Comments: After the oddity of 1957, the 1958 Hugo Awards went back to honoring fiction, reviving the Best Novel and Best Short story categories, and adding the Best Dramatic Presentation category (although in this year the category was actually named "Most Outstanding Movie"), which was won by The Incredible Shrinking Man. For this one year only the Best Novel and Best Novelette categories were merged together, with Fritz Lieber's The Big Time taking home the amalgamated award.
The return of the fiction awards also brought a return of one of the less desirable attributes of the early Hugos: even though the list of non-winning nominees was provided for the 1957 awards, in 1958 the only records that were kept were of the actual winners. Consequently, we will never know what other stories competed against The Big Time for the Best Novel or Novelette award, and will never know what array of works were nominated that might have caused the two categories to be conflated.
1958 was an odd year for the additional reason that the usual "rocket" statue was not handed to winners, but instead an engraved plaque was substituted. I have no idea why they change was made, but it was quickly reversed and the "rocket" statue was restored in 1959.
Best Novel or Novelette
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Other Nominees:
None
Best Short Story
Or All the Seas With Oysters by Avram Davidson (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)
Other Nominees:
None
Best Dramatic Presentation
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Other Nominees:
None
Best Magazine
Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher
Other Nominees:
None
Best Artist
Frank Kelly Freas
Other Nominees:
None
Most Outstanding Actifan
Walter A. Willis
Other Nominees:
None
What Are the Hugo Awards?
Go to previous year's nominees: 1957
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1959
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