On This Day: Poul Anderson
On 25th November, 1926, Poul William Anderson was born, and thus began a dynasty. Well . . . maybe not a dynasty, but his daughter is married to Greg Bear, so it’s at least potentially the start of one. . .
Anderson was equally at home with either SF or Fantasy. Although much of his work falls unambiguously into the science fiction category – including major works, the Flandry and Psychotechnic League series – he received a World Fantasy Award nomination for A Midsummer Tempest and won the British Fantasy Award, for Hrolf Kraki’s Saga.
It will no doubt go down as one of the great omissions of history that his major works of fantasy were not recognised with wins or nominations by the various major Fantasy Awards. SF-dressed-as-Fantasy The High Crusade was shortlisted for the 1961 Hugo Award, but the seminal Norse fantasy The Broken Sword – hailed by no less than Michael Moorcock as one of the finest fantasies ever written – has troubled neither juries nor voters. It was, however, selected for inclusion in David Pringle‘s important Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels and we were delighted to re-publishit in Gollancz’s re-launched Fantasy Masterworks series earlier in the year.
As well as an SF Masterworks paperback edition of Tau Zero, the aforementioned Fantasy Masterworks paperback edition of The Broken Sword and a trade paperback Poul Anderson SF Gateway Omnibus, there are currently 78 Poul Anderson eBooks published by SF Gateway – although, because the wesbite’s Search function is currently misbehaving (we’re working on it!), the quickest way to find the eBook available through SF Gateway is to download our spreadsheet of titles and filter by author.
