futura Publications (London) signed her to write books about dinosaurs for children. Editor Jean E. Karl
at Atheneum Books
sought to attract more female readers to science fiction and solicited "a story for young women in a different part of Pern". McCaffrey completed Menolly's story as Dragonsong and contracted for a sequel before it was out in 1976.
Having the arrangements with Atheneum in writing, she was able to shop for a mortgage and buy a home, to be called 'Dragonhold' for the dragons who bought it.
Twenty years later her son wrote that she "first set dragons free on Pern and then was herself freed by her dragons."
pilots in World War Two, fought against incredible odds day in, day out—and won."
The first Pern story, "Weyr Search", was published 1967 by John W. Campbell
in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
. It won the 1968 Hugo Award
for best novella
, voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention. The second Pern story "Dragonrider" won the 1969 Nebula Award
for best novella, voted annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America. McCaffrey was the first woman to win any Nebula and the first woman to win a Hugo for a work of fiction.
"Weyr Search" covers the recruitment of a young woman named Lessa to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, and thus to become a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community. "Dragonrider" covers the growth of queen dragon Ramoth and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. Editor Campbell requested "to see dragons fighting Thread", the menace from space; he also suggested time travel. McCaffrey put it all together. The third story "Crack Dust, Black Dust" was not separately published but provided material to fix-up
all as the first Pern novel, Dragonflight (Ballantine Books
, 1968).
If John Campbell was the midwife to Dragonflight, with its major components published as award-winning novellas, agent Virginia Kidd and editor Betty Ballantine
provided crucial advice and assistance in the struggle with a sequel, Dragonquest. It was almost complete and the contract for another sequel was signed before the 1970 move to Ireland. Both Ballantine and fellow writer Andre Norton
made suggestions for the mutant white dragon.
Readers waited a long time for the completion of the original trilogy. It did not progress until 1974/75, when the New England Science Fiction Association
invited McCaffrey to its annual convention Boskone
as Guest of Honor, which included the special publication of a novella for sale on site. She wrote A Time When which would become the first part of The White Dragon
Finally The White Dragon was released beside new editions of the first two Pern books, with cover art illustrated by Michael Whelan
. It was the first science fiction book by a woman on The New York Times Best Seller list and the cover painting is still in print from Whelan. The artists share some credit for their career breakthroughs.
, "while I would dearly love to have the energy to tell a tale all on my own, I really cannot say that I am not ably represented with my collaborations." Doing Pern with Todd she was mainly "making suggestions or being a sounding board." According to Todd, she said that three people may write in her universe, her children Todd and Gigi, and Ceara, her granddaughter by Todd.
(August 1987) ranked two of the eight extant Pern novels among the 33 "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", based on a poll of subscribers: Dragonflight #9 and The White Dragon #23. Commenting on the Locus list, David Pringle
calls them "arguably science fiction rather than fantasy proper" and names McCaffrey one "leading practitioner" of the planetary romance
type of science fiction.
The author considered most of her work science fiction and enjoyed "cutting them short when they call me a 'fantasy' writer." All the Pern books are science fiction because dragons were genetically engineered by the Pern colonists. Regarding science she said, "I don't keep up with developments, but I do find an expert in any field in which I must explain myself and the science involved." Astronomer Steven Beard often helped with science questions and she acknowledged the reproductive biologist Jack Cohen several times.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
citation of Anne McCaffrey summarizes her genre as "science fiction, though tinged with the tone and instruments of fantasy" and her reputation as "a writer of romantic, heightened tales of adventure explicitly designed to appeal—and to make good sense to—a predominantly female adolescent audience."
McCaffrey said in a 2000 that her "readers are [NOT] predominately of an age or sex group. Dragons have a universal appeal!" Formerly it was another matter:
The American Library Association
in 1999 gave McCaffrey the 11th Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, citing The Ship Who Sang (1969) and the first six Pern books—those sometimes called the "original trilogy" and the "Harper Hall trilogy".
