1959 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Dentention in Detroit, Michigan.

Comments: In 1959 the Hugo Awards finally began keeping records of the entire slate of nominees for every category, so from this point forward we are able to see what the winners were up against in terms of competition. Forever after, fans have been able to argue over who should have won a particular award by putting forward their favorite losing nominee as the one that should have won.

And the voters this year left two big questions open, selecting "No Winner" for both the Best Dramatic Presentation and Best New Author of 1958 categories. In retrospect, it seems fairly obvious that Brian W. Aldiss should have won the new author category, although looking backwards on an author's career is kind of cheating when evaluating these types of awards. In my opinion, the Best Dramatic Presentation award should have gone to Ray Harryhausen's The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, mostly on the strength of Harryhausen's pioneering special effects work. A strong case could also be made for The Fly, starring Vincent Price, or Horror of Dracula, starring Christopher Lee. The one result that, in my opinion, cannot be justified is the actual result of no winner.

Best Novel

Winner:
A Case of Conscience by James Blish

Other Nominees:
Have Space Suit - Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
Time Killer (aka Immortality, Inc.) by Robert Sheckley
We Have Fed Our Sea (aka The Enemy Stars) by Poul Anderson
Who? by Algis Budrys

Best Novelette

Winner:
The Big Front Yard by Clifford D. Simak (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)

Other Nominees:
Captivity by Zenna Henderson
A Deskful of Girls by Fritz Leiber
The Miracle-Workers by Jack Vance
Rat in the Skull by Rog Phillips
Second Game by Katherine MacLean and Charles V. De Vet
Shark Ship (aka Reap the Dark Tide) by Cyril M. Kornbluth
Unwillingly to School by Pauline Ashwell

Best Short Story

Winner:

That Hell-Bound Train by Robert Bloch (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1 and Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 116, No. 3 (March 2009))

Other Nominees:
The Advent on Channel Twelve by Cyril M. Kornbluth
The Edge of the Sea by Algis Budrys
The Men Who Murdered Mohammed by Alfred Bester
Nine Yards of Other Cloth by Manly Wade Wellman
Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-Tah-Tee by Fritz Leiber
Space to Swing a Cat by Stanley Mullen
Theory of Rocketry by Cyril M. Kornbluth
They've Been Working On . . . by Anton Lee Baker
Triggerman by J.F. Bone

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
No Winner

Other Nominees:
The Fly
Horror of Dracula
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad

Best Professional Magazine

Winner:
Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher and Robert P. Mills

Other Nominees:
Astounding edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Galaxy edited by H.L. Gold
Infinity edited by Larry T. Shaw
New Worlds edited by John Carnell

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
Ed Emshwiller
Virgil Finlay
H.R. Van Dongen
Wally Wood

Best Amateur Magazine

Winner:
Fanac edited by Terry Carr and Ron Ellik

Other Nominees:

Cry of the Nameless edited by F.M. Busby, Elinor Busby, Burnett Toskey, and Wally Weber

Hyphen edited by Walt Willis and Chuck Harris
JD-Argassy edited by Lynn A. Hickman

Science-Fiction Times edited by James V. Taurasi, Sr., Ray Van Houten, and Frank R. Prieto, Jr.

Yandro edited by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson

Best New Author of 1958

Winner:
No Winner

Other Nominees:
Brian W. Aldiss
Paul Ash
Pauline Ashwell
Rosel George Brown
Louis Charbonneau
Kit Reed

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1958
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1960

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