Gandalf Award
The Gandalf Award was a literary prize for fantasy literature, which was awarded from 1974 to 1981. He was named after Gandalf, the wizard from JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, named and sponsored by Lin Carter and the Swordsmen and Sorcerers ' Guild of America, a Writers' Association of sci-fi authors. The winners were chosen by the participants of the World Science Fiction Convention on the same principle as the Hugo Award.
Categories
The Gandalf Award was presented in two categories:
- The Gandalf Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in the field of fantasy literature and
- The Gandalf Award for Book -Length Fantasy for fantasy books.
The Gandalf Grand Master Award has been consistently awarded from 1974 to 1981. The first winner was JRR Tolkien, of the seven following winners were four members of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers ' Guild of America, namely Fritz Leiber, Lyon Sprague de Camp, Andre Norton and Poul Anderson.
The Gandalf Award for Book -Length Fantasy was only awarded in 1978 and 1979. The mixture was then dispensed a further ceremony, as the price of the Hugo Award competed, which was then also awarded for fantasy literature.
End of the Gandalf Award
With the worsening of Lin Carter's health in the late 1980s and the Gandalf Award lost its importance. Its function is now fulfilled by the formerly rival World Fantasy Award, which was first awarded in 1975. This honors with its categories also for a life work of one author, on the other individual works, which corresponds to the two categories of Gandalf Awards. In 1981, the Gandalf Award was the last time.
Winners of the Gandalf Grand Master Award
The winners of the Gandalf Grand Master Award were: