Laurie Winslow Sargent

Hugo Awards 1966-1967 Sci-Fi Nominees, (John) Hayden Howard, Frank Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien and Isaac Asimov

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Laurie Winslow Sargent

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When Jack (John) Hayden Howard, my stepdad, was a nominee for the Hugo Awards in 1967 for his novelette, he was in good company. The previous year, in 1966, nominees included Frank Herbert, for Dune, and J.R.R. Tolkien for Lord of the Rings. Isaac Asimov and Edgar Rice Burroughs were also nominees. Star Trek won best Dramatic Presentation.

That certainly was an exciting era in science fiction. It’s still exciting with the revival of so many of those titles in film, including the 2021 Warner Bros. Pictures film Dune. It’s amazing to realize it was released 56 years after the novel was written.

The movie trailer for Dune on YouTube has had a whopping 36 milllion views. I suspect that author Frank Herbert’s mind would have been blown about that; hopefully he’d have been pleased with the film adaptation. I’m not sure whether or not his fans have been. Thoughts on that?

As for 1967 Hugo award-nominated science fiction magazines: those were the same pubs Hayden wrote for: If, Analog, and Galaxy. Hayden Howard also had many of his stories illustrated by great sci-fi illustrators, including the Hugo 1967 award-winning artist, Jack Gaughan.

Here’s the cover of one Galaxy issue I own, giving you a taste of sci-fi art in the 60s. The image within the cover illustration looks strikingly like a smartphone, doesn’t it?

Galaxy Magazine, December 1966

In one of Hayden’s 1950s stories he described “visa-phones”, with his characters doing what we now call Skyping or FaceTiming.

I recall only a few decades ago joking, “What if we can someday see people while we talk on the phone? I’ll have to fix my hair before making a call!” Even only a few decades ago I didn’t actually think that would happen. Yet Hayden predicted videophones 60-70 years ago. Perhaps he was a time traveler and we didn’t know it.

To see a full list of all Hugo nominees, visit Hugo Awards 1966 and Hugo Awards 1967. Hayden was also nominated for the Nebula Awards in 1966, and again in 1967.

One list of stories by Hayden is in his Wikipedia entry. However, that’s far from comprehensive, as he had yet more science fiction stories published, plus wrote so many more stories, including other types of fiction. I have his original manuscripts for about 50 stories. I’ll write more about those in future posts. (To see why Hayden interests me so much, see my page, 1960s Sci-Fi: Hayden Howard and my recent collection of eight of his stories, Gremmie’s Reef (previously titled Reawakened Worlds Vol 1; Vol 2 pending.)

What is it about 1960s sci-fi that grabs you? Share your thoughts in a comment, and let’s get a fun conversation going (but without visa-phones, so you don’t have to fix your hair).

Laurie

Comments

4 responses to “Hugo Awards 1966-1967 Sci-Fi Nominees, (John) Hayden Howard, Frank Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien and Isaac Asimov”

  1. Terry Hans

    Laurie. It is so great that you are bringing this information back to life. He would be so proud of you sharing his works for another generation to enjoy. Continue the great work you are doing!
    Terry

    Reply
  2. Kathy Collard Miller

    I love sci-fi. I’m a Trekkie, Star Wars lover, and other series. I think it’s the possibilities outside of current life that fascinate me. But also fascinating watching old episodes of Star Trek, I began to notice the liberal views that of course I didn’t recognize at the time. Ya have to wonder how those shows brought subtle changes to our thinking about current ideas that fight against our Christian worldview. As a result, I’m more careful about evaluating the message of things I watch and read.

    Reply
    1. Laurie Winslow Sargent

      It’s definitely interesting looking back through history in all genres, seeing how far back ideas were being promoted. Being older and wiser now, I too look more closely at messages woven into stories and notice more than I used to. It’s been an interesting thing being executor of my stepdad’s stories, as the way he thought and wrote is quite different from me and my own writing. I want to honor him without straying from my own values.

      As I dip into the sci-fi world and works by other sci-fi writers, I see some sub-genres or themes promoting ideas I wouldn’t promote myself, which I also see in other types of fiction. What I always did like were the what-if stories in the Twilight Zone, with surprise endings that made me think. Hayden’s stories are a lot like those. Your comment is timely for me, as I choose which of Hayden’s previously unpublished stories to share with the world, to honor him. I do appreciate how they immerse me in the ’50s to’60s and teach me a little about how people thought back then, both good and bad. Woven into some of his stories were his worries about the environment; the big Santa Barbara oil spill occurred at the time he wrote them. Another common theme of his was technology gone wrong, which made for some weird and interesting projections into the real future and are perhaps good cautionary tales.

      I appreciate your thoughts, Kathy, and will continue to think about this as I curate Hayden’s works and attach my name to them.

      Reply
      1. Kathy Collard Miller

        I’m glad it was useful. I just love to talk about those things. I make a spiritual application about almost anything. Ever see Captain EO at Disneyland? I even made a spiritual story out of that. LOL

        Reply

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