1953 Hugos

Presented September 7, 1953, at Philcon II.

These were the First Hugos ever presented, and there was no shortlist of nominations nor was there a vote of the membership. It appears that the award was presented by the committee. They were called the Science Fiction Achievement Awards and were announced in Philcon II's PR 3. They seem to have hoped that the SFAA would become a permanent award, since they called them the "First Annual". (The following Worldcon, SFCon did not award the Hugos in 1954, but the Clevention did in 1955 and that made them a Hallowed Tradition.)

The rockets themselves were made by Jack McKnight and inspired by the rockets in Willy Ley's book The Conquest of Space. With some modifications, this design was used for all subsequent Hugo rockets.

• 1953 Best Novel Hugo: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
• 1953 Best Professional Magazine Hugo (tie): Astounding Science Fiction ed. by John W. Campbell, Jr. and Galaxy ed. by H. L. Gold.
• 1953 Best Cover Artist Hugo (tie): Hannes Bok and Ed Emshwiller
• 1953 Best Interior Illustrator Hugo: Virgil Finlay
• 1953 Excellence in Fact Articles Hugo: Willy Ley
• 1953 Best New SF Author or Artist Hugo: Philip José Farmer
• #1 Fan Personality: Forrest J Ackerman

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Hugos

1955

1953

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