When I wrote my post in 2010 about the Hugos of 1956, the nominees for that year were lost in the mists of time. Last month they were found again, by Olav Rokne in an old Progress Report, which is very exciting, because it gives me the chance to compare what I thought they might be to what they really were. It’s great to be wrong, and goodness me I was wrong!
Here’s my thinking on Best Novel, from 2010:
Looking at the Wikipedia article on 1955 novels, I think there are six other likely books that might have been nominees: Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity (post), Frederic Brown’s Martians Go Home, Arthur C. Clarke’s Earthlight, Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth’s Gladiator-at-Law, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King and John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids (post). All of these have since become classics, they’d all have been very worthy nominees. I don’t think any of them are better than Double Star, or likely to have been more popular.
In YA, there was C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew; two Andre Norton books, Sargasso of Space (under the name North) and Star Guard; and Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky.
Also clearly published as science fiction but I think less likely to have been nominated were: Alien Minds by E. Everett Evans, Address Centauri by F.L. Wallace. Star Bridge by Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn, and by Gunn alone This Fortress World, Stanton A. Coblenz’s Under the Triple Suns, and Robert Silverberg’s first novel Revolt on Alpha C.
And here’s the rediscovered actual list of nominees:
- Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein [Astounding Feb,Mar,Apr 1956]
- Call Him Dead, by Eric Frank Russell
- The End of Eternity, by Isaac Asimov
- Not this August, by Cyril Kornbluth
- The Long Tomorrow, by Leigh Brackett
Double Star is the winner. I was right about The End of Eternity, so I get one point. One. One of the commenters, “Bob”, mentioned Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow, so he also gets a point.
We didn’t even find the others never mind consider them—which shows the inadequacy of relying on Wikipedia’s list of books for a year! (I later switched to using the Internet SF Database, which was better.) Of my potential nominees, it’s interesting that The Return of the King didn’t get on the actual ballot. In those days fantasy wasn’t as highly regarded, and Tolkien didn’t become big in the U.S. until the paperbacks came out, but even so, it seems very strange at this distance.
Of the real nominees, the most exciting one is the Brackett. This is the first time a woman was nominated for a best novel Hugo—or indeed, any Hugo. Zenna Henderson, Katherine MacLean, and Pauline Ashwell were all nominated in novelette in 1959, and Marion Zimmer Bradley was, until now, believed to be the first woman nominated for best novel, in 1963. But in fact Brackett beat them all to it. So that’s great to know.
I think Double Star is still the best book of the year, perhaps Heinlein’s best novel, and the voters were absolutely right.
In the other categories I didn’t even try to find potential nominees, but here are the real ones, with new comments:
Best Novelette
- “Exploration Team” (alt: “Combat Team”) by Murray Leinster [Astounding Mar 1956]
- “A Gun for Dinosaur”, by L. Sprague de Camp
- “Brightside Crossing”, by Alan Nourse
- “Home There’s No Returning”, by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore
- “Legwork”, by Eric Frank Russell
- “The Assistant Self”, by F.L. Wallace
- “The End of Summer”, by Algis Budrys
- “Who?”, by Theodore Sturgeon
“The End of Summer” was one of the first adult SF stories I ever read, in the Brian Aldiss Best Penguin SF volume, and I continue to think it’s a terrific memorable story, and it would be my favourite out of these, and I’d definitely have voted for it above the Leinster. I also remember the Sturgeon, the de Camp, and the Eric Frank Russell without needing to look anything up, which means they are classics by the my definition. Any of them would have been good winners. Fascinating list.
Best Short Story
- “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke [Infinity Nov 1955]
- “End as a World”, by F.L. Wallace
- “King of the Hill”, by James Blish
- “Nobody Bothers Gus”, by Algis Budrys
- “The Game of Rat and Dragon”, by Cordwainer Smith
- “The Dragon”, by Ray Bradbury
- “Spy Story”, by Robert Sheckley
- “Twink”, by Theodore Sturgeon
“The Game of Rat and Dragon” is pretty amazing, and so is “Twink” but… the voters were 100% right to give it to Clarke anyway. It really is one of the best SF short stories of all time, and the first as far as I know to be working in that particular subgenre.
Best Professional Magazine
- Astounding Science Fiction ed. by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Note: No shortlist of finalists was published in this category. The ballot instructions read “Pro mag names must be written in.”
