1962 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Chicon II in Chicago, Illinois.

Comments: In 1962 Heinlein won the Best Novel award for the third time overall, and the second time in three years. And his win this year was for a novel so diametrically opposed to Starship Troopers in tone and content, that I always wonder whether people who assert that Heinlein was an advocate for fascism have actually read more than the one book of his.

In other categories, Brian W. Aldiss won for Best Short Story with Hothouse, which was probably more than adequate consolation for losing Best New Writer of 1958 to "No Winner". John Campbell added yet another trophy to his shelf for editing Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction, and The Twilight Zone picked up its third, and last, consecutive win for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Best Novel

Winner:
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye
The Fisherman (aka Time Is the Simplest Thing) by Clifford D. Simak
Second Ending by James White
Sense of Obligation (aka Planet of the Damned) by Harry Harrison

Best Short Story

Winner:
Hothouse series (collected as The Long Afternoon of Earth) by Brian W. Aldiss

Other Nominees:
Lion Loose by James H. Schmitz
Monument by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
Scylla's Daughter by Fritz Leiber
Status Quo by Mack Reynolds

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
The Twilight Zone (season three)

Other Nominees:
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
Thriller (season two)
The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon
Village of the Damned

Best Professional Magazine

Winner:

Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Other Nominees:
Amazing Stories edited by Cele Goldsmith
Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Robert P. Mills
Galaxy edited by H.L. Gold
Science Fantasy edited by John Carnell

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Ed Emshwiller

Other Nominees:
Virgil Finlay
Mel Hunter
John Schoenherr
Alex Schomburg

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Warhoon edited by Richard Bergeron

Other Nominees:
Amra edited by George Scithers
Axe edited by Larry Shaw and Noreen Shaw
Cry edited by F.M. Busby, Elinor Busby, and Wally Weber
Yandro edited by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson

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1961 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Seacon in Seattle, Washington.

Comments: In 1961 A Canticle for Liebowitz won the Best Novel category. I have seen several people talk about how this was the moment when science fiction incorporated questions of religion into its work, but I always wonder how short the memories of those people are. A Case of Conscience won the Best Novel award just two years before, and Arthur C. Clarke had been dealing with religious issues in his short fiction for years.

In any event, this was a pretty good year for Theodore Sturgeon, who garnered a nomination in the Best Novel and Best Short Story categories, although he didn't win either. The Twilight Zone won the Best Dramatic Presentation award for the second year in a row, and John W. Campbell, Jr. picked up a win for Astounding, which was fresh from being renamed to Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction.

Best Novel

Winner:
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Other Nominees:
Deathworld by Harry Harrison
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon

Best Short Story

Winner:
The Longest Voyage by Poul Anderson (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)

Other Nominees:
The Lost Kafoozalum by Pauline Ashwell
Need by Theodore Sturgeon
Open to Me, My Sister by Philip José Farmer

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
The Twilight Zone (season two)

Other Nominees:
The Time Machine
Village of the Damned

Best Professional Magazine

Winner:

Astounding - Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Other Nominees:
Amazing Stories edited by Cele Goldsmith
Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Robert P. Mills

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Ed Emshwiller

Other Nominees:
Virgil Finlay
Frank Kelly Freas
Mel Hunter

Best Fanzine

Winner:

Who Killed Science Fiction? edited by Earl Kemp

Other Nominees:
Discord edited by Redd Boggs
Fanac edited by Terry Carr and Ron Ellik
Habakkuk edited by Bill Donaho
Shangri L'Affaires edited by Betty Jo "Bjo" Trimble and John Trimble
Yandro edited by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson

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1960 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Pittcon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Comments: Do you want to start an argument among science fiction fans? Bring up 1960 Best Novel winner Starship Troopers. For bonus points, bring up the 1997 film very, very loosely based on the book. The controversy over the winning novel aside, the remaining field of award winners are decidedly uncontroversial. Flowers for Algernon is regarded as a classic, so much so that it is often used as assigned reading for high schoolers, many of whom don't even realize they are reading science fiction. The same can be said for the Twilight Zone television series, which is beloved by large numbers of people who don't regard themselves as science fiction fans. One mildly quirky thing about the slate of nominees in this year is how many of the Best Novel nominees had alternate titles. I'm not sure what the significance of this is.

But Starship Troopers. Yeah, that book starts arguments.