, published by Ballantine Books
in 1967. Unlike most science fiction books of the era, Restorees heroine is a strong willed, intelligent woman who is willing and able to think for herself and act on her own initiative. McCaffrey was widely quoted as saying that Restoree was intended as a "jab" at how women were usually portrayed in science fiction.
series. These are set on a planet known as Pern
, settled by colonists from Earth. The advanced technology of their ancestors has been lost, so the inhabitants of Pern have reverted to a society similar to Earth's medieval times. However, before the loss of this advanced technology, the original colonists produced genetically engineered dragons. These dragons are now flown by elite "dragonriders", who communicate telepathically with their dragons. Together they defend Pern against pernicious "thread" which cross space periodically from a nearby planet (the so-called "red star") and threaten to destroy all vegetation on Pern.
of five previously published stories.
The stories of this series deal with the various adventures of 'shell-people' who, as infants, due to illness or birth defects (genetic or developmental), have had to be hard-wired into a life support system. With sensory input and motor nerves tied into a computer, they serve as starship pilots
or colony administrators, seeing and feeling the colony or ship as an extension of their own body. They perform this job to pay off their debt for education and hardware, and then in whatever capacity they choose once the debt is paid, as free agents.
It is generally considered impossible for a person to make the necessary adjustments to become a shell unless it is done at a very early age (under 2–3 years old). A notable exception is in The Ship Who Searched
where the Shell-person was 7 at the time she became quadriplegic.
The Ship books are set in the same universe as the Crystal Singer books, as Brainship-Brawn pairings were characters in the second and third volumes of that series.
The Crystal Singer series revolves around the planet Ballybran
. Under a permanent biohazard travel restriction, Ballybran
is home to one of the FSP's wealthiest, yet most reclusive organizations—the Heptite Guild. Source of invaluable crystals vital to various industries, the Heptite Guild is known to require absolute, perfect pitch in hearing and voice for all applicants, especially those seeking to mine crystal by song. The second and third books feature brainships that were not main characters in the Brain & Brawn Ship series.
, comprises five novels, two "Dinosaur Planets" by Anne McCaffrey 1978 and 1984, and three "Planet Pirates" written with co-authors in the 1990s.
They share a fictional premise and some characters and some events overlap. "Dinosaur Planets" follow the Exploration and Evaluation Corps team on the planet Ireta, who did not expect to find dinosaurs. In "Planet Pirates", all is not well in the FSP: pirates attack the spacelanes. Survivors on Ireta and survivors of space pirate attacks join forces.
, comprises two series: "Talent" and "The Tower and Hive". They share one fictional premise. Eight books, all by Anne McCaffrey alone, are rooted in her second story (1959) and three stories published in 1969.
The Talents universe involves a society built around the Talents of telepathic, telekinetic individuals who become integral to the connectivity of interstellar society.
Her nonfiction includes two cookery books and a book about dragons.
She collaborated closely with with musicians Tania Opland and Mike Freeman in the creation of two CDs: "The Masterharper of Pern" and "Sunset's Gold," based on her own lyrics and the music described in her Pern novels.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born Irish
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and a Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
. Her book The White Dragon
The White Dragon
The White Dragon is a 2004 Hong Kong wuxia comedy film directed by Wilson Yip and starring Cecilia Cheung and Francis Ng.The White Dragon is directed by Wilson Yip, whose best known works to date are Bullets Over Summer, Juliet in Love and SPL: Sha Po Lang...
became one of the first science fiction novels ever to land on the New York Times Best Seller List
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
.
The Science Fiction Writers of America in 2005 named her the 22nd Grand Master, a now-annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
Science Fiction Hall of Fame
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame can refer to:*Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1994**The hall of fame located there...
inducted her on 17 June 2006.
Life
Anne Inez McCaffrey was the second of three children born to Colonel George Herbert McCaffrey and Anne Dorothy McElroy. She had two brothers: Hugh ("Mac", deceased 1988) and Kevin Richard McCaffrey ("Kevie"). She attended Stuart HallStuart Hall School
Stuart Hall School in Staunton, Virginia was founded by the Episcopal church as Virginia Female Institute in 1844. It was renamed in 1907 in honor of its most famous headmistress, Flora Cooke Stuart, the widow of Confederate cavalry leader Maj. Gen. J.E.B...
