Comments: One way that a new award can build up credibility quickly is by handing awards to established artists, and hoping that some of their gravitas will adhere to the award itself. And the World Fantasy Award seems to have been constructed at least in part to try to accomplish this via the inclusion of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which gave the judges the opportunity to honor some prominent writers right off the bat. This year the award went to Ray Bradbury, who followed Fritz Lieber winning it in 1976, and Robert Bloch in 1975. And as a result, the World Fantasy Award was able to claim these titanic figures as its own from the award's very earliest years.
What the World Fantasy Awards really couldn't claim at this point in time was women authors. Despite Patricia McKillip winning the first World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for her book The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, the awards had otherwise completely ignored the female half of the human race. Through 1975, 1976, and 1977, the only other female nominee for a World Fantasy Award was Shelley Torgeson, who was nominated (and won) this year for the Special Award, Professional, but she had to share that award with her husband Roy. And there really is no excuse for ignoring the contributions of female authors in 1977, as they had produced many significant works of fantasy fiction in the year, such as Patricia McKillip's Heir of Sea and Fire, Susan Cooper's Silver on the Tree, and Andre Norton's Trey of Swords. There was simply no justification for overlooking women this way, and the fact that the World Fantasy Awards did so is a travesty.
Best Novel
Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle
Other Nominees:
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck
Dark Crusade by Karl Edward Wagner
The Doll Who Ate His Mother by Ramsey Campbell
The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock
Best Short Fiction
There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding by Russell Kirk
Other Nominees:
The Companion by Ramsey Campbell
Dark Wings by Fritz Leiber
It Only Comes Out at Night by Dennis Etchison
Two Suns Setting by Karl Edward Wagner
What Is Life? by Robert Sheckley
Best Anthology or Collection
Frights edited by Kirby McCauley
Other Nominees:
Cinnabar by Edward Bryant
Flashing Swords #3: Warriors and Wizards edited by Lin Carter
The Height of the Scream by Ramsey Campbell
Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury
Superhorror edited by Ramsey Campbell
Lifetime Achievement
Ray Bradbury
Other Nominees:
Jorge Luis Borges
L. Sprague de Camp
Frank Belknap Long
H. Warner Munn
E. Hoffmann Price
Manly Wade Wellman
Best Artist
Roger Dean
Other Nominees:
George Barr
Steve Fabian
Tim Kirk
Michael Whelan
Special Award, Professional
Shelley Torgeson and Roy Torgeson
Other Nominees:
Arkham House
Ballantine Books
DAW
Edward L. Ferman
Special Award, Non-Professional
Stuart David Schiff
Other Nominees:
Jonathan Bacon
Arnie Fenner
Nils Hardin
Gary Hoppenstand
Harry O. Morris, Jr.
Go to previous year's nominees: 1976
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1978
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