Anne McCaffrey: A Life with Dragons

Chapter 8. The Grand Master

204 chapter 8 The Grand Master My feet have yet to return to earth. —Anne McCaffrey, Web page A time of great achievement and satisfaction for Anne, the 1990s were marked by the honors she received and her enjoyment of financial success. Yet more triumphs remained for the twenty-first century. Each represents an important milestone for Anne personally, as well as signifying her importance as a writer. The dream of many a science fiction writer or reader, seeing a space shuttle launch as an invited guest, came true for Anne. This event held special significance, for in her own life she enacted the plot of many of her novels: overcoming physical adversity to reach a desired goal. The permanence and power of Anne’s fictional world Pern was solidified as she handed over the keys to Pern to her literary heir, her son Todd. As she has aged, Anne has worried about her ability to continue to take care of others and about the continuation of the fictional worlds she created. Todd’s collaborations with his mother and his own Pern novel reassured her that Pern would continue to develop and that her literary creations would continue to provide support for her family. Finally, like so many of her heroines, Anne broke through barriers to receive a signal honor, one rarely awarded to women: she was named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. All these events demonstrate the depth of Anne’s literary accomplishments. 205 The Grand Master In October 2002, finally, Anne would get to experience something she had dreamed and written about, space travel. She had made arrangements to see a launch before, but had been bitterly disappointed when events made her trip impossible. Three years earlier, in 1999, she had been invited by pilot-astronaut Pamela Ann Melroy to see the STS (space transport shuttle) launch from the VIP pad. Such arrangements are always made well in advance of a launch date. Anne had planned to go to the United States for the fall 2000 mission takeoff, but a heart attack intervened. As a science fiction writer who had always written about space travel, Anne had always wanted to see a space mission up close. Now she could not only see a launch, but feel a part of it. Anne herself was increasingly “grounded” by her ill health, and her mind had always been able to travel farther than her body. As a girl during World War II, she could dream about worlds of great possibility, worlds in which women could be in space, women who had authority and power. Now Anne would be part of an exclusive club able to see a space shuttle launch up close. To Anne, the launch was more than a spectacle; this moment exemplified all that she had lived and dreamed and written. The experience had a personal dimension, too, for the space shuttle pilot, Pam Melroy, was a fan and friend. A female pilot, a woman who achieved the rank of colonel, an intrepid spirit leading the way to humanity’s future, Pam embodied the spirit of Anne’s protagonists. A graduate of Wellesley, a sister college to Anne’s alma mater, Radcliffe, Pam had been a fan of Anne McCaffrey’s since graduate school. Pam explains, “It was when I read The White Dragon that I knew I had to have everything Anne had written!” Anne’s depiction of “strong, talented women” has helped Pam “feel a sense of validation about being a strong woman (or at least a strong-willed one!). I feel like they are friends and try to emulate the best qualities in them. The fact that they are portrayed in a way that also stimulates my thoughts about science and technology is also really important.” Her friendship with Pam confirmed Anne’s faith in science and the world view she created in her fictions. In a letter to her, Pam praises Anne’s 206 The Grand Master writing, especially her depictions of women characters, which she described as “not sweet do-gooders or evil temptresses like you see in so much science fiction.” Pam explained that she invited Anne to the launch in October 2000 in gratitude for “so much enjoyment for so many years.” When she returned to Houston after her successful mission, Pam found a letter from Anne saying that “she...