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.
:(
As anyone may guess, her writings were very important to me while growing up. I’m glad I got to meet her at the 2006 Worldcon. She will be missed.
A small correction. Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo award for fiction. The first woman to win a Hugo award was Elinor Busby, who was one of the joint winners of the Hugo for Best Fanzine in 1960, eight years before Anne McCaffrey’s first Hugo.
So terribly sad.
I have been re-reading all of the Pern books recently. Such a wonderful author. She will be missed.
A remarkable lady.
It is time to find one of her books :(
or play her legacy on the dreamcast, PERN!!!
I know what I will start re-reading tonight! ALL of it! She will be greatly missed.
Without Anne MacCaffrey’s Pern, I would not be who I am today — I wish I could have told her — if you are listening, Anne, thank you, thank you.
My grandmother and I enjoyed reading her Pern books, way back in the 1980s. I also loved her Brain/Brawn series, and the Crystal Singer series.