On This Day: Poul Anderson Died

On this day in the very science fictional year of 2001, Poul William Anderson died.

A wonderful author, Anderson was equally at home with SF and 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.

Paradoxically, for an author so clearly skilled in constructing fantasy, his major works in the area were not recognised with wins or nominations by the 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 a critic 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.

In addition to the 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. You can find them via Poul Anderson’s Author page on the Gateway website, and read more about him in his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.