Best Novel

Winner:
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Nominees:
Dorsai! (aka The Genetic General) by Gordon R. Dickson
The Pirates of Ersatz (aka The Pirates of Zan) by Murray Leinster
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
That Sweet Little Old Lady (aka Brain Twister) by Mark Phillips

Best Short Story

Winner:

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1 and The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume I, 1929-1964)

Other Nominees:
The Alley Man by Philip José Farmer
Cat and Mouse by Ralph Williams
The Man Who Lost the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon
The Pi Man by Alfred Bester

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
The Twilight Zone (season one)

Other Nominees:
Men Into Space (complete series)
Murder and the Android
The Turn of the Screw (live television adaptation)
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

Best Professional Magazine

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

Other Nominees:
Amazing Stories edited by Cele Goldsmith
Astounding edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Fantastic Universe edited by Hans Stefan Santesson
Galaxy edited by H.L. Gold

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Ed Emshwiller

Other Nominees:
Virgil Finlay
Frank Kelly Freas
Mel Hunter
Wally Wood

Best Amateur Magazine

Winner:

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

Other Nominees:
Fanac edited by Terry Carr and Ron Ellik
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

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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
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1958 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Solacon in South Gate, California.

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

Winner:
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

Other Nominees:
None

Best Short Story

Winner:

Or All the Seas With Oysters by Avram Davidson (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)

Other Nominees:
None

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
The Incredible Shrinking Man

Other Nominees:
None

Best Magazine

Winner:
Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Nominees:
None

Most Outstanding Actifan

Winner:
Walter A. Willis

Other Nominees:
None

What Are the Hugo Awards?

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1957 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Loncon I in London, England.

Comments: 1957 was perhaps the oddest year for the Hugo Awards. For some inexplicable reason, the Award committee declined to extend awards for any categories including works of fiction, and instead only three awards were given: Best American Professional Magazine, Best British Magazine, and Best Fanzine. As usual, Astounding won an award, adding yet another trophy to John W. Campbell, Jr.'s shelf. Because of the structure of the Retro Hugo eligibility requirements, the fact that these awards were given blocks off even the possibility that such retroactive awards might be given for fiction from 1957.

This is also the first  year for which we have records of the non-winning finalists, although given that the only awards bestowed were for periodicals, the fact that we know Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy, and Infinity lost to Astounding is not nearly as interesting as knowing who the runners up for Best Novel in 1956 would be. The fact that other finalists are listed does indicate that no fiction categories were even voted on, because in later years in which no single work qualified as a winner in a particular category, the finalists were still listed.

Best American Professional Magazine

Winner:
Astounding edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Finalists:
Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher
Galaxy edited by H.L. Gold
Infinity edited by Larry T. Shaw

Best British Professional Magazine

Winner:
New Worlds edited by John Carnell

Other Finalists:
Nebula edited by Peter Hamilton

Best Fanzine

Winner:

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

Other Finalists:
Hyphen edited by Walt Willis and Chuck Harris
Inside edited Ron Smith

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1956 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: NewYorCon aka NyCon II in New York, New York.

Comments: 1956 was both an average year for the Hugo Awards, and an unusual one. The year was average in that the winners in the three fiction categories - Heinlein's Double Star, Leinster's Exploration Team, and Clarke's The Star - were solid, albeit unspectacular choices. John W. Campbell, Jr. racked up another award for Best Magazine for Astounding, and Frank Kelly Freas added another Best Artist Hugo to his collection.

The year was unusual in that three new categories - Most Promising New Author, Best Feature Writer, and Best Book Reviewer - were introduced in this award cycle, and were only handed out in this particular set of Hugos. All three of these award categories were discontinued the next year and were never reintroduced, although variations of the "Best New Author" award did crop up a couple times after this year.

Although there are no finalists other than the eventual winners listed in the "official" Hugo records, a dedicated fan turned up what appears to be a ballot for the 1956 Hugos. The categories are mostly correct, and the listed finalists all include the eventual winner, so it does look like the real thing. The only oddity is that there are no finalists listed for the "Best Magazine" category (and in fact, the Best Magazine category isn't listed at all). That little bit of strangeness aside, this serves to fill in a bit of missing Hugo award history. I can only hope that the official Hugo records are updated to include this information.

Update: On September 19, 2017, the official Hugo records were amended to include the information concerning the 1956 finalists for the award.

