Gandalf Award

The Gandalf Award was a literary prize for fantasy literature that was awarded from 1974 to 1981. It was named after Gandalf , the wizard from JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , and was sponsored by Lin Carter and the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America , an association of fantasy writers. The winners were chosen by the participants of the World Science Fiction Convention according to the same principle as the Hugo Award .

Categories

The Gandalf Award was presented in 2 categories:

• the Gandalf Grand Master Award for life's work in the field of fantasy literature and
• the Gandalf Award for Book-Length Fantasy for fantasy books.

The Gandalf Grand Master Award was given consistently from 1974 to 1981. The first winner was JRR Tolkien, of the seven following winners, four were members of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America , namely Fritz Leiber , Lyon Sprague de Camp , Andre Norton and Poul Anderson .

The Gandalf Award for Book-Length Fantasy was only given in 1978 and 1979. After that, no further award was given, as the prize competed with the Hugo Award , which was also awarded for fantasy literature at the time.

End of the Gandalf Award

As Lin Carter's health deteriorated in the late 1980s, so too did the Gandalf Award. Its function is fulfilled today by the formerly rival World Fantasy Award , which was first presented in 1975. With its categories, this also honors the life's work of an author on the one hand, and individual works on the other, which corresponds to the two categories of the Gandalf Award. The Gandalf Award was presented for the last time in 1981.

Winner of the Gandalf Grand Master Award

The winners of the Gandalf Grand Master Award were:

• 1974 - JRR Tolkien
• 1975 - Fritz Leiber
• 1976 - Lyon Sprague de Camp
• 1977 - Andre Norton
• 1978 - Poul Anderson
• 1979 - Ursula K. Le Guin
• 1980 - Ray Bradbury
• 1981 - Catherine Lucile Moore

Winner of the Gandalf Award for Book-Length Fantasy

• 1978 - The Silmarillion , JRR Tolkien , edited by Christopher Tolkien
• 1979 - The White Dragon , Anne McCaffrey

Web links

• Gandalf Award , entry in the Science Fiction Awards + Database
• Gandalf Award , overview in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Gandalf Award (1977) ( English ) www.andre-norton.org. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 5, 2010. 
2. ↑ Gandalf Grand Master Award ( English ) www.nationmaster.com. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
3. ^ Hugo Award Winners from the 1970s ( English ) dpsinfo.com. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
4. ↑ Catherine Lucille Moore ( English ) www.miraclein3dimensions.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 5, 2010. 
5. ↑ CL Moore - Biography ( English ) www.allmovie.com. Retrieved February 5, 2010.