David G. Hartwell

David Geddes Hartwell (July 10, 1941 – January 20, 2016) was an American critic, publisher, and editor of thousands of science fiction and fantasy novels. He was best known for work with Signet, Pocket, and Tor Books publishers. He was also noted as an award-winning editor of anthologies. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes him as "perhaps the single most influential book editor of the past forty years in the American [science fiction] publishing world".^[1]

Early years

Hartwell was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and attended Williams College, where he graduated with a BA in 1963. He continued his studies at Colgate University for an MA in 1965, and at Columbia University where he graduated with a Ph.D. in comparative medieval literature in 1973. By 1965 Hartwell was already working as editor and publisher of The Little Magazine (1965–1988), a small press literary magazine.^[2]

Career

Hartwell started out as a book review editor for the rock music magazine Crawdaddy!, founded by Paul Williams in 1966, and published through the 1970s.^[3] In 1968, Hartwell, along with Williams, Chester Anderson, and Joel Hack, co-founded Entwhistle Books,^[4] which published novels by Tom Carson, Philip K. Dick, and others, and nonfiction by Williams.

Hartwell worked for

Hartwell also ran his own small press, Dragon Press, which was founded in 1973[5] as a partnership, and published three early books on science fiction criticism by Samuel R. Delany — The Jewel-Hinged Jaw (1977), Starboard Wine (1978), and The American Shore (1977), before the first was taken over by Berkley Books and eventually all three by Wesleyan University Press. In 1988, via Dragon Press (with Hartwell now as sole proprietor), he established The New York Review of Science Fiction, where he served as reviews editor.

In 1977, Hartwell edited the short-lived Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine^[6] for the newly-formed Baronet publishing. Cosmos is remembered as "a fine magazine, providing a good range of quality fiction" in an attractive package, but poor sales for the rest of the publisher's magazine line forced its cancellation after only four issues.^[7] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd ed.) described it as "a sophisticated mixture of sf and fantasy in an elegant format which included full-colour interior illustration".^[6]

Hartwell chaired the board of directors of the World Fantasy Convention and, with Gordon Van Gelder, was the administrator of the Philip K. Dick Award. Hartwell edited numerous anthologies, and published a number of critical essays on science fiction and fantasy.^[2]

Awards and other achievements

Hartwell edited two annual anthologies: Year's Best SF, started in 1996 and co-edited with Kathryn Cramer since 2002, and Year's Best Fantasy, co-edited with Cramer from 2001 through 2010. Both anthologies have consistently placed in the top 10 of the Locus annual reader poll in the category of Best Anthology. In 1988, he won the World Fantasy Award in the category Best Anthology for The Dark Descent.^[8]

Hartwell was nominated for the

Hartwell was a Guest of Honor at the 67th World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal in 2009.^[11]

He was posthumously awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in October 2016.^[12]

Personal life

Hartwell was known for flamboyant fashion choices.^[13] In 1969 he married Patricia Lee Wolcott. They had two children, but divorced in 1992. He married Kathryn Cramer in 1997, and they had two children. Hartwell lived in Westport, New York at the time of his death, and had previously lived in Pleasantville, New York.^[14][10]

Death

On January 19, 2016, Hartwell fell down a flight of stairs at his home, and was hospitalized in

Works

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Books as writer

• Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction (Walker & Co., 1985;
  ISBN 0-312-86235-0
  .

• The Little Magazine (1965-1988), a small press literary magazine
• Cosmos Magazine (1977), Baronet publishing.
• The New York Review of Science Fiction (1988–2016) with Kathryn Cramer and Ariel Haméon and Kevin J. Maroney and Arthur D. Hlavaty and Matthew Appleton and others

Standalone anthologies

• The Battle of the Monsters and Other Stories (1976) with L. W. Currey
• The World Treasury of Science Fiction (1988)
• Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment (1988) with Kathryn Cramer
• Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder (1989) with Kathryn Cramer
• Spirits of Christmas (1989) with Kathryn Cramer
• Christmas Stars (1993)
• Christmas Forever (1993)
• Christmas Magic (1994)
• Northern Stars: The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction (1994) with Glenn Grant
• The Screaming Skull and Other Great American Ghost Stories (1994)
• The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF^[19] (1994) with Kathryn Cramer
• Visions of Wonder (1996) with Milton T. Wolf
• The Science Fiction Century (1997)
• Bodies of the Dead and Other Great American Ghost Stories (1997)
• Northern Suns (1999) with Glenn Grant
• Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction (1999) with Damien Broderick
• The Hard SF Renaissance (2002) with Kathryn Cramer
• The Science Fiction Century, Volume One (2006)
• The Space Opera Renaissance (2006) with Kathryn Cramer (Tor Books)
• The Sword & Sorcery Anthology (2012) with Jacob Weisman (Tachyon Publications)
• Twenty-First Century Science Fiction (2013) with Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor Books)

Anthology series

See also

• Hard science fiction

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David G. Hartwell.

• Excerpt from the LOCUS Online Interview with David Hartwell, 2004.
• Interview with David G. Hartwell, SpaceWesterns.com, 2007
• Profile of David Hartwell by Michael Swanwick, 2009
• David G. Hartwell at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• David G. Hartwell at Library of Congress, with 38 library catalog records
• The New York Review of Science Fiction