Best Professional Artist
- Frank Kelly Freas
- Chesley Bonestell
- Ed Emshwiller
- Virgil Finlay
- Mel Hunter
- Edward Valigursky
Best Fanzine
- Inside and Science Fiction Advertiser, ed. by Ron Smith
- A Bas
- Fantasy-Times
- Grue
- Hyphen
- Oblique
- Peon
- Psychotic-SF Review
- Skyhook
Best Feature Writer
- Willy Ley
- L. Sprague de Camp
- Robert A. Madle
- Rog Phillips
- R.S. Richardson
Best Book Reviewer
- Damon Knight
- Henry Bott
- P. Schuyler Miller
- Anthony Boucher
- Groff Conklin
- Villiers Gerson
- Floyd Gale
- Hans Stefan Santesson
What a huge field! This really is a neat category, and it doesn’t overlap with any of our current categories—I guess it overlaps with fanwriter somewhat, but Knight and some of the others were being paid to review for magazines.
Most Promising New Author
- Robert Silverberg
- Harlan Ellison
- Frank Herbert
- Henry Still
And I still think they were right to give it to Silverberg, but Ellison and Herbert are also terrific choices, and have thoroughly fulfilled their promise. Henry Still, on the other hand, I don’t know, and Googling doesn’t seem to be making me any wiser—anyone?
Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s published a collection of Tor.com pieces, three poetry collections and thirteen novels, including the Hugo and Nebula winning Among Others. Her most recent book is Thessaly. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here irregularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.
Henry Still seems to have continued publishing at least until the seventies, though I’ve never heard of him either. The lone and level sands stretch far away indeed.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/841425.Henry_Still
Now, that’s a trivia question: “what author was on the Hugo ballot for ‘Most Promising New Author’ along with Ellison, Herbert, and Silverberg?”
How have I never read Double Star? I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend now.
I think that I would put ” The Long Tomorrow ” ahead of “Double Star”. It moved me a lot more than the Heinlein. And as much as I liked the Heinlein it seemed like ” The Prisoner of Zenda” in space to me.Though still one of his better books.
Henry Still’s ISFDB page http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?14025 shows 4 SF stories in 1955, 4in 1956 and 2 after, in “Fantastic” “Imaginative” “Amazing,” and “If”.
This blog post makes me very happy.
It’s particularly cool that you point out Brackett is the first woman to have been nominated for the Hugo Award. When I found this list of nominees, and got it confirmed with the Hugo administrators, one of the first things I did was update Brackett’s Wikipedia page, and the page for The Long Tomorrow to note that.
Hey, I got a point! I think the Brackett is fantastic and should be better known in the field, but I agree, Jo, Double Star is my favorite Heinlein and my favorite of the year. I’m reading the Russell now and it is a solid SF novel of the era – enjoyable if not terrific – so I can understand it’s nomination. Also it appeared in Astounding – so it had the upper hand there. I’ve read all of your suggestions (from your adult SF list anyway) and the only one that I think should have been there was the Wyndham. (And voting in hindsight the Tolkien would be in for sure but at the time…). I will read Not This August next. I love Kornbluth’s short stories (read the NESF collection “His Share of Glory”and see what a beautiful writer he was at the time. Off on a lot of sociological things (see “Marching Morons”) but very nicely written quiet stories of the future. His novels though are, I think, not very good.
Anyway, I have two more of the short fictions to read. It’s fun for me since I’ve read all the fiction ever nominated for the Hugo to have these “new” ones to read!
@liontime, it was Prisoner of Zenda in space. The Flandry books were Reilly, Ace of Spies in space. Half of space opera is Hornblower in space.
There are only so many plots; they’ve all been used before ;)
@wingracer, I think it’s his best book. à chacun son goût
@@.-@ (extending @8): The Prisoner of Zenda is just an adventure novel; Double Star is about someone who grows beyond their own smallmindedness. It’s what Panshin was imitating in Rite of Passage, which is probably why the latter won the Nebula. And carrying on @8’s list, The Stars My Destination is just The Count of Monte Cristo in space — except Bester built a whole new environment to make it fit, and very little of his 1950’s work can be called “just” anything.
Arguably, Brackett shares this honor with Moore, who is also on this ballot amongst the rediscovered nominees. It’s grand to see these nominees rediscovered.
I’d agree that the Moore and Brackett nominations are the most significant things on this list, but I think the nomination for pre-hiatus Asimov is also worth noting. (He won a couple of special Hugos in the 60’s, but not a regular one until The Gods Themselves in 1973.)
