Editing Anne McCaffrey (section)

== Life and career ==
Anne McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second of three children of Anne Dorothy (née McElroy) and Col. George Herbert McCaffrey. She had two brothers: Hugh ("Mac", died 1988) and Kevin Richard McCaffrey ("Kevie").<ref name="biog">{{cite web |url=http://www.pernhome.com/aim/index.php?page_id=17 |title=Anne's Biography |work=The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey |publisher=Pern Home |access-date=2011-07-07}}</ref>{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=15–18}} Her father had Irish and English ancestry, and her mother was of Irish descent.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/mccaffr.htm |title=(Anne Inez McCaffrey) |work=RootsWeb |publisher=Ancestry.com |access-date=2012-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618200521/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/mccaffr.htm |archive-date=18 June 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She attended [[Stuart Hall School|Stuart Hall]] (a girls' [[boarding school]] in [[Staunton, Virginia]]),{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=24, 31}} and graduated from [[Montclair High School (New Jersey)|Montclair High School]] in [[Montclair, New Jersey]].<ref>Sherman, Ted. [http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/fantasy_writer_former_nj_resid.html "Fantasy writer, former N.J. resident Anne McCaffrey dead at 85"], ''[[The Star-Ledger]]'', 23 November 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2012. "Born in Cambridge, Mass., McCaffrey was raised in New Jersey, where she graduated from Montclair High School."</ref> In 1947 she graduated [[cum laude]] from [[Radcliffe College]] with a degree in [[Slavonic languages]] and Literature.<ref name="biog" />

In 1950 she married Horace Wright Johnson (died 2009),<ref name="letter">{{cite web |last=McCaffrey |first=Anne |date=17 December 2009 |url=http://pernhome.com/aim/index.php?p=80 |title=A Letter From Anne |work=The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey |publisher=Pern Home |access-date=2011-07-12}}</ref> who shared her interests in music, opera and ballet.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=36}} They had three children: Alec Anthony, born 1952; Todd, born 1956; and Georgeanne ("Gigi", Georgeanne Kennedy), born 1959.<ref name="biog" />

Except for a short time in [[Düsseldorf]], the family lived for most of a decade in [[Wilmington, Delaware]]. They moved to [[Sea Cliff, New York|Sea Cliff, Long Island]] in 1965, and McCaffrey became a full-time writer.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=10–11, 14, 36–37, 45–46}}

McCaffrey served a term as secretary-treasurer of the [[Science Fiction Writers of America]] from 1968 to 1970. In addition to handcrafting the Nebula Award trophies, her responsibilities included production of two monthly newsletters and their distribution by mail to the membership.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=57–58, 63}}

McCaffrey emigrated to Ireland with her two younger children in 1970, weeks after filing for divorce. Ireland had recently exempted resident artists from income taxes, an opportunity that fellow science-fiction author [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]] had promptly taken and helped to promote. McCaffrey's mother soon joined the family in [[Dublin]].{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=5, 68–69, 73}} The following spring, McCaffrey was guest of honour at her first British science-fiction convention ([[Eastercon]] 22, 1971). There she met British reproductive biologist [[Jack Cohen (biologist)|Jack Cohen]],{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=78}} who would be a consultant on the science of Pern.<ref>See forewords or acknowledgments in some Pern books.{{example needed|date=October 2011}}</ref>

=== Writer ===
McCaffrey had had two short stories published during the 1950s. The first ("Freedom of the Race", about women impregnated by aliens) was written in 1952 when she was pregnant with her son Alec. It earned a $100 prize in ''[[Science-Fiction Plus]]''.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=9, 13, 38}} Her second story, "The Lady in the Tower", was published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' by editor [[Robert P. Mills]] and published again by editor [[Judith Merril]] for ''The Year's Greatest Science Fiction''.{{efn|name=evidently}} McCaffrey said "she thought of the story when wishing herself alone, like a lady in an ivory tower".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=13}}