, a girls boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in Staunton, Virginia
Staunton, Virginia
Staunton is an independent city within the confines of Augusta County in the commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 23,746 as of 2010. It is the county seat of Augusta County....
, but graduated from Montclair High School. In 1947 she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
with a degree in Slavonic Languages and Literature.
In 1950 she married Horace Wright Johnson (deceased 2009), who shared her interests in music, opera, and ballet. They had three children: Alec Anthony, born 1952; Todd, born 1956; and Georgeanne ("Gigi", Georgeanne Kennedy), born 1959.
Except for a short term in Düsseldorf, the family lived most of a decade in Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
. They moved to Sea Cliff, Long Island
Sea Cliff, New York
The Village of Sea Cliff is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York. As of the United States 2010 Census, the village population was 4,995...
in 1965, and McCaffrey became a full-time author.
At this stage in her career McCaffrey served a term as Secretary-Treasurer of the Science Fiction Writers of America, 1968–1970. Beside handcrafting the Nebula Award trophies, the responsibilities covered production of two monthly newsletters and their distribution by mail to the members.
Anne McCaffrey emigrated to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
with her two younger children in 1970, only weeks after filing for divorce. Ireland had recently exempted resident artists from income taxes, an opportunity that fellow science fiction author Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
had promptly taken and helped to promote. Anne's mother soon joined the family in Dublin. The following Spring, McCaffrey was Guest of Honor at her first British national science fiction convention (Eastercon
Eastercon
Eastercon is the common name for the British national science fiction convention. From 1948 until the 1960s, the convention was held over the three-day Whitsun bank holiday at the end of May. Since then it has been held over the four-day Easter holiday weekend...
22, 1971). There she met the British reproductive biologist Jack Cohen
Jack Cohen (scientist)
Jack Cohen, FIBiol is a British reproductive biologist also known for his popular science books and involvement with science fiction.-Life:...
. He would be an important consultant regarding the science of Pern, not only its flora and fauna.
Many experiences from her own life became sources of inspiration for her writing.
Writer
McCaffrey had had two short stories published during the 1950s. The first was written in 1952 while she was pregnant with her son Alec, "Freedom of the Race" about women impregnated by aliens. It earned a $100 prize in Science-Fiction PlusScience-Fiction Plus
Science-Fiction Plus was a science fiction magazine published from Philadelphia by Gernsback Publications, Inc. in 1952-53...
. Her second story "The Lady in the Tower" was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction by editor Robert P. Mills
Robert P. Mills
Robert Park Mills was an American crime- and science fiction magazine editor and literary agent.Mills was the managing editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine beginning in 1948 and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from its inception in 1949; he took over as editor upon the resignation...
and purchased again by editor Judith Merril
Judith Merril
Judith Josephine Grossman , who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist....
for The Year's Greatest Science Fiction. McCaffrey said, "she thought of the story when wishing herself alone, like a lady in an ivory tower".
Judy Merril matched McCaffrey with her long-time literary agent Virginia Kidd
Virginia Kidd
Virginia Kidd was an American literary agent, writer and editor, particularly influential in science fiction and related fields. She represented some of science fiction's most important authors, including Ursula K. Le Guin, R.A. Lafferty, Anne McCaffrey, and Gene Wolfe...
(deceased 2003) and invited her to the Milford Writer's Workshop
Milford Writer's Workshop
The Milford Writer's Workshop or more properly Milford Writers' Conference is an influential science fiction writer's event founded by Damon Knight among others in the mid-1950s in Milford, Pennsylvania...