// Henry Still, on the other hand, I don’t know, and Googling doesn’t seem to be making me any wiser—anyone?//
A regular commenter at my blog has been doing some detective work on Henry Still, but I’ve yet to write it all up. Basically he wrote some mildly comic SF short fiction in the 50s and then went onto become an aerospace journalist and ghost writer.
Leigh Brackett is one of two women who were the first women nominated for a Hugo award. The same recently rediscovered list of 1956’s nominees includes Peggy Nadramia’s Grue for Best Fanzine. And of course that’s the category with the first female Hugo Winner — Elinor Busby (jointly with F.M. Busby, Burnett Toskey and Wally Weber) for Cry of the Nameless in 1959.
Dear Ms Walton,
I believe Call Him Dead is the book I read as Three to Conquer as an Ace Double. When I read them both in the early ’60s, I’d have picked the Russell in a heartbeat. Russell doesn’t age well, but he’s a great entry to the field for a kid.
All best,
Dave Drake
Oh! Three to Conquer I have read. Thank you. I agree about Russell, though I’ve re-read a couple and enjoyed them and written about them here, Wasp and Next of Kin which were the ones I liked best when I was a kid.
Well, this list pre-dated me (by one year!) but its interesting both how many of these author’s I’ve read, and how many of them I’ve never heard of.
Just a few names that popped out for me; it was always a treat for me back in the 60s and 70s when Analog magazine featured cover art by Frank Kelly Freas. He work was always so imaginative and colorful. I always thought of Chesley Bonestell as more of a scientific illustrator than a cover artist, as I’ve seen so much of his art used to illustrate books and articles about space and space exploration rather than fiction.
I don’t remember Willy Lee so much as a “feature writer” but rather as someone who wrote some really fascinating popular books back in the day on space and space flight. I’ve still got a couple of his books on my shelves, that I picked up in used book stores when I was younger.
Its also fun to see John W. Campbell, Jr. listed as editor of the Best Professional Magazine. I remember him best as the editor of Analog and his particular taste in stories had a big influence in my own preferences for many years.
Finally, it seems so strange, from the vantage point of today, to see a couple of giants in the genre listed as “Most Promising New Author”. A reminder that everyone had to start somewhere.
It’s interesting to look at awards nominations for decades past. I see from Still’s list of stories published in 1955 & ’56 why he would have been considered a promising new author. To fans in 1955 Still had two stories published in Fantastic magazine, one published in IF, and one published in Amazing. As 1956 began and planning for the Con picked up, Still published more stories in IF and Amazing finishing out that year with 4 published stories.
To fans at the time it seemed he was a prolific and promising new author–4 published stories one year and 4 published stories the next year certainly seems an achievement. My immediate reaction was to wonder if it were a pseudonym for some lighter stories by someone who went on to write something else. Guess not. I wonder if there’s a trunk somewhere with more stories, an unfinished novel, etc. that life prevented Still from continuing?
I read Not This August under the title Christmas Eve, long ago. It was very bleak, I thought, and made a powerful impression on me. As did Alas Babylon, which I suppose was never thought of as SF.
A longer biography of Henry Still is here https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2017/10/21/who-the-heck-was-henry-still-a-felapton-towers-special-investigation/
@8 Heinlein said as much about plots himself. I seem to recall also something about borrowing a little being theft but borrowing a lot being an homage. :D
@20 Hornblower (and the analogous characters from other authors, such as Patrick O’Brian) were probably all based on the history of the real life character, Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald.
If the French had a Cochrane, to go with their Napoleon, there may well be a unified Europe today, from Ireland to the Urals, and they’d all be speaking French.
I’d like to go back to women and the Hugos and, no doubt, the Nebulas (just because the latter are picked by other writers, not by fans, doesn’t mean that the sexism is less rampant). Possibly because I’m old enough to have seen the intrinsic sexism and misogyny of US culture being acknowledged by decent people and, alas, glorified by random unhappy canids utter lends credence to its power over us today.
[as an aside, one of my college professors, Dr Lois Graham, was one of the first women to graduate from RPI and she was probably one of few tenured engineering faculty at a US university. This also means I’m old enough to see low-level governments attack people asking for their rights as guaranteed by the US Constitution]
21, According to David Drake, he borrowed from Cochrane for sure, for his Landry books.
Anyway, the quote is T. S. Eliot: “good writers borrow, great writers steal.”
It’s curious that “The End of Summer”, from 1954! — was on the 1956 Hugo Ballot.
But I agree — it’s a stunning story, and should get more notice. Algis Budrys was a great writer, and I am impressed every time I reread one of his best stories.