Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Anne McCaffrey was a prolific award-winning science fiction author, best known for her "Dragonriders of Pern" novels. She wrote close to 100 books either as sole author or in collaboration with others, and was very active in the wider science fiction writing community for over 40 years. She died yesterday at her home in Ireland, reportedly due to a stroke, at the age of 85.
I haven't read one of her books in years, in part because it seemed like they were becoming a bit repetitive and in part because my tastes drifted first toward more epic fantasy and then toward mostly urban fantasy. But I have very fond memories of her earlier books. When I first got a job and started earning my own money to spend in high school, one of the things I started to do was buy books. My options were fairly limited - there was a small bookstore in the commercial area outside of Hudson (the largest "city" near where I grew up, about a 20-30 minute drive away) that had a decent science fiction/fantasy section and new releases every week (keeping in mind that the new release market in the early 1980's didn't have nearly the volume it has now.) Of course it helped that they also stocked a good selection of comic books... that was probably what first got me in the door, since those were substantially cheaper than paperback (25 cents, versus $1.50 or so) and much more affordable on the small allowance my parents could provide.
Much of my early book reading in junior high and high school was supported by the school librarian, who was a science fiction fan and loaned me many of her own books, and a fellow who went to the church my family attended who gave me quite a few books and stacks of old pulp magazines that he no longer wanted to take up storage space at his family's home. I owe them both a huge thank you for encouraging my love of books and reading fantastic fiction that continues to this day. Anyway, once I had a little money coming in on a regular basis, it wasn't long before I latched on to the idea of buying books for myself... and Ann McCaffrey's Dragonrider books, with their wonderful Michael Whelan covers, were some of the first ones that I bought and read. I probably even re-read them once or twice - I remember doing that decades ago, before my collection of books grew so huge that even my "to be read" pile has its own bookcases (which are overflowing!)
So thank you, Ann McCaffrey, for many hours of reading pleasure, and for helping to grow my love of reading and my massive collection of books. She was truly one of the great science fiction authors of our time and there is no doubt she will be missed.
JMH