, where everyone brought a story and joined in intense criticism. She returned many times. After her first "Milford" in 1959 she worked on "The Ship Who Sang", the story that started the so-called Brain & Brawn Ship series. In the end, the spaceship Helva sings "Taps
Taps
"Taps" is a musical piece sounded by the U.S. military nightly to indicate that it is "lights out". The tune is also sometimes known as "Butterfields Lullaby", or by the lyrics of its second verse, "Day is Done". It is also played during flag ceremonies and funerals, generally on bugle or trumpet...
" for her human partner. Decades later son Todd called it "almost an elegy to her father". She considers it her best story and her favorite (1994 to 2004). "I put much of myself into it: myself and the troubles I had in accepting my father's death [1954] and a troubled marriage."
McCaffrey then wrote two more "Ship" stories and started her first novel. Regarding one motivation for Restoree (1967), her son quotes "I was so tired of all the weak women screaming in the corner while their boyfriends were beating off the aliens. I wouldn't have been—I'd've been in there swinging with something or kicking them as hard as I could." Recently she explained that it doesn't need a sequel: it "served its purpose of an intelligent, survivor-type woman as the protagonist of an S-F story".
Regarding Decision at Doona (1969), which she dedicated "To Todd Johnson—of course!", her son says that he was directed to lower his voice as an actor in the fourth-grade
Fourth grade
Fourth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The fourth grade is the fourth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 9 or 10 years old, depending on their birthday. It is a part of elementary school. In some parts of the United States, fourth grade...
school play, with his mother in the auditorium. That was the inspiration for Doona, "an overcrowded planet where just talking too loud made you a social outcast".
McCaffrey made a fast start in Ireland, completing for 1971 publication the works in progress Dragonquest and two Gothic novels for Dell
Dell Publishing
Dell Publishing, an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr.During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included 1000 Jokes, launched in...
, The Mark of Merlin and The Ring of Fear. With a contract for The White Dragon, which would complete the "original trilogy" with Ballantine, her writing stalled. During the next few years the family moved several times in the vicinity of Dublin and struggled to make ends meet, supported largely by child care payments and meager royalties.
The market for young adults provided crucial opportunities. Editor Roger Elwood
Roger Elwood
Roger Elwood was an American science fiction writer and editor, perhaps best known for having edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early 1970s.-Biography:...
sought contributions of short work to anthologies. McCaffrey started the Pern story of Menolly. She delivered "The Smallest Dragonboy" for $154 and four stories that later became The Crystal Singer. Futura Publications (London) signed her to write books about dinosaurs for children. Editor Jean E. Karl
Jean E. Karl
Jean Edna Karl was an American book editor who specialized in children's and science fiction titles. She founded and led the children's division and young adult and science fiction imprints at Atheneum Books, where she oversaw or edited books that won two Caldecott Medals and five Newbery Medals...
at Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books was a publishing house and adult publisher created by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. in 1959. He recruited editor Jean E. Karl personally, to come and establish a Children's Book Department in 1961....
sought to attract more female readers to science fiction and solicited "a story for young women in a different part of Pern". McCaffrey completed Menolly's story as Dragonsong and contracted for a sequel before it was out in 1976.
Having the arrangements with Atheneum in writing, she was able to shop for a mortgage and buy a home, to be called 'Dragonhold' for the dragons who bought it.
Twenty years later her son wrote that she "first set dragons free on Pern and then was herself freed by her dragons."
Dragons
Some time after the move to Long Island, Todd McCaffrey recalls, his mother asked him what he thought of dragons. She was brainstorming about their "bad press all these years". The result was a "technologically regressed survival planet" whose people were united against a threat from space, in contrast to America divided by the Vietnam War. "The dragons became the biologically renewable air force, and their riders 'the few' who, like the RAFRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
pilots in World War Two, fought against incredible odds day in, day out—and won."
The first Pern story, "Weyr Search", was published 1967 by John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
. It won the 1968 Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for best novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
, voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention. The second Pern story "Dragonrider" won the 1969 Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
for best novella, voted annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America. McCaffrey was the first woman to win any Nebula and the first woman to win a Hugo for a work of fiction.
