David G. Hartwell | |
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 Hartwell the morning after winning theHugo, 2006 | |
| Born | David Geddes Hartwell (1941-07-10)July 10, 1941 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 20, 2016(2016-01-20) (aged 74) Plattsburgh, New York, U.S. |
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| Education | Williams College (BA) Colgate University (MA) Columbia University (PhD) |
| Period | 1965–2016 |
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| Children | 4 |
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| davidghartwell | |
David Geddes Hartwell (July 10, 1941 – January 20, 2016) was an American critic, publisher, and editor of thousands ofscience fiction andfantasy novels. He was best known for work with Signet, Pocket, andTor 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]
Hartwell was born inSalem, Massachusetts, and attendedWilliams College, where he graduated with a BA in 1963. He continued his studies atColgate University for an MA in 1965, and atColumbia University where he graduated with a Ph.D. in comparative medieval literature in 1973. By 1965 Hartwell was already working as editor and publisher ofThe Little Magazine (1965–1988), a small press literary magazine.[2]
Hartwell started out as a book review editor for therock music magazineCrawdaddy!, founded byPaul Williams in 1966, and published through the 1970s.[3] In 1968, Hartwell, along with Williams,Chester Anderson, and Joel Hack, co-foundedEntwhistle Books,[4] which published novels by Tom Carson,Philip K. Dick, and others, and nonfiction by Williams.
Hartwell worked forSignet (1971–1973), Berkley Putnam (1973–1978) andPocket Books, where he founded theTimescape imprint (1980–1985) and created the Pocket BooksStar Trek publishing line. From 1984 until his death he worked forTor Books,[3] where he spearheaded Tor's Canadian publishing initiative atCAN-CON inOttawa, and was also influential in bringing many Australian writers to the US market. Since 1995, his title at Tor/Forge Books was "Senior Editor".[2]
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 bySamuel R. Delany —The Jewel-Hinged Jaw (1977),Starboard Wine (1978), andThe American Shore (1977), before the first was taken over byBerkley Books and eventually all three byWesleyan University Press. In 1988, via Dragon Press (with Hartwell now as sole proprietor), he establishedThe New York Review of Science Fiction, where he served as reviews editor.
In 1977, Hartwell edited the short-livedCosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine magazine[6][7] 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.[8]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 theWorld Fantasy Convention and, withGordon Van Gelder, was the administrator of thePhilip K. Dick Award. Hartwell edited numerous anthologies, and published a number of critical essays on science fiction and fantasy.[2]
Hartwell edited two annual anthologies:Year's Best SF, started in 1996 and co-edited withKathryn Cramer since 2002, andYear's Best Fantasy, co-edited with Cramer from 2001 through 2010. Both anthologies have consistently placed in the top 10 of theLocus annual reader poll in the category of Best Anthology. In 1988, he won theWorld Fantasy Award in the category Best Anthology forThe Dark Descent.[9]
Hartwell was nominated for theHugo Award forty-one times, nineteen in the category ofBest Professional Editor andBest Editor Long Form, winning in 2006, 2008 and 2009, and twenty-two times as editor/publisher ofThe New York Review of Science Fiction. He has also placed in the top ten in theLocus poll for best editor for twenty-seven consecutive years, every year from the award category's inception to the present day.[10] He edited the best-novelNebula Award-winnersTimescape byGregory Benford (published 1980),The Claw of the Conciliator byGene Wolfe (published 1981), andNo Enemy But Time byMichael Bishop (published 1982), the best-novel Hugo Award-winnerHominids byRobert J. Sawyer (published 2002), and theWorld Fantasy Award-winning novelsThe Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (1981) andThe Dragon Waiting byJohn M. Ford (1984).[10][11]
Hartwell was a Guest of Honor at the67th World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal in 2009.[12]
He was posthumously awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in October 2016.[13]
Hartwell was known for flamboyant fashion choices.[14] In 1969 he married Patricia Lee Wolcott. They had two children, but divorced in 1992. He marriedKathryn Cramer in 1997, and they had two children. Hartwell lived inWestport, New York at the time of his death, and had previously lived inPleasantville, New York.[15][11]
On January 19, 2016, Hartwell fell down a flight of stairs at his home, and was hospitalized inPlattsburgh, New York with severe head trauma.[16] Cramer said that the fall caused a "massivebrain bleed", and that he was not expected to recover.[17] He died the following day at the age of 74.[18][15]
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