1960 Hugos
Awarded September 5, 1960 by Pittcon. The Hugo categories changed yet again, dropping to six categories -- as P. Schuyler Miller explained, "for the simple reason that Ben Jason had six of the original Hugo rockets left and let us have them." Whatever the reason for choosing them, Pittcon's set of Hugos categories became the standard for a time.
Elinor Busby became the first woman to win a Hugo this year.
Besides the six Hugos, Pittcon gave a special committee award to "Hugo Gernsback - The Father of Magazine Science Fiction". This was also a Hugo trophy -- the prohibition against using the Hugo rocket for non-Hugos did not yet exist. (And we do not as yet have an explanation for the seven Hugo trophies which were apparently handed out and Miller's statement that there were only six rockets available.)
- Best Novel: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
- Best Short Fiction: "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
- Best Dramatic Presentation: The Twilight Zone by Rod Serling
- Best Professional Magazine: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ed. by Robert P. Mills
- Best Professional Artist: Ed Emshwiller
- Best Fanzine: Cry of the Nameless ed. by F. M. Busby, Elinor Busby, Burnett Toskey and Wally Weber
Controversy[edit]
There was a kerfluffle associated with the 1960 Hugos. In Axe 25A (April 1, 1962, ed. Larry Shaw and Noreen Shaw) Dirce Archer wrote:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: It has been reported to me that a certain individual is now claiming that FANAC won PITTCON*s fanzine Hugo, and that he and Lynn Hickman "witnessed" an occasion when a stack of ballots naming FANAC were destroyed "on the grounds that the handwriting is similar". This story, the last in a series of vengeful attacks upon our group, is entirely and totally false and with no basis whatsoever. 1) I have never met this man to my knowledge and do not even know what he looks like. 2) Lynn Hickman was not in Pittsburgh at any time during the year prior to the convention and, since ballots must be counted weeks before a convention so Hugo plates can be engraved, he could not have been present at a ballot counting session. Lynn’s character is such that it is not even necessary to check as to whether he had any part in this malicious gossip. [While we agree entirely about Lynn’s character, a convenient opportunity allowed us to check with him, and he confirms these statements completely, — Larry & Noreen Shaw] 3) Even PITTCON committee members' wives and husbands were excluded at ballot counting sessions—as at all business meetings. It would be ridiculous to share knowledge of the most carefully guarded secret of any convention, the ballot results, with outsiders 4) FANAC, although tops in nominations, did not win a Hugo. In fact until the last seven days before the deadline SF TIMES was leading and we expected it to win. In the last seven days four of the five nominees changed places. 5) PITTCON did toss out some nominations but with excellent reason. We received 78 ballots—packaged, not sent separately—each nominating the same novel, short story and publisher, with an accompanying letter saying, "These are all bona fide nominations, as are attested by the individual names and addresses". They nominated a single author [later identified as R. Lionel Fanthorpe] (author of the novel and short story) totally unknown to our committee, whose stories appeared in an obscure British publication (not Nova Publications) which was nominated for best magazine. Surely no one could expect us to believe that one English village of something under 7,000 population contains upwards of 60 bona fide fans, many with identical handwriting, seven with identical addresses and last name (the author’s) and ALL with identical nominations! It was our belief that duty required we discard these obvious attempts to stuff the ballot box. We would do the same thing again under such circumstances. I trust, for his own sake, the fertile imagination of this individual will be kept under control in the future. We deplore legal action and have ignored previous slander, but there is a point of no return in these matters. We could and would take steps. Dirce S. Archer Chairman, PITTCON
| 1959 | Hugos | 1961 | 1960 |
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