Grand Masters of Science Fiction

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, originally just the Science Fiction Writers of America, was begun in 1965 by Damon Knight. They began awarding the Nebula Award that same year. The non-profit SFWA (they decided to keep the same acronym after the name change) is open for active membership to any author who has made three qualifying short story sales or one qualifying novel sale or has had one full-length dramatic script professionally produced. Only active members nominate and vote for works to receive the Nebula Awards, nominate and vote for SFWA officers, and are eligible for assistance from several SFWA committees.

There are also several categories of membership with less stringent qualifications: Associate members must have at least one qualifying short story sale. Affiliate members are those with a professional involvement in science fiction or fantasy but not eligible for active or associate status. Institutional members are organizations that have an interest in science fiction or tantasy or people associated with such groups. Estate members are legal representatives for the estates of Active members.

The pulp science fiction magazines have been crucial to the development of many science fiction authors. From the mid-'20s to the early '50s, magazines were the prime source of science fiction for the reading public. Naturally, this format favored shorter fiction, although novellas and novels often appeared in magazines in serial form, usually in two to four issues.

I've chosen to list each author's novels that have won Nebula and Hugo awards. If you're looking for a particular author, novels are probably the easiest to find. To find short stories, novellas and novelettes, you'd have to look at the contents of anthologies or find back issues of science fiction magazines.

In the listings below, some of the Grand Masters are shown as having few if any Nebula or Hugo nominations or awards. You will often find their work has been well-represented in the science fiction magazines, with many of them having won several Nebulas and Hugos for shorter works.

Robert A. Heinlein, who began writing in the late 1930s, is the person for whom the term "Grand Master" may have been invented regarding science fiction. Known as one of the "big three" (along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, Heinlein defined many themes in the genre.

He was a frequent contributor of short fiction from the late '30s through the '60s, including many stories that became part of his Future History collection which introduced the character Lazarus Long. With Rocketship Galileo in 1947, Heinlein began 11 years of writing juvenile fiction, continuing until he published Starship Troopers in 1969. He returned briefly to juveniles with Podkayne of Mars in 1963.

In 1961, Stranger in a Strange Land appeared and had a strong influence on many people who were part of "the '60s generation."

Heinlein had nine novels nominated for the Hugo Award and/or the Nebula Award, with four of them going on to win the Hugo. He also was awarded a Retro Hugo in 2001 for 1951's Farmer in the Sky.

Retro Hugo winner in 2001 for 1951: Farmer in the Sky
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Hugo Award winner 1956: Double Star
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Hugo Award nominee 1959: Have Space Suit - Will Travel
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Hugo Award winner 1960: Starship Troopers
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Hugo Award winner 1962: Stranger in a Strange Land
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Hugo Award nominee 1964: Glory Road
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Nebula Award and Hugo Award nominee 1966, Hugo Award winner 1967: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
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Nebula Award nominee 1973 and Hugo Award nominee 1974: Time Enough for Love
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Nebula Award nominee 1982 and Hugo Award nominee 1983: Friday
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Nebula Award nominee 1984: Job: A Comedy of Justice
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Robert A. Heinlein on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Jack Williamson's first professional sale was in 1928 when he was 20. He corresponded with Miles J. Breuer, a doctor and part-time writer. Breuer got Williamson to adopt a strong narrative and more rigorous plotting. They collaborated on the novel Birth of a New Republic in which colonies on the Moon stage a revolution, a theme later used by Robert A. Heinlein in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. He was a frequent contributor of short fiction to science fiction magazines and contributed many essays to them in the '30s and 40's. He returned to essays in the '70s and continued with them into the 2000s.

Williamson wrote several series including The Legion of Space, Seetee (as Will Stewart) and the Starchild trilogy with Frederik Pohl.

Williamson continued writing and winning awards even when he was in his 90s. "The Ultimate Earth," a novella, won both the Nebula and Hugo awards in 2001. His autobiography Wonder's Child won a Hugo Award after its publication in 2005.

Jack Williamson on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Clifford D. Simak began writing science fiction in 1931 but stopped for several years until John W. Campbell started editing Astounding Stories. He then regularly contributed stories throughout the late '30s into the '50s. Of his writing, Simak has said, "Overall, I have written in a quiet manner; there is little violence in my work. My focus has been on people, not on events. More often than not I have struck a hopeful note." Many of Simak's stories have been set in rural locations with rural Wisconsin being a favorite. In stories dealing with robots, the robots often gain intelligence and then develop in surprising ways. In his time travel stories, he proposes there is no past for time travelers to return to.

