Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction

A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.

https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
--
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On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>
> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/

I'm familiar with a lot of the early awarded ones, but fewer of the later. Possibly the pool of 'unjustly forgotten'
is kind of shallow, and in later years they're into the 'not so unjustly forgotten'.

pt

In article <c568dd0d-5a67-4c56-ad64-2c137cf3a2aen@googlegroups.com>,
pete...@gmail.com <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>>
>> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>>
>>
>https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
>
>I'm familiar with a lot of the early awarded ones, but fewer of the
>later. Possibly the pool of 'unjustly forgotten'
>is kind of shallow, and in later years they're into the 'not so
>unjustly forgotten'.

Or perhaps they're very unjustly forgotten. Well, except for Rick Raphael.
No idea what the jury saw in him.

--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Wed, 19 Jul 2023 08:10:08 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
<petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13?AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>>
>> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>>
>> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
>
>I'm familiar with a lot of the early awarded ones, but fewer of the later. Possibly the pool of 'unjustly forgotten'
>is kind of shallow, and in later years they're into the 'not so unjustly forgotten'.

Well, the closer to the present they are, the harder it is to tell if
they were forgotten justly or injustly.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>
> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/

I do not recommend "Gunner Cade" as an introduction to Judith Merril. This co-authored novel feels like
it was knocked off in a rainy weekend because some magazine or other had a hole in it's schedule.

Any of the other Merril works cited would be better, and more characteristic of her as a writer.

William Hyde

On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 11:26:17 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <c568dd0d-5a67-4c56...@googlegroups.com>,
> pete...@gmail.com <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
> >>
> >> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
> >>
> >>
> >https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
> >
> >I'm familiar with a lot of the early awarded ones, but fewer of the
> >later. Possibly the pool of 'unjustly forgotten'
> >is kind of shallow, and in later years they're into the 'not so
> >unjustly forgotten'.
> Or perhaps they're very unjustly forgotten. Well, except for Rick Raphael..
> No idea what the jury saw in him.

https://neglectedbooks.com/

There is some SF content on that site. But not easy to find.

He does have a category called "justly neglected"

William Hyde

On 7/19/2023 8:40 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jul 2023 08:10:08 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
> <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13?AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>>> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>>>
>>> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>>>
>>> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
>>
>> I'm familiar with a lot of the early awarded ones, but fewer of the later. Possibly the pool of 'unjustly forgotten'
>> is kind of shallow, and in later years they're into the 'not so unjustly forgotten'.
>
> Well, the closer to the present they are, the harder it is to tell if
> they were forgotten justly or injustly.

Or even if they've been forgotten. They may not have risen to the level
of being remembered enough yet to be forgettable.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 7/19/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>
> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/

I've read one of the five, "The Long Tomorrow".

BTW, it looks to me like many of the greats of the 1960s (Robert
Heinlein), 1970s (Andre Norton), 1980s (Alan Dean Foster), 1990s (David
Weber), etc are starting to fade from the public memory.

Lynn

On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>
> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
>

Very interesting - thanks. I'd lost track of this award (probably going back
to shortly after your earlier article!).

Wikipedia says the award "honors underread science fiction and fantasy
authors, with the intention of drawing renewed attention to the winners".
Given that "underread" is a squishy criterion, I'm not sure which of the
following would count as candidates for them (and I'm omitting the
SFWA Grand Masters that came to my mind):

Blish?
Budrys?
AB Chandler?
Av Davidson?
Effinger?
Hambly?
E Hamilton?
Z Henderson?
Kornbluth?
Leinster?
McKillip?
T Pierce?
Piper?
EF Russell?
Tiptree?
Wrede?

- Tony

On Wednesday, 19 July 2023 at 20:36:51 UTC+1, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 7/19/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> > Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
> >
> > A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
> >
> > https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
> I've read one of the five, "The Long Tomorrow".
>
> BTW, it looks to me like many of the greats of the 1960s (Robert
> Heinlein), 1970s (Andre Norton), 1980s (Alan Dean Foster), 1990s (David
> Weber), etc are starting to fade from the public memory.

Well, if so, then two of those are forgotten but not gone.

But I'm the public and I remember most of them.
I haven't gotten into David Weber's work.

Paul S Person wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jul 2023 08:10:08 -0700 (PDT), "pete...@gmail.com"
> <pete...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 10:09:13?AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
> >>
> >> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
> >>
> >> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
> >
> >I'm familiar with a lot of the early awarded ones, but fewer of the later. Possibly the pool of 'unjustly forgotten'
> >is kind of shallow, and in later years they're into the 'not so unjustly forgotten'.

> Well, the closer to the present they are, the harder it is to tell if
> they were forgotten justly or injustly.

At some point I will be old enough to shout about a winner, "They started writing after I started reading! How could we have had time to forget them?!?!"

--
-Jack

In article <44a66f1a-5e5c-4349-9105-995e8737c667n@googlegroups.com>,
Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
>On Wednesday, 19 July 2023 at 20:36:51 UTC+1, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> On 7/19/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
>> > Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>> >
>> > A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>> >
>> >
>https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
>> I've read one of the five, "The Long Tomorrow".
>>
>> BTW, it looks to me like many of the greats of the 1960s (Robert
>> Heinlein), 1970s (Andre Norton), 1980s (Alan Dean Foster), 1990s (David
>> Weber), etc are starting to fade from the public memory.
>
>Well, if so, then two of those are forgotten but not gone.
>
>But I'm the public and I remember most of them.
>I haven't gotten into David Weber's work.

