It’s been announced that Gene Wolfe has been named SFWA’s latest Grand Master*, to be awarded at the Nebula Awards Dinner in May.
Wolfe has often been among the best writers in the genre; his The Book of the New Sun** is a great book by any measure. I’m also partial to his Free Live Free.
My favorite story about Wolfe is when his story “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories”*** was nominated for a Nebula. Isaac Asimov announced it as the winner. As Wolfe headed to accept, someone whispered in Asimov’s ear. Asimov turned white. It turned out that the decision was to give no award that year.
Afterwards, at the party, someone said that Wolfe should write “The Death of Dr. Island” and he’d win for that. Wolfe did, and did win. He later wrote, “The Doctor of Death Island” and “Death of the Island Doctor.”
This is a well-deserved honor.
*I don’t like calling it by it’s official name – the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master – because Damon hated the idea of the Grand Master award.
** The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lichtor, and The Citadel of the Autarch. Wolfe wrote it as a single novel, but broke it into four books for marketing purposes (nowadays, it would be sold as a single book). He ended each of the first three books with basically the same paragraph, saying “You’ve read this far. There will be more. I wouldn’t blame you if you stopped here.”
***Collected in the delightfully named anthology The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories.
He totally deserves the recognition. The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is one of my favorite single-author anthologies and the 2 plays it contains are among the must stunning examples of impossible-to-produce theatre works that will ever be put to paper.
The idea behind the Grandmaster Awards originally was to provide a way to honor older writers who best work was written before the Nebula Awards began. At the time - 1975 - it seemed clear that the times had changed so much that even the Heinleins and Asimovs weren’t going to win any awards, since they were churning out bestselling blockbusters of sheer crap. It worked for a while. Heinlein was the first Grandmaster but never won a Nebula. Jack Williamson was second, but he started an interesting late phase to his career and won a sentimental Nebula in 1992.
After a few years it became clear that every major writer was going to continue writing until death. Nobody ever retires. So they gave up and started given it to big names. Still problems, because of a bizarre rule that it could only be given out 7 times in 10 years. Nobody ever understood that and it’s finally been jettisoned.
The ordering of the names makes little sense either. Connie Willis and Joe Haldeman are nice people and deserving writers. But to win before Gene Wolfe? And you have to be a living writer, so those who die early and unexpectedly, like Roger Zelazny and John Brunner, are shut out. As for Samuel R. Delany, all I figure is that he’s pissed off somebody important.
I’ve had lunch with Wolfe since and he is a charming man.
The Grand Master is selected by the SFWA president in consultation with the past presidents and the SFWA officers (and must be approved by a majority of these), which means that this list of people Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association - Wikipedia all have a vote. The list seems heavy on writers who were opposed to the “New Wave” which Delany was associated with, so that might be a factor. I would hope that Delany and Cherryh get the honor before they die (and by my preference, Larry Niven, too)
There’s no way you can use the excuse that Delany hasn’t been honored because the past presidents were anti-New Wave and then mention that Larry Niven also hasn’t been in the same sentence. He and Pournelle are bosom buddies and Pournelle is one of the few ex-presidents who still takes an active interest.
The current president has the most say. The others can make suggestions but the President has the last word. SFWA is a cesspool of personal aggrandizement.
Sorry. I wasn’t intending to make excuses, just to suggest a possible explanation (and actually agreeing with you that Delany might have made someone (like an ex-SFWA president) mad at him). As far as Niven is concerned, I just figure that recent SFWA presidents haven’t been big fans of his.
Thought of a better way to put it: To become Grandmaster, you have to have a current SFWA president who really likes you, and a majority of the active ex-presidents (and current officers) that don’t actively dislike you. Niven hasn’t lucked out in the first wicket yet, apparently (I suspect he’d have no problem with the second wicket); while for some reason Delany hasn’t gotten through both wickets (who knows if he’s been proposed but vetoed in the past).
It’s the President’s choice. When I was on the Board, Paul Levinson proposed Philip Jose Farmer in 2001; Sharon Lee proposed Ursula K. Le Guin in 2003. Both times, the choice was announced to the board and we agreed. It was hard to object to the names, after all.
I’m sure that Le Guin was chosen in part because Sharon thought it was well past time for a female grand master.
I doubt anyone would object to Delany being proposed. The New Wave is a dead issue these days, and they already gave a grand master to Brian Aldiss.
Yep. She was born Alice Mary Norton, but wrote under Andre Norton and Andrew North (that I know of) because when she started writing, her books were primarily considered boys’ adventure stories, and no boy would be caught dead voluntarily reading a book with a female author. Andre isn’t really a male name, but it’s not clearly female, either.
In addition to being the first female Nebula Grand Master, she was the first female to receive the Gandalf Fantasy award.
She died a few years back. Every year, I make a donation to an animal fund in memory.