When Robin Roberts approached Anne McCaffrey about writing her biography, the response among the family was “Yes, please!” Anne had talked for a while of taking time off to write her autobiography and had even started it once, but writing about herself wasn’t as compelling to her as writing about Lessa or Killashandra or Helva.

Robin, with an academic’s eye, listened much and spoke little, and soon was embraced by Anne’s much-extended family. We were quite open with her, and her Anne McCaffrey: A Life with Dragons is currently the best biography of Anne McCaffrey available.

We were thrilled when we discovered that Robin was made Dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, not only for her but also for what it means to science fiction and fantasy as a whole: that the literature, so often derided in the past, has moved into general acceptance.

In this essay, Robin gives tribute to the literary impact of Anne McCaffrey from an academic standpoint.