"Weyr Search" covers the recruitment of a young woman named Lessa to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, and thus to become a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community. "Dragonrider" covers the growth of queen dragon Ramoth and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. Editor Campbell requested "to see dragons fighting Thread", the menace from space; he also suggested time travel. McCaffrey put it all together. The third story "Crack Dust, Black Dust" was not separately published but provided material to fix-up
Fix-up
A fix-up is a novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material—such as a frame story—is written for the new novel. The term was coined by the science fiction...
all as the first Pern novel, Dragonflight (Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, 1968).
If John Campbell was the midwife to Dragonflight, with its major components published as award-winning novellas, agent Virginia Kidd and editor Betty Ballantine
Betty Ballantine
Betty Ballantine is a publisher who, with her husband Ian Ballantine, formed Bantam Books in 1945 and Ballantine Books in 1952. They became freelance publishers in the 1970s. Their son Richard is an author and journalist specialising in cycling topics.Ballantine received a Special Committee Award...
provided crucial advice and assistance in the struggle with a sequel, Dragonquest. It was almost complete and the contract for another sequel was signed before the 1970 move to Ireland. Both Ballantine and fellow writer Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
made suggestions for the mutant white dragon.
Readers waited a long time for the completion of the original trilogy. It did not progress until 1974/75, when the New England Science Fiction Association
New England Science Fiction Association
The New England Science Fiction Association, or NESFA, is a science fiction club centered in the New England area. It was founded in 1967, "by fans who wanted to do things in addition to socializing"...
invited McCaffrey to its annual convention Boskone
Boskone (convention)
Boskone is an annual science fiction convention run by NESFA in Boston, Massachusetts. In the words of the convention organizers, "Boskone is a regional Science Fiction convention focusing on literature, art, music, and gaming ". It is held over President's Day weekend every February, in the city...
as Guest of Honor, which included the special publication of a novella for sale on site. She wrote A Time When which would become the first part of The White Dragon
Finally The White Dragon was released beside new editions of the first two Pern books, with cover art illustrated by Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan is an American artist of imaginative realism. For more than 30 years he worked as an illustrator specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art...
. It was the first science fiction book by a woman on The New York Times Best Seller list and the cover painting is still in print from Whelan. The artists share some credit for their career breakthroughs.
Pern forever
She said of collaboration with Todd and Elizabeth Ann ScarboroughElizabeth Ann Scarborough
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough was born March 23, 1947 and lives in Port Townsend, Washington. Scarborough won a Nebula Award in 1989 for her novel The Healer's War, and has written more than a dozen other novels...
, "while I would dearly love to have the energy to tell a tale all on my own, I really cannot say that I am not ably represented with my collaborations." Doing Pern with Todd she was mainly "making suggestions or being a sounding board." According to Todd, she said that three people may write in her universe, her children Todd and Gigi, and Ceara, her granddaughter by Todd.
Death
85 year old McCaffrey died on 21 November 2011 at her home in Ireland after suffering a stroke.Classification
Locus: The magazine of the science fiction & fantasy fieldLocus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
(August 1987) ranked two of the eight extant Pern novels among the 33 "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", based on a poll of subscribers: Dragonflight #9 and The White Dragon #23. Commenting on the Locus list, David Pringle
David Pringle
David Pringle is a Scottish science fiction editor.Pringle served as the editor of Foundation, an academic journal, from 1980 through 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective which founded Interzone in 1982...
calls them "arguably science fiction rather than fantasy proper" and names McCaffrey one "leading practitioner" of the planetary romance
Planetary romance
Planetary romance is a type of science fiction or science fantasy story in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds...
type of science fiction.
The author considered most of her work science fiction and enjoyed "cutting them short when they call me a 'fantasy' writer." All the Pern books are science fiction because dragons were genetically engineered by the Pern colonists. Regarding science she said, "I don't keep up with developments, but I do find an expert in any field in which I must explain myself and the science involved." Astronomer Steven Beard often helped with science questions and she acknowledged the reproductive biologist Jack Cohen several times.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
Science Fiction Hall of Fame
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame can refer to:*Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1994**The hall of fame located there...
citation of Anne McCaffrey summarizes her genre as "science fiction, though tinged with the tone and instruments of fantasy" and her reputation as "a writer of romantic, heightened tales of adventure explicitly designed to appeal—and to make good sense to—a predominantly female adolescent audience."
