The 2021 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award honoree is D.G. Compton. The selection was announced this weekend at Readercon 31.
Compton’s 1970 novel The Steel Crocodile was nominated for the Nebula Award, and his 1974 novel The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe was filmed as Death Watch by Bertrand Tavernier in 1979. His 1980 novel Ascendancies was on the “100 Must-Read Science Fiction Novels” list created by Stephen E. Andrews and Nick Rennison in 2006. He was named a SFWA Author Emeritus in 2007.
The Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award has been given annually since 2001 by the Cordwainer Smith Foundation, preserving the memory of science-fiction writer Paul Linebarger, who wrote under that pen name. The Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award honors under-read science fiction and fantasy authors with the intention of drawing renewed attention to the winners.
The award is presented at Readercon, and is sponsored by Paul Linebarger’s estate, represented by B. Diane Martin.
The 2021 jury consisted of Steven H Silver, Richard Horton, and Grant Thiessen. See the award discussion they did for Readercon on YouTube.
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A worthy winner. I still love the original title of The Chronocules. “Hot Wireless Sets, Aspirin Tablets, the Sandpaper Slides of Used Matchboxes, and Something that Might have been Castor Oil”…
Just to note that THE UNSLEEPING EYE (pictured) was the American title for THE CONTINUOUS KATHERINE MORTENHOE.
Also to note that I enjoyed Romy Schneider’s performance in DEATH WATCH, the film adaptation of THE UNSLEEPING EYE. She died way too young, a few years after that movie was made.
This is where I confess that for a very long time I confused Romy Schneider with Maria Schneider (of THE LAST TANGO IN PARIS and THE PASSENGER), and even after I realized they were not the same person I assumed they were sisters until I was this many days old.
I have not actually seen DEATH WATCH, though Steven saw it in preparation for our discussion of Compton’s works … I understand that it’s not a bad movie but not as good as the novel. Romy Schneider was the right age to play Katherine Mortenhoe, but probably too good looking. (But then, that’s the way movies are.)
Swell choice. I’ve been contemplating rereading his novels myself.