Editing Dragonflight (novel) (section)

== Origins ==
Two components of ''Dragonflight'' were award-winning novellas published by ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Analog]]'' science fiction magazine. The first segment, "Weyr Search", illustrated by [[John Schoenherr]], had been the cover story for the October 1967 issue.{{sfn|"Weyr Search", ISFDB}} The second segment, "Dragonrider", appeared in two parts, beginning in December 1967, and was also a cover story illustrated by Schoenherr.{{sfn|"Dragonrider", ISFDB}}

"Weyr Search" features a young woman named Lessa being recruited to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, thus becoming a dragonrider, and the leader of a Weyr community on the fictional planet [[Pern]]. "Dragonrider" features the growth of Lessa's queen dragon, Ramoth, and their training together. ''Analog'' editor [[John W. Campbell]] asked "to see dragons fighting Thread", Pern's menace from space, and he also suggested time travel. In response, McCaffrey wrote a third story titled "Crack Dust, Black Dust", which was not published separately, but provided crucial material for the novel.<!-- Todd McCaffrey's account is confusing about the published stories and unpublished work, perhaps including one story or segment called "Dragonflight". That would make four titles, if not stories, one becoming the overall title. It's plausible to me that the original "Dragonflight" is the climactic short back and forth in time. -->{{sfn|''Dragonholder''|1999|p=49}}