Hugo Award nominee 1962: Time Is the Simplest Thing
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Hugo Award winner 1964: Way Station
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Nebula Award nominee 1965: All Flesh is Grass
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Hugo Award nominee 1969: The Goblin Reservation
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Hugo Award nominee 1973: A Choice of Gods
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Clifford D. Simak on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

L. Sprague de Camp wrote over 100 books of science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction and biography. He's noted for two series he wrote with Fletcher Pratt about Harry Shea and Gavagan's Bar, with the latter being a type of setting also used by Arthur C. Clarke (Tales from the White Hart) and Spider Robinson (Callahan's Crosstime Saloon).

de Camp was instrumental in reviving the sword and sorcery genre as an editor and also by continuing Robert E. Howard's "Conan the Barbarian." His historical fiction was set in the time of the Persian empire. In his nonfiction, de Camp took pleasure in debunking claims of the supernatural and inaccurate historical claims. He wrote biographies of fantasy authors and was the first to write a biography of H. P. Lovecraft.

For his accomplishments in fantasy, de Camp was given the World Science Fiction Society's Gandalf Grand Master award in 1976.

L. Sprague De Camp on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Fritz Leiber's first professional science fiction sale was "Two Sought Adventure" in 1939, featuring his best-known characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. He wrote about them throughout his career and late in life received substantial royalties from TSR, makers of Dungeons & Dragons after they licensed the characters. The stories were sword and sorcery stories, and Leiber himself coined that term for the genre.

Leiber also wrote extensively in the horror genre. Much of his output was in shorter forms and he received several Nebula and Hugo awards for them. He was awarded fantasy's Gandalf Award (equivalent to Grand Master) at the 1975 World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton, England.

Retro Hugo nominee in 1996 for 1946: Destiny Times Three
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Hugo Award winner 1958: The Big Time
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Hugo Award winner 1965: The Wanderer
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Fritz Leiber on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Andre Norton was born Alice Mary Norton, but adopted her pen name (later changed to her legal name Andre Alice Norton in 1934) because boys were were the main audience for fantasy. She worked in the Cleveland Ohio library system for 18 years, then as a reader for Gnome Press until finally becoming a full-time author in 1958. Many of Norton's books feature alienated outsiders undertaking a coming of age journey which made many think of her solely as a writer for young people, but she was also popular with the adult audience. Most of her settings are Earth-like worlds where humans can exist without special protection.

Another theme in her work was worlds once inhabited by long-dead alien civilizations. In her fantasy works, many of the artifacts left by those civilizations radiate magical power. Norton's Witch World novels spanned forty years beginning in 1963.

Hugo Award nominee 1964: Witch World
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Andre Northon on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Before making his first professional science fiction sale, Arthur C. Clarke, in 1945 proposed the idea of the geosynchronous communications satellite. That was 12 years before Sputnik. A few years later, he wrote the short story "The Sentinel" for a BBC contest and it was rejected. It was later published in 10 Story Fantasy edited by Donald Woldheim in 1953 and appeared in Clarke's own short story collection Expedition to Earth in 1953. The story was later expanded into the work Clarke is best known for, 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the best known science fiction movies and the novel based on the screenplay. Clarke signed a three-book deal, unheard of in science fiction at the time, which began with the Nebula and Hugo winner Rendezvous with Rama. With 1979's The Fountains of Paradise Clarke was among the first to describe a space elevator linking a ground base to a large geosynchronous satellite with superstrong cables.

Retro Hugo nominee in 2004 for 1954: Childhood's End
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Hugo Award nominee 1963: A Fall of Moondust
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Nebula Award winner 1973 and Hugo Award winner 1974: Rendezvous with Rama
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Nebula Award winner 1979 and Hugo Award winner 1980: The Fountains of Paradise
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Hugo Award nominee 1983: Odyssey Two: 2010
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Arthur C. Clarke on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Isaac Asimov, while known widely as a science fiction writer for his Foundation and Robot series, has published works in nine of the ten Dewey Decimal System categories. In his lifetime he had over 500 books published. He formulated the Three Laws of Robotics which have been adopted by many other authors for their own stories featuring robots. He is also well known for his extensive non-fiction writings that made science accessible to non-scientists.

Asimov's third story and first published story was "Marooned Off Vesta" which appeared in Amazing Stories in 1939. His 32nd story, "Nightfall," later became recognized as a classic and perhaps the most famous science fiction story of all time. In 1942 he began writing the stories that were later collected in The Foundation Trilogy which concerned the fall of a vast galactic empire and its rebirth, all mapped out by "psychohistorian" Hari Seldon.