McCaffrey said in a 2000 that her "readers are [NOT] predominately of an age or sex group. Dragons have a universal appeal!" Formerly it was another matter:
I started writing s-f in the late 50's early 60's when readership was predominantly male. And their attitudes unreconstructed. [... Women] began reading s-f and fantasy—and, by preference, women writers. My stories had themes and heroines they could relate to. And did. I never had any trouble with editors and publishers. I had trouble getting male readers to believe I was serious, and a good enough writer to interest them.
The American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
in 1999 gave McCaffrey the 11th Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, citing The Ship Who Sang (1969) and the first six Pern books—those sometimes called the "original trilogy" and the "Harper Hall trilogy".
Restoree
McCaffrey's first novel was RestoreeRestoree
Restoree is a science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey and her first book published.It is the story of a young woman who survives being abducted by aliens and finds a new life on another planet....
, published by Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
in 1967. Unlike most science fiction books of the era, Restorees heroine is a strong willed, intelligent woman who is willing and able to think for herself and act on her own initiative. McCaffrey was widely quoted as saying that Restoree was intended as a "jab" at how women were usually portrayed in science fiction.
Federated Sentient Planets universe
Several of McCaffrey's series and more than half her books are set in a universe governed by the "Federated Sentient Planets" or "Federation" or "FSP". Though Pern's history is strongly connected to the Federation, McCaffrey only used the Federation as a background for storytelling, and did not consider her different 'worlds' to be part of the same universe.Dragonriders of Pern series
McCaffrey's most famous works are the Dragonriders of PernDragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
series. These are set on a planet known as Pern
Pern
Pern is a fictional planet created by Anne McCaffrey for the Dragonriders of Pern series of fantasy and science fiction books. It is said to be "Rukbat 3", the third planet in orbit around the star Rukbat, counting outward....
, settled by colonists from Earth. The advanced technology of their ancestors has been lost, so the inhabitants of Pern have reverted to a society similar to Earth's medieval times. However, before the loss of this advanced technology, the original colonists produced genetically engineered dragons. These dragons are now flown by elite "dragonriders", who communicate telepathically with their dragons. Together they defend Pern against pernicious "thread" which cross space periodically from a nearby planet (the so-called "red star") and threaten to destroy all vegetation on Pern.
The Brain & Brawn Ship series
The Brain & Brawn Ship series comprises seven novels. Only the first was written by Anne McCaffrey alone, a fix-upFix-up
A fix-up is a novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material—such as a frame story—is written for the new novel. The term was coined by the science fiction...
of five previously published stories.
The stories of this series deal with the various adventures of 'shell-people' who, as infants, due to illness or birth defects (genetic or developmental), have had to be hard-wired into a life support system. With sensory input and motor nerves tied into a computer, they serve as starship pilots
Brainship
A brainship is a fictional concept of an interstellar starship. A brainship is made by inserting the disembodied brain and nervous system of a human being into a life-support system, and connecting it surgically to a series of computers via delicate synaptic connections The brain "feels" the ship ...
or colony administrators, seeing and feeling the colony or ship as an extension of their own body. They perform this job to pay off their debt for education and hardware, and then in whatever capacity they choose once the debt is paid, as free agents.
It is generally considered impossible for a person to make the necessary adjustments to become a shell unless it is done at a very early age (under 2–3 years old). A notable exception is in The Ship Who Searched
The Ship Who Searched
The Ship Who Searched is a science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey. It is the third of seven books in the "Ship Who Sang series" by McCaffrey and four other authors, and the only one by Lackey...
where the Shell-person was 7 at the time she became quadriplegic.
