The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Anne McCaffrey
The Balrog Award, often referred to as the coveted Balrog Award, was created by Jonathan Bacon and first conceived in issue 10/11 of his Fantasy Crossroads fanzine in 1977 and actually announced in the final issue, where he also proposed the Smitty Awards for fantasy poetry. The awards were presented for the first time at Fool-Con II at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas on April 1, 1979. The awards were never taken particularly seriously, even by those who won. The final awards were presented in 1985. The Professional Achievement Award was presented each year of the Balrog’s existence, with ties occurring in 1979 and 1982.
Anne McCaffrey was born on April 1, 1926. Her first published short story was “Freedom of the Race,” which originally appeared in 1953 in the penultimate issue of Science Fiction Plus, Hugo Gernsback’s last magazine. I included it in my anthology Wondrous Beginnings, which reprinted the first published short story by various science fiction authors. McCaffrey’s second story, “The Lady in the Tower,” didn’t appear until 1959.