I don't think Baen deciding not to edit Weber on the grounds it didn't
affect sales did him favours.

--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Wednesday, 19 July 2023 at 15:09:13 UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>
> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/

Probably not worth saying there, but my back-answer to
_ Hot Wireless Sets, Aspirin Tablets, the Sandpaper Sides
of Used Matches, and Something That Might Have Been
Castor Oil_, is "what's hard to swallow?"

On Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 9:33:59 AM UTC+10, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <44a66f1a-5e5c-4349...@googlegroups.com>,
> Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
> >On Wednesday, 19 July 2023 at 20:36:51 UTC+1, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> >> On 7/19/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> > Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
> >> >
> >> > A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
> >> >
> >> >
> >https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
> >> I've read one of the five, "The Long Tomorrow".
> >>
> >> BTW, it looks to me like many of the greats of the 1960s (Robert
> >> Heinlein), 1970s (Andre Norton), 1980s (Alan Dean Foster), 1990s (David
> >> Weber), etc are starting to fade from the public memory.
> >
> >Well, if so, then two of those are forgotten but not gone.
> >
> >But I'm the public and I remember most of them.
> >I haven't gotten into David Weber's work.
> I don't think Baen deciding not to edit Weber on the grounds it didn't
> affect sales did him favours.

to be fair to Baen I think Tor books did him worse on the Safehold books

On Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 12:33:59 AM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <44a66f1a-5e5c-4349...@googlegroups.com>,
> Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
> >On Wednesday, 19 July 2023 at 20:36:51 UTC+1, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> >> On 7/19/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> > Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
> >> >
> >> > A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
> >> >
> >> >
> >https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
> >> I've read one of the five, "The Long Tomorrow".
> >>
> >> BTW, it looks to me like many of the greats of the 1960s (Robert
> >> Heinlein), 1970s (Andre Norton), 1980s (Alan Dean Foster), 1990s (David
> >> Weber), etc are starting to fade from the public memory.
> >
> >Well, if so, then two of those are forgotten but not gone.
> >
> >But I'm the public and I remember most of them.
> >I haven't gotten into David Weber's work.
> I don't think Baen deciding not to edit Weber on the grounds it didn't
> affect sales did him favours.
> --
> My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
> My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
> My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
> My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
There is evidence on Baen Free Radio that this is not literally true - from memory the story is something like Weber presenting one of his doorstops for editing and it coming back with notes saying things like "you need to flesh this out a bit more" here and there.

On a slight tangent, Weber was born in 1952 according to Wikipedia, so is now 70. He is still writing, after pauses due to health issues (covid and concussion), but has noted that his most active years are behind him. Are there older active writers who have not succumbed to what used to be called the "brain-eater"? Given the age of many of those active in US politics, that would be an interesting comparison.

In article <31e373d0-8df6-446d-b63d-9434900836a6n@googlegroups.com>,
Andrew McDowell <mcdowell_ag@sky.com> wrote:
>On Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 12:33:59 AM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
>> In article <44a66f1a-5e5c-4349...@googlegroups.com>,
>> Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>> >On Wednesday, 19 July 2023 at 20:36:51 UTC+1, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> >> On 7/19/2023 9:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
>> >> > Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>> >> >
>> >> > A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>> >> >
>> >> >
>>
>>https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
>> >> I've read one of the five, "The Long Tomorrow".
>> >>
>> >> BTW, it looks to me like many of the greats of the 1960s (Robert
>> >> Heinlein), 1970s (Andre Norton), 1980s (Alan Dean Foster), 1990s (David
>> >> Weber), etc are starting to fade from the public memory.
>> >
>> >Well, if so, then two of those are forgotten but not gone.
>> >
>> >But I'm the public and I remember most of them.
>> >I haven't gotten into David Weber's work.
>> I don't think Baen deciding not to edit Weber on the grounds it didn't
>> affect sales did him favours.
>> --
>> My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
>> My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
>> My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
>> My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
>There is evidence on Baen Free Radio that this is not literally true -
>from memory the story is something like Weber presenting one of his
>doorstops for editing and it coming back with notes saying things like
>"you need to flesh this out a bit more" here and there.
>
>On a slight tangent, Weber was born in 1952 according to Wikipedia, so
>is now 70. He is still writing, after pauses due to health issues
>(covid and concussion), but has noted that his most active years are
>behind him. Are there older active writers who have not succumbed to
>what used to be called the "brain-eater"? Given the age of many of
>those active in US politics, that would be an interesting comparison.

Well, George Turner only got his start in SF when he was in his 60s....
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 8:09:13 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> Take a Minute to Celebrate the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction
>
> A brief look at the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award winners.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/07/19/take-a-minute-to-celebrate-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/

If the following authors can be described as "forgotten"...

Olaf Stapledon
R. A. Lafferty
Edgar Pangborn
Henry Kuttner
C. L. Moore
Leigh Brackett
William Hope Hodgson
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Abraham Merritt
Fredric Brown
Clark Ashton Smith
Judith Merrill

then I feel old.

For that matter, while I do vaguely remember that Carol Emshwiller did
write science fiction, it is the memory of Edmund Alexander Emshwiller
which is yet green in my mind with respect to the field of science fiction.

John Savard