The Ship books are set in the same universe as the Crystal Singer books, as Brainship-Brawn pairings were characters in the second and third volumes of that series.
The Crystal universe
The Crystal universe is the setting for five books including the Crystal Singer trilogy. The first book, and first of the trilogy, The Crystal Singer (1982) is a fix-up of four stories published in 1974/1975.The Crystal Singer series revolves around the planet Ballybran
Ballybran
Ballybran is a fictional planet created by science fiction writer Anne McCaffrey within her Federated Sentient Planets universe.The story originated as series of short stories, which were later expanded into the novelsCrystal Singer....
. Under a permanent biohazard travel restriction, Ballybran
Ballybran
Ballybran is a fictional planet created by science fiction writer Anne McCaffrey within her Federated Sentient Planets universe.The story originated as series of short stories, which were later expanded into the novelsCrystal Singer....
is home to one of the FSP's wealthiest, yet most reclusive organizations—the Heptite Guild. Source of invaluable crystals vital to various industries, the Heptite Guild is known to require absolute, perfect pitch in hearing and voice for all applicants, especially those seeking to mine crystal by song. The second and third books feature brainships that were not main characters in the Brain & Brawn Ship series.
Ireta
The Ireta series, as catalogued by the Internet Speculative Fiction DatabaseInternet Speculative Fiction Database
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database is a database of bibliographic information on science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with both the database and wiki being open for editing and user contributions...
, comprises five novels, two "Dinosaur Planets" by Anne McCaffrey 1978 and 1984, and three "Planet Pirates" written with co-authors in the 1990s.
They share a fictional premise and some characters and some events overlap. "Dinosaur Planets" follow the Exploration and Evaluation Corps team on the planet Ireta, who did not expect to find dinosaurs. In "Planet Pirates", all is not well in the FSP: pirates attack the spacelanes. Survivors on Ireta and survivors of space pirate attacks join forces.
The Talents universe
"The Talents Universe", as catalogued by the Internet Speculative Fiction DatabaseInternet Speculative Fiction Database
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database is a database of bibliographic information on science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with both the database and wiki being open for editing and user contributions...
, comprises two series: "Talent" and "The Tower and Hive". They share one fictional premise. Eight books, all by Anne McCaffrey alone, are rooted in her second story (1959) and three stories published in 1969.
The Talents universe involves a society built around the Talents of telepathic, telekinetic individuals who become integral to the connectivity of interstellar society.
The Barque Cat series
This series covers the origin of the barque cats in the Tower and Hive series.Doona
Two civilizations in near-identical circumstances – an overlarge, lethargic population and a tragic history with sentient aliens – end up attempting to colonize the same planet by accident. What the humans don't know is that the people they've misidentified as nomadic natives are actually more technically advanced than themselves – and under no such illusions regarding them. The books are set in the time of "Amalgamated Worlds" but a sentence in chapter ten of Crisis at Doona hints that there is "a desire to form a Federation of Sentient Planets". This sets the books just prior to the FSP universe of much of the author's work.Petaybee universe
The Petaybee universe comprises two trilogies, "Powers" and "The Twins of Petaybee" by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.The Freedom series
The Freedom series or "Catteni Sequence" comprises one 1970 short story and four Freedom novels written 1995 to 2002.Acorna universe
The "Acorna Universe series" comprises ten novels published 1997 to 2007, seven sometimes called Acorna and three sometimes called Acorna's Children. The first two were written by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball, the rest by McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.Other works
McCaffrey has also published two short story collections, several romances and young adult fantasies.Her nonfiction includes two cookery books and a book about dragons.
She collaborated closely with with musicians Tania Opland and Mike Freeman in the creation of two CDs: "The Masterharper of Pern" and "Sunset's Gold," based on her own lyrics and the music described in her Pern novels.
Other
– Official website at Pern Home.- Pern Home —"the website for Pern and The Dragonriders of Pern™".
- Anne McCaffrey. The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees.
- Anne McCaffrey Guest of Honour at Eurocon 2007