Retro Hugo winner in 1996 for 1946: The Mule (part of Foundation and Empire)
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Retro Hugo nominee in 2001 for 1951: Pebble in the Sky
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Retro Hugo nominee in 2004 for 1954: The Caves of Steel
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Nebula Award winner 1972 and Hugo Award winner 1973: The Gods Themselves
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Nebula Award nominee 1982 and Hugo Award winner 1983: Foundation's Edge
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Hugo Award nominee 1984: The Robots of Dawn
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Isaac Asimov on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Alfred Bester sold his first science fiction story in 1939 and wrote short stories, mostlly for Astounding Science Fiction until 1942, when he got a job with DC Comics. There he wrote for Superman, Green Lantern and other titles. He also wrote Mandrake the Magician and The Green Lantern while their creator, Lee Falk, was serving in World War II. Following the war, Bester wrote for radio and television, then returned to science fiction and briefly toAstounding in 1950. He was not happy with John. W. Campbell's preoccupation with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics so he switched to H. L. Gold's Galaxy Science Fiction.

The Demolished Man, the novel that won the first Hugo Award in 1953, was first serialized in Galaxy and later published in book form. The Stars My Destination, his 1956 book, although not nominated for a Nebula or Hugo, has been highly ranked in other polls. It was his last novel for 19 years until The Computer Connection in 1975.

Hugo Award winner 1953: The Demolished Man
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Nebula Award nominee 1975 and Hugo Award nominee 1976: The Computer Connection Order from Amazon.co.uk | Order from Amazon.co.uk

Alfred Bester on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Ray Bradbury is probably best known for Fahrenheit 451, set in a future time when firemen don't prevent fires but cause them in order to burn books. He has said that the book is his only science fiction work. He calls the rest of his fiction fantasy. Other works he is known for are The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine.

Quite a bit of Bradbury's stories have been adapted for television and movies, including Fahrenheit 451 as a movie starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie. From 1985 to 1992, he hosted the syndicated television series The Ray Bradbury Theater. He adapted 65 of his stories for the series. Adaptations of his stories continue to be produced into the 21st century.

Retro Hugo winner in 2004 for 1954: Fahrenheit 451
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Ray Bradbury on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Lester del Rey began writing science fiction stories for the pulp magazines in the 1930s, with much of his work being published in Astounding, edited by John W. Campbell.

In the 1950s he became known for his juvenile science fiction novels, with nine books published in the Winston Science Fiction series aimed at young readers. His first novel, Marooned on Mars, was part of that series.

Along with his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey, he edited Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction section of Ballantine Books.

Lester Del Rey on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Frederik Pohl was not only a science fiction writer, he was also active in other related areas. He was a literary agent, starting it as a sideline in 1937 and going full time after World War II. At one point he was the agent for about half the successful writers of science fiction, including Isaac Asimov.

He edited two science fiction pulp magazines from 1939 to 1943, then from the late 1950s to 1969 he was editor of Galaxy and If magazines with the latter winning Hugo Awards in 1966, 1967 and 1968 for Best Professional Magazine. In the 1970s, Pohl acquired and edited novels for Bantam Books.

Hugo Award nominee 1977: Man Plus
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Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award winner 1978: Gateway
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Nebula Award nomination, Hugo Award nominee and National Book Award winner 1980: Jem
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Nebula Award nominee and Hugo Award nominee 1981: Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
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Frederik Pohl on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Damon Knight got off to a bit of a rocky start with his first story, "Relilience," published in 1941. An editorial error made the ending incomprehensible. But he kept writing. Most of his work was in shorter forms, although he did have nine novels published. He was also active as a reviewer, critic and an anthologist. He produced 27 anthologies in addition to the 21-volume Orbit series.

1965 was an auspicious year for Knight. It was the year the Science Fiction Writers of America began, along with the Nebula Awards. The first winner for best novel was Frank Herbert for Dune. As an editor for Chilton Company, Knight tracked down Herbert in order to get the book published. Chilton was much better known for its business books and automotive manuals. Dune was the publisher's first novel. The high startup costs of the novel may have led to Knight losing his job at Chilton a year later;

One of Knight's most famous stories is "To Serve Man," published in 1950. It was later made into one of the most popular episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Damon Knight on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

A. E. van Vogt began his writing career in 'true confession" pulp magazines in the 1930s before he decided to switch to something he enjoyed: science fiction. His first published science fiction story, "Black Destroyer," was the cover story of the July 1939 issue of Astounding. That issue is often cited as the one that ushered in the Golden Age of science fiction. The story was later combined with three others to form the 1950 novel Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Many of van Vogt's ideas came to him in dreams and to that end he arranged to be awakened every 90 minutes during his sleep time so he could write down the ideas.

