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?
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