Judith Merril matched McCaffrey with her long-time literary agent [[Virginia Kidd]] and invited her to the [[Milford Writer's Workshop]] (to which she returned many times), where participants each brought a story to be critiqued.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=8–10}} After her first Milford workshop in 1959 she worked on "The Ship Who Sang", the story which began the Brain & Brawn Ship series. At the story's end, the spaceship Helva sings "[[Taps (bugle call)|Taps]]" for her human partner. Decades later, McCaffrey's son Todd called it "almost an elegy to her father".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=13–14}} In interviews between 1994 and 2004, she considered it her best story and her favourite.{{sfn|Jamneck|2004}}{{sfn|''SFFWorld''|2000}}{{sfn|Karsmakers|1994}}{{sfn|''Locus''|2004}} "I put much of myself into it: myself and the troubles I had in accepting my father's death [1954] and a troubled marriage."{{sfn|''SFFWorld''|2000}}

McCaffrey then wrote two more "Ship" stories and began her first novel. Regarding her motivation for ''Restoree'' (1967), her son recalled her saying, "I was so ''tired'' of all the weak women screaming in the corner while their boyfriends were beating off the aliens. I wouldn't have been—I'd've been in there swinging with something or kicking them as hard as I could".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=45–46}} McCaffrey explained that it did not require a sequel; it "served its purpose of an intelligent, survivor-type woman as the protagonist of an s-f story".<ref name="FAQ">{{cite web |last=McCaffrey |first=Anne |title=Frequently Asked Questions |work=The Worlds of Anne McCaffrey |publisher=Pern Home |url=http://pernhome.com/aim/?page_id=40 |access-date=2011-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715064515/http://pernhome.com/aim/?page_id=40 |archive-date=2011-07-15 |url-status=live}}. See questions 2, 10, 17, 19, 22.</ref>

Regarding her 1969 ''Decision at Doona'' (which she dedicated "To [[Todd McCaffrey|Todd Johnson]]—of course!"), her son recalled that he was directed to lower his voice in his [[Fourth grade|fourth-grade]] school play when his mother was in the auditorium. That inspired the Doona story, which opens on "an overcrowded planet where just talking too loud made you a social outcast".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=2, 50}} As a settler on Doona, the boy talker has a priceless talent.

McCaffrey made a fast start in [[Ireland]], completing for 1971 publication ''Dragonquest'' and two Gothic novels for [[Dell Publishing|Dell]], ''The Mark of Merlin'' and ''The Ring of Fear''.<ref name="isfdb">{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Anne_McCaffrey |title=Anne McCaffrey&nbsp;– Summary Bibliography |work=Internet Speculative Fiction Database |access-date=2011-11-17}}</ref>{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=74}} With a contract for ''The White Dragon'' (which would complete the "original trilogy" with Ballantine), her writing stalled. During the next few years the family moved several times in the Dublin area and struggled to make ends meet, supported largely by child-care payments and meager royalties.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=71–101}}

The young-adult book market provided a crucial opportunity. Editor [[Roger Elwood]] sought short contributions for anthologies, and McCaffrey started the Pern story of Menolly. She delivered "The Smallest Dragonboy" for $154, and four stories which later became ''The Crystal Singer''.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=82–83, 95}} Futura Publications in London signed her to write books about [[dinosaur]]s for children.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=101}} Editor [[Jean E. Karl]] at [[Atheneum Books]] sought to attract more female readers to science fiction and solicited "a story for young women in a different part of Pern". McCaffrey completed Menolly's story as ''[[Dragonsong]]'' and contracted for a sequel before its publication in 1976.
The tales of Menolly are continued in ''[[Dragonsinger]]: Harper of Pern'', and ''[[Dragondrums]]'' as the "Harper Hall Trilogy".{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=103–04}} With a contract with Atheneum she was able to buy a home (named "Dragonhold" for the dragons who bought it).{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=104–05}} Her son wrote, 20 years later, that she "first set dragons free on Pern and then was herself freed by her dragons."{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=113 (conclusion)}}

