Anne McCaffrey, legendary SF and fantasy author best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, has passed away. Random House has confirmed on Tuesday that McCaffrey died of a stroke at her home in Ireland on Monday, November 21.
McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction, the first woman to win a Nebula Award, and the first author to hit the New York Times bestseller list with an SF title (The White Dragon).
McCaffrey leaves behind a tremendous legacy. She was active in the science fiction and fantasy fields right up to her passing and will be greatly missed.
Tributes to Anne McCaffrey are starting to appear in the online SFF community. Here are a few selections:
- Neil Gaiman remembers chatting with McCaffrey (with photo)
- Shawn Speakman relates his time meeting McCaffrey over at Suvudu
- The Anne McCaffrey thread at Metafilter has been gathering a lot of touching personal stories (including a tear-inducing sleeping ASCII dragon)
- John Scalzi’s reaction to the news was short and precisely apt
McCaffrey’s family released a statement on Wednesday morning in response. Read the touching statement on Del Rey’s site here.