Retro Hugo nominee in 1996 for 1946: The World of Null-A
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A. E. van Vogt on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Although Jack Vance's first published science fiction story appeared in 1945, he did not become a full-time writer until the 1970s. Much of his early work was stories published in the pulp magazines. Meanwhile, he supported himself as a seaman, a rigger, a surveyor, ceramicist, and carpenter. During World War II, while serving in the merchant marine (he had to memorize an eye test to get in), he wrote a series of fantasy stories that were published in magazines in the 1950s as The Dying Earth.

Vance also wrote eleven mystery novels. Several themes later used in his science fiction works appeared in the mysteries. Also, some of his science fiction incorporates elements of the mystery genre.

Wikipedia reports: A 2009 profile in the New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature's most distinctive and undervalued voices."

Retro Hugo nominee in 2001 for 1951: The Dying Earth
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Nebula Award nominee 1983: Lyonesse
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Jack Vance on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Poul Anderson was a prolific writer, creating several series including the Psychotechnic League, the Polesotechnic League featuring Nicholas van Rijn, the Terran Empire with Dominic Flandry, and the Time Patrol. He also wrote several works of fantasy. His characters were often larger than life and either succeeded or failed heroically. He firmly believed that humanity's advancement into space was essential to human liberty. Much of his writing is thoroughly grounded in science. He served a term as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Hugo Award nominee 1959: The Enemy Stars
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Hugo Award nominee 1961: The High Crusade
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Nebula Award nominee 1965: The Star Fox
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Nebula Award nominee 1971: The Byworlder
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Hugo Award nominee 1971: Tau Zero
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Hugo Award nominee 1973: There Will Be Time
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Nebula Award nominee 1973 and Hugo Award nominee 1974: The People of the Wind
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Nebula Award nominee 1975: A Midsummer Tempest
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Hugo Award nominee 1975: Fire Time
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Nebula Award nominee 1989 and Hugo Award nominee 1990: The Boat of a Million Years
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Poul Anderson on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Best known for Mission of Gravity Hal Clement (real name Harry Stubbs) invented a number of unusual planets as the settings for his stories. For example, Mesklin, the setting for Mission of Gravity and its sequel Star Light, is a fast-rotating giant planet where gravity ranges from 3 g at the equator up to 700 g at the poles, although he later revised that latter figure to 250 g. Clement received a Retro Hugo in 1996 for his short story "Uncommon Sense."

Retro Hugo in 2004 for 1954: Mission of Gravity
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Hal Clement on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Brian W. Aldiss began writing science fiction in the 1950s and has published many short stories and novels. His story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" was the basis for the Stanley Kubrick/Steven Spielberg film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He is also known for his trilogy Helliconia Spring, Helliconia Summer and Helliconia Winter. Aldiss has also had success as an anthologist, with some of the anthologies being produced in partnership with 2009's Grand Master Harry Harrison.

Nebula Award nominee 1982: Helliconia Spring
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Nebula Award nominee 1985: Helliconia Winter
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Brian W. Aldiss on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Philip José Farmer is best known for his series of novels and stories set on Riverworld, an unusual planet where all the people of Earth who ever lived are relocated to a planetwide single river valley. Real historical characters such as 19th-century explorer Richard Burton and Mark Twain interact with people from the Stone Age to modern times and beyond. He also wrote a series about the World of Tiers which is in one of a number of artificially constructed parallel universes. Farmer is also noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work.

Hugo Award winner 1972: To Your Scattered Bodies Go
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The linked book is an omnibus edition which includes The Fabulous Riverboat.

Philip Jose Farmer on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Ursula K. Le Guin's fiction often has a strong emphasis on social sciences. Her characters are often people of color, reflecting, she says, the non-white majority of Earth's population.

She has written for both adults and children. The Farthest Shore won the National Book Award for Children's Books in 1973. In addition to The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, she is also known for her "Earthsea" series.

She has won more Locus Awards (19) than any other author.

Nebula Award winner 1969 and Hugo Award winner 1970: The Left Hand of Darkness
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Nebula Award nominee 1971 and Hugo Award nominee 1972: The Lathe of Heaven
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Nebula Award winner 1974 and Hugo Award winner 1975: The Dispossessed
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Ursula K. Le Guin on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Robert Silverberg has been a very prolific author in science fiction and historical non-fiction. He won his first Hugo Award in 1956 for best new writer. In the 1960s he paid much more attention to characterization and from the late '60s to the late '70s his name was frequently in the list of Nebula and Hugo nominees.

His novel Lord Valentine's Castle, nominated for a Hugo in 1981, was the first in a series of novels set on the vast alien world of Majipoor.