Best Novel

Winner:
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein

Other Finalists:
Call Him Dead by Eric Frank Russell
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
Not This August by Cyril M. Kornbluth
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

Best Novelette

Winner:
Exploration Team by Murray Leinster (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)

Other Finalists:
The Assistant Self by F.L. Wallace
Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse
The End of Summer by Algis Budrys
A Gun for a Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp
Home There's No Returning by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore
Legwork by Eric Frank Russell
Who? by Theodore Sturgeon

Best Short Story

Winner:

The Star by Arthur C. Clarke (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1 and The Nine Billion Names of God)

Other Finalists:
The Dragon by Ray Bradbury
End as a World by F.L. Wallace
The Game of Cat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith
King of the Hill by James Blish
Nobody Bothers Gus by Algis Budrys (writing as Paul Janvier)
Spy Story by Robert Sheckley
Twink by Theodore Sturgeon

Best Magazine

Winner:
Astounding edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Other Finalists:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Finalists:
Chesley Bonestell
Ed Emsh
Virgil Finlay
Mel Hunter
Edward Valigursky

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Inside and Science Fiction Advertiser edited by Ron Smith

Other Finalists:
A Bas edited by Boyd Raeburn
Fantasy Times edited by James V. Taurasi
Grue edited by Dean Grennell
Hyphen edited by Walt Williams and Chuck Harris
Oblique edited by Clifford Gould
Psychotic - SF Review edited by Richard E. Geis
Skyhook edited by Redd Boggs

Most Promising New Author

Winner:
Robert Silverberg

Other Finalists:
Harlan Ellison
Frank Herbert
Henry Still

Best Feature Writer

Winner:
Willy Ley

Other Finalists:
L. Sprague de Camp
Robert A. Madle
Rog Phillips
R.S. Richardson

Best Book Reviewer

Winner:
Damon Knight

Other Finalists:
Henry Bott
Anthony Boucher
Groff Conklin
Floyd Gale
Villiers Garson
P. Schuyler Miller
Hans Stefan Santesson

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 1955
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1955 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Clevention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Comments: 1955 was a down year for the Hugo Awards, and the reason why can be summed up with four words: They'd Rather Be Right. Simply put, this selection was so weak that it casts a pallor over the entire year's worth of awards. This is kind of shame, because The Darfsteller is an excellent novella, and Allamagoosa is a fun, albeit not particularly substantial, short story. Still, the extraordinary awfulness of handing the Hugo to They'd Rather Be Right looms over this round of awards like a nightmarish shadow darkening everything beneath it.

Sadly, the lists of finalists for the Hugo Award were not preserved until 1959, so we have no idea what novels lost out to this book, but eligible works included Poul Anderson's Brain Wave, Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity, and Edgar Pangborn's A Mirror for Observers, any of which would have been a far superior choice to Clifton and Riley's decidedly mediocre offering.

Best Novel

Winner:
They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley

Other Finalists:
None

Best Novelette

Winner:
The Darfsteller by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)

Other Finalists:
None

Best Short Story

Winner:
Allamagoosa by Eric Frank Russell (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 1)

Other Finalists:
None

Best Magazine

Winner:
Astounding edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Other Finalists:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Frank Kelly Freas

Other Finalists:
None

Best Fanzine

Winner:
Fantasy Times edited by James V. Taurasi, Sr. and Ray Von Houten

Other Finalists:
None

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's finalists: 1954 (awarded in 2004)
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1953 Hugo Award Finalists

Location: Philcon II in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Comments: Presented at the 11^th annual Worldcon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 1953 Hugo Awards were the first time this award was handed out. The awards were intended as a "one-off" at the time, with no real intent to repeat them, although there seems to have been some vague hope that they would be continued.

The first Hugo Awards seem to have been a fairly informal affair. Of the categories established in this year, only two - Best Novel and Best Professional Magazine - were carried forward in subsequent Worldcons. All of the rest of the categories awarded in 1953 were awarded just this one time. Further, with the exception of the award for Best Novel, none of the other awards handed out were specifically for fiction writing, which is a marked difference from the territory that has been staked out for the award in the years since then.

Until 1959 none of the names non-winning finalists for any of the award categories were recorded. As far as I can tell, no one has ever tried to reconstruct the lists of nominees from the years prior to 1959, and even if that was theoretically possible at one time, so many of the prominent members of that era's science fiction circle of authors and fans has passed away that it is almost certainly impossible to do so now. As a result, there is no way to tell who the other finalists were, or even if there were any at all.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Other Finalists:
None

Best Professional Magazine

Winner:
(tie) Astounding by John W. Campbell, Jr.
(tie) Galaxy by H.L. Gold

Other Finalists:
None

Best Interior Illustrator

Winner:
Virgil Finlay

Other Finalists:
None

Best Cover Artist

Winner:
(tie) Hannes Bok
(tie) Ed Emshwiller

Other Finalists:
None

Best New Author or Artist

Winner:
Philip José Farmer

Other Finalists:
None

Award for Excellence in Fact Articles

Winner:
Willy Ley

Other Finalists:
None

#1 Fan Personality

Winner:
Forest J. Ackerman

Other Finalists:
None

Go to previous year's finalists: 1951 (awarded in 2001)
Go to subsequent year's finalists: 1954 (awarded in 2004)

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