DAMON KNIGHT GRAND MASTER: C. J. CHERRYH

BETSY WOLLHEIM

Betsy Wollheim, the daughter of veteran paperback editor, Donald A. Wollheim, is a second generation science fiction editor with over four decades of book publishing experience. She is the president and co-publisher of DAW Books, and not only edits but also art directs all the books she acquires. She has edited numerous award-winning and bestselling authors, including C. J. Cherryh, Tad Williams (with co-publisher Sheila Gilbert), Patrick Rothfuss, Nnedi Okorafor, Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Kristen Britain, Tanith Lee, C. S. Friedman, and Saladin Ahmed. In 2012, Betsy was awarded the Hugo for Best Editor Long Form.

I was twenty-three years old when I returned to New York from six years away attending college, grad school, and working for printing houses. It was 1975, and my dad, Don Wollheim, handed me a well-worn paper manuscript. It was from a new author, someone he was clearly very excited about. The author had two books on submission to DAW, and he had bought both but had decided to publish Gate of Ivrel, the one he handed me, first. He said he intended to suggest to the author, Carolyn Janice Cherry, that she use her initials and add a silent “h” to the end of her name, because her legal name was more appropriate for a romance writer, and she was anything but that. C. J. Cherryh had an almost exotic look to it. It seemed right, somehow.

I read Gate of Ivrel in my childhood bedroom, in my parents’ house in Queens. My father was right—Carolyn Cherry was definitely not a romance writer. Gate of Ivrel was different from anything I had ever read. The heroine, Morgaine, was an ancient interstellar operative whose mission was to close the dangerous space-time Gates on planets, setting them to self-destruct as she moved through them to her next location. The novel was clearly hard science fiction, because the greatest danger was the possibility of catastrophically mutating the past by manipulation of the space-time continuum in the Gates. But all the trappings were more typical of a heroic fantasy. Because the story is told from the viewpoint of her vassal-and-partner, Vanye, a warrior from a primitive culture, Morgaine herself is veiled in mystery. She has a high-tech implement that resembles a sword, and this “sword” even has a name: Changeling. It was a perfect illustration of how advanced technology would seem like magic to a tribal culture. It was also the first book where Carolyn pairs an alpha female with a subservient or beta male. This would be one of many ongoing themes in C.J.’s writing. Quite a switch from the sexism that had been traditional in our field for decades.

After reading Gate of Ivrel, in October 1975, I started work at DAW Books, moved into my first apartment in Manhattan, and soon thereafter met C.J. Cherryh.

Carolyn was a high school classics teacher from Oklahoma City, and despite her Masters from Johns Hopkins, and extensive world travel, she seemed almost pathologically shy. She developed a very close relationship with my parents and would stay in their home in Queens whenever she was in NYC. Because Carolyn and I didn’t speak much in those early years (she was shy, as I’ve said) I didn’t really get to know her until the late 70s. But even in the earliest years, I observed that she was a very determined individual who was not only extremely prolific but also incredibly brave. She entered fandom with a vengeance—traveling to multiple conventions a month, and when her foot was bitten by a brown recluse spider, she was undeterred. For four months she traveled to conventions in a wheelchair with her foot elevated above her heart. Nothing could stop her. She joined the filksingers, she relaxed, we became friends.

And I began to learn about Carolyn. I learned that she first started writing when her favorite childhood television show, Flash Gordon, was cancelled. She decided to write her own episodes. Carolyn’s parents told her that she couldn’t use the typewriter if her younger brother David was sleeping, so on weekend mornings, she would routinely wake David by tossing a wet washcloth in his face and then escape his fury by locking herself in her bedroom to write. She was determined, even at ten.

I read all her manuscripts. But the first manuscript I edited (along with my dad) was Downbelow Station. It was a long book for the early 80s, and it needed two rewrites at a time when there were no computers. Carolyn added physical description at Don’s suggestion, then chapter headings for clarity, at mine. The book was complex, and the reader needed to know the where, who, and when at the beginning of each chapter; Carolyn had to figure out time relative to space. It was a massive amount of work. The manuscript came back to us cut up in pieces—new parts attached to old with scotch tape. It was an enormous relief when it went to the printer and nothing had fallen out. I have been editing Carolyn’s DAW books ever since.

People told Carolyn that a DAW original paperback could never win the Hugo. Despite all odds: mass market original publication, and the pulp-image DAW had at that time, Downbelow Station prevailed and won Carolyn her first Best Novel Hugo. I don’t remember how many times a C.J. Cherryh title has been nominated for a Hugo, but I vividly remember that The Pride of Chanur ran on a slot with the “big three”: Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke. [Ed. note: an excerpt follows.] It was an honor to be on that ballot, and though Asimov won (he got everyone’s second place votes) Pride got more first place votes than any of the competing books. Carolyn was happy, even though she lost the award.

Downbelow Station was a formative book not only for Carolyn but also for me and for all her readers. It was in this book that Carolyn first laid out her plan for humanity to go to the stars. She charted a route, via Tau Ceti, that would define all of her subsequent science fiction and even some of her already published work. The Alliance-Union Universe is a massive exploration of how humans can reach the stars, and what could happen. It is realistic and believable. It came from the heart and mind of a woman who wanted to go to space—really wanted it. So she figured out how to do it, and what might happen if we went. Every star system in CJ’s science fiction novels really exists, only the names have changed.

All of Carolyn’s science fiction novels, even the offshoots that primarily feature aliens, fit under the huge umbrella of the Alliance-Union universe. In the Chanur series, Tully is the lone human survivor of a captured Alliance exploration ship. The Foreigner series is about a colony ship from Alliance-Union that becomes lost in space. But perhaps Carolyn’s greatest literary achievement is the study of how humanity itself can change when the planet of our birth is no longer accessible. The books that comprise the heart of the Alliance-Union novels develop a space-centric culture where the human genome must be protected.

She describes her writing voice as “intense internal,” and indeed, her books are very intimate and personal, often about fear and uncertainty in the face of unfamiliar circumstance and extreme danger. Yet her heroes and heroines are as brave as their author and always find a way to survive.

It’s a considerable achievement not only to envision a future interstellar human civilization but also to respect the many bona fide parameters of science. It’s an even greater achievement to also respect the social and biological complexities of the evolution of a human society without a home world. But it’s amazing that she’s managed to do it while making her stories so personal.

I’m very proud to have worked with and to continue to work with C.J. Cherryh. Now, after forty years, Carolyn and I are closer than ever—we’re family. I’m always learning new things from her. I learned last year that she is the many-times-great grandniece of Daniel Boone. But however much I learn from Carolyn, I learn even more from her work. From the Foreigner series she showed me how a lone human diplomat, within a mere two decades, can lead a steam-age alien civilization to interstellar travel and more. [Ed. note: an excerpt follows.] The acceleration of this technological development makes for an incredibly exciting read. Now in its sixteenth volume, this massive series has expanded its horizons and become more important with each successive book. I look forward to each new novel with all the enthusiasm of an avid fan.

It’s an enormous pleasure for me to see Carolyn made a Grand Master by SFWA. No editor understands more than I do how much she deserves it.