Nebula Award nominee and Hugo Award nominee 1968: Thorns
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Nebula Award nominee 1968: The Masks of Time
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Nebula Award nominee 1969 and Hugo Award nominee 1970: Up the Line
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Nebula Award nominee 1970 and Hugo Award nominee 1971: Tower of Glass
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Nebula Award winner 1971 and Hugo Award nominee 1972: A Time of Changes
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Nebula Award nominee 1972 and Hugo Award nominee 1973: The Book of Skulls
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Nebula Award nominee 1972 and Hugo Award nominee 1973: Dying Inside
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Nebula Award nominee 1975 and Hugo Award nominee 1976: The Stochastic Man
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Nebula Award nominee 1976 and Hugo Award nominee 1977: Shadrach in the Furnace
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Hugo Award nominee 1981: Lord Valentine's Castle
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Robert Silverberg on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Anne McCaffrey is best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, which, although firmly rooted in science fiction, has many elements of fantasy including dragons (genetically altered flying lizards native to Pern) and a low-technology society resembling Europe in the Middle Ages. Many of her stories feature strong women and strong younger characters.

She has also written several other series, among them stories of the brain ships, the Crystal Singer books, the Tower and the Hive series and books about the planet Petaybee, often writing those in collaboration with other science fiction writers.

Hugo Award nominee 1972: Dragonquest
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Hugo Award nominee 1979: The White Dragon
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Hugo Award nominee 1984: Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
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Hugo Award nominee 1992: All the Weyrs of Pern
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Anne McCaffrey on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Harlan Ellison has published over 1,000 short stories, novellas, essays and screenplays. He has also published works of criticism in literature, film and television. He was editor and anthologist for two highly-acclaimed science fiction anthologies, Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. Ellison wrote one of Star Trek's most highly acclaimed scripts, "The City on the Edge of Forever," although he has frequently criticized the rewriting of it, in which several elements, including drug dealing aboard the Enterprise, were removed. He has a reputation for being a controversial and abrasive character, something he does not dispute.

Harlan Ellison on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

James Gunn has gained recognition not only as a writer of science fiction but as a scholar of and writer about the genre. In 1976 he won the World Science Fiction Convention Special Award for his 1975 work Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction.

In 1983 he won a Hugo Award for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction. He is a director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, which awards the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

Gunn has also served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

James Gunn on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Michael Moorcock is the creator of the popular anti-hero Elric of Melnibone and hip spy Jerry Cornelius. He became editor of the Tarzan Adventures at 16 and later was an editor of the British science fiction magazine New Worlds. Much of his writing has been sword-and-sorcery fantasy and has included the idea of the "Eternal Champion," a kind of meta-hero linking many of his characters whether they are aware of it or not. He has won 15 awards, mostly for fantasy. In 2010, his Doctor Who novel, The Coming of the Terraphiles, was published by BBC Books.

Michael Moorcock on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Harry Harrison is best known for the series of 12 novels he created about his character James Bolivar diGriz or the Stainless Steel Rat, described as "a futuristic con man, thief and all-round rascal." Harrison is also the author of the novel Make Room! Make Room! which was made into the Nebula Award winning film Soylent Green.

Harrison began in science fiction as an illustrator and writer for comics and comic strips before moving into writing.

Hugo Award nominee 1961: Deathworld aka Planet of the Damned
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Harry Harrison on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Joe Haldeman is known primarily for his two Nebula and Hugo award-winning novels The Forever War, based on his experiences as a combat engineer in Vietanm, and The Forever Peace. He received a bachelor's degree in astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1967, the same year he was drafted. He received a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1975. He teaches writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nebula Award winner 1975 and Hugo Award Winner 1976: The Forever War
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Hugo Award nominee 1977: Mindbridge
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Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award winner 1998: The Forever Peace
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Nebula Award winner 2005: Camouflage
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Nebula Award nominee 2007: The Accidental Time Machine
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Joe Haldeman on Amazon.com | on Amazon.co.uk

Most of the photos of the authors are from Wikipedia and most of those have been released into the public domain by the people with rights to those photos. A few require that the photographer be credited. Those are:

Anne McCaffrey by Anna Creech
Frederik Pohl by AllyUnion
Joe Haldeman by Mikko Aarnio
Ray Bradbury by Alan Light

Author names and credits where required can also be seen by placing your mouse cursor over the photo. Quite a few of the photos were taken by science fiction fans at conventions.

For those authors where I was unable to find a photo free to use, I have shown a cover of one of their better-known books. The graphics are from Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I am allowed to use these images to promote books.

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