I started this project because I thought I knew a lot about women in science fiction. So much has been forgotten from my generation of writers which is something I want to redress. I also knew about the generations ahead of mine, going back to the mid-1960s, as well as the women of the 1930s.
Somehow, though, I skipped the women of the 1950s. Today, as I compiled my research, I came across this list. Three of the five nominees are women. One I hadn’t heard of before starting this project, and that’s Rosel George Brown.
Best New Author of 1958
| Winner: | No Award |
| 2 | Brian W. Aldiss |
| Runners-up: | |
| Paul Ash (aka: Pauline Ashwell) | |
| Rosel George Brown | |
| Louis Charbonneau | |
| Kit Reed |
Neither had I! But she co-authored with Keith Laumer, and Anne McCaffrey dedicated Alchemy and Academe to her, so I must have read that name before!
Died of cancer at age 41? So sad!
And she wrote sf/mystery? Oh, man, that’s my wheelhouse! I’ve never even seen those books in a used bookstore or at a convention! People who bought those books must have held onto them.
I had. I picked up a copy of A Handful of Time at a used bookstore (not sure why in retrospect : the cover is aggressively unappealing)
The craftmanship is excellent, and for someone from this century the mix of SF with southern gothic seems novel. There is a dry wit (not to mention sheer skill with language as opposed to the “lyrical” per silage one is subjected to by writers hoping to impress the literati) that also (sadly) feels novel. Brown would fit in very well with the recent human wave movement in SF
Here’s the opening line of “Lost in Translation” (May 1959)
Mercedes had particularly preserved her chastity, as her adenoids, out of intellectual conviction. The difference was that she had had an opportunity to be rid of her adenoids.
I recommend her to you, if you are discovering her for the first time, you are in for a great. I am unsurprised that she was up for a best new author. Those were the days when women won SF awards for terrific writing.
I am s looking forward to your book
It seems the comment software doesn’t recognize the tag. Here’s the link to the cover http://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/146532.jpg