=== Dragons ===
The first Pern story, "Weyr Search", was published in 1967 by [[John W. Campbell]] in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]''. It won the 1968 [[Hugo Award]] for best novella, voted by participants in the annual [[World Science Fiction Convention]].<ref name=SFAwards/> The second Pern story, "Dragonrider", won the 1969 [[Nebula Award]] for best novella, voted annually by the [[Science Fiction Writers of America]].<ref name=SFAwards/> Thus she was the first woman to win a Hugo for fiction<ref name=sfhof/> and the first to win a Nebula.<ref>{{cite web | title=Anne McCaffrey Named a Grand Master in 2004 | publisher=[[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]] | url=http://nebulas.sfwa.org/grand-masters/anne-mccaffrey/ | access-date=22 August 2017}}</ref>

"Weyr Search" covers the recruitment of a young woman, Lessa, to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, thus becoming a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community. "Dragonrider" explores the growth of the queen dragon Ramoth, and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. Editor Campbell requested "to see dragons fighting thread [the menace from space]", and also suggested [[time travel]]; McCaffrey incorporated both suggestions. The third story, "Crack Dust, Black Dust", was not separately published, but the first Pern novel (''Dragonflight'', published by [[Ballantine Books]] in 1968) was a [[fix-up]] of all three.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|p=49}}
<!--Todd McCaffrey's account is confusing about the published stories and unpublished trials possibly including "Dragonflight" (four-story titles, one becoming the overall title) -->

Agent Virginia Kidd and editor [[Betty Ballantine]] provided advice and assistance for its sequel ''Dragonquest''. It was almost complete (and the contract for another sequel signed) before the 1970 move to Ireland. Both Ballantine and fellow writer [[Andre Norton]] made suggestions for the mutant white dragon.{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|pp=51–52, 54–55}}

Readers waited a long time for the completion of the original trilogy. Progress was not made until 1974–1975, when the [[New England Science Fiction Association]] invited McCaffrey to its annual convention ([[Boskone (convention)|Boskone]]) as guest of honour (which included publication of a novella for sale on-site). She wrote ''A Time When'', which would become the first part of ''The White Dragon''.{{efn|name=A-Time-When}}

''The White Dragon'' was released with new editions of the first two Pern books, with cover art illustrated by [[Michael Whelan]]. It was the first science-fiction book by a woman on the ''New York Times'' best-seller list, and the cover painting is still in print from Whelan. The artists share credit for their career breakthroughs.{{efn|name=Todd-explains}}{{efn|name=Whelan-identifies}}

=== {{anchor|Pern forever}}Collaborations ===
McCaffrey said of her collaborations with son [[Todd McCaffrey]] and [[Elizabeth Ann Scarborough]], "While I would dearly love to have the energy to tell a tale all on my own, I really cannot say that I am not ably represented with my collaborations". In the Pern collaboration with Todd, she was mainly "making suggestions or being a sounding board".<ref name="letter" /> McCaffrey also gave Todd and his sister Gigi permission to write their own stories set in the Pern universe.{{sfn|''Locus''|2004}}

McCaffrey collaborated with author [[Mercedes Lackey]] to write ''The Ship Who Searched'', the third of seven books in the Brain & Brawn Ship series by McCaffrey and four other authors. She wrote two books in the ''[[Planet Pirates]]'' trilogy with [[Elizabeth Moon]]

=== Death ===
McCaffrey died at age 85 on 21 November 2011 at her home in Ireland, following a stroke.<ref>{{cite web |date=22 November 2011 |title=Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011) |url=http://www.locusmag.com/News/2011/11/anne-mccaffrey-1926-2011/ |work=Locus online |access-date=2011-11-23}}</ref>