CARR, Terry (Gene)

(1937-1987)

   US writer and editor. He became an sf fan in 1949 and, throughout the 1950s (and later), enjoyed a long and prolific career as such; one of his fanzines, FANAC, co-edited with Ron ELLIK, won a HUGO in 1959, and TC eventually won his second Hugo as Best Fan Writer in 1973. Some of this writing was assembled as Fandom Harvest (coll 1986) and Between Two Worlds (coll 1986 chap dos), the latter being published with similar material by Bob SHAW.In the early 1960s TC began to work as an editor and to write fiction, his first story being "Who Sups with the Devil" in 1962 for FSF, where most of his early stories appeared; most of it was assembled in The Light at the End of the Universe (coll 1976). He was never prolific as a fiction writer, but the stories in that collection are thoughtful and distinctive. They include "Brown Robert" (1962), a neat TIME-TRAVEL variant, "The Dance of the Changer and the Three" (1968), an ambitious attempt to render an ALIEN culture by telling one of its myths, and "Ozymandias" (1972), which draws an effective parallel between modern CRYONICS techniques and the funeral practices of ancient Egypt. There were also two minor novels - Invasion from 2500 (1964) with Ted WHITE under the joint pseudonym Norman EDWARDS, and Warlord of Kor (1963 chap dos) - as well as one ambitious and substantial work, Cirque (1977), a religious allegory, elegiac in mood, set in the FAR FUTURE. Because he was not very prolific, TC's writing is in general somewhat undervalued.It was as an editor that he became and remained best known. In 1964-71 he worked with Donald A. WOLLHEIM at ACE BOOKS, where he was responsible for the highly successful Ace Special series, whose most famous original publications were probably R.A. LAFFERTY's Past Master (1968) and Ursula K. LE GUIN's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (1969), and which included several further titles of strong merit. He co-edited seven annual best-of-the-year ANTHOLOGIES with Wollheim (whom see for titles), beginning with World's Best Science Fiction: 1965 (anth 1965; vt World's Best Science Fiction: First Series 1970 UK), and initiated the UNIVERSE series of original anthologies (see listing below) with Universe 1 (anth 1971). After leaving Ace and becoming a freelance editor, TC continued to produce a best-of-the-year anthology on his own in competition with Wollheim's, commencing with The Best Science Fiction of the Year (anth 1972) and continuing through 1987 (see listing below); during its run, this series was generally regarded as the best of the annual compilations. Universe continued, although it changed publishers more than once; and with The Year's Finest Fantasy (anth 1978) TC started a FANTASY annual (see listing below), which was less successful. Of a wide variety of reprint and original anthologies, the most notable was perhaps The Ides of Tomorrow (anth 1976), with fine stories by Brian W. ALDISS, George R.R. MARTIN and others.In the 1980s TC returned to ACE BOOKS on a freelance basis to edit a second series of Ace Specials, this time restricted to first novels. The impact of this sequence was perhaps even greater than the first, for it included in its first 18 months William GIBSON's NEUROMANCER (1984), Kim Stanley ROBINSON's THE WILD SHORE (1984), Carter SCHOLZ's and Glenn Harcourt's Palimpsests (1984), Lucius SHEPARD's Green Eyes (1984), Michael SWANWICK's In the Drift (1985) and Howard WALDROP's Them Bones (1984). In 1985-6 he won his third and fourth Hugos, both as Best Editor. What perhaps marked TC most distinctively was his quite extraordinary capacity to commission or purchase work which, once published, seemed inevitable. His authors seemed to speak to the heart of their times.

   MJE/JC

   Other works as editor: Science Fiction for People who Hate Science Fiction (anth 1966); The Others (anth 1969); On Our Way to the Future (anth 1970); This Side of Infinity (anth 1972); An Exaltation of Stars (anth 1973); Into the Unknown (anth 1973); Worlds Near and Far (anth 1974); The Fellowship of the Stars (anth 1974); Creatures from Beyond (anth 1975); Planets of Wonder (anth 1976); The Infinite Arena (anth 1977); To Follow a Star: Nine Science Fiction Stories about Christmas (anth 1977); Classic Science Fiction: The First Golden Age (anth 1978); Beyond Reality (anth 1979); Dream's Edge (anth 1980); A Treasury of Modern Fantasy (anth 1981) with Martin H. GREENBERG; 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (anth 1984) with Isaac ASIMOV and Greenberg; The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 4 (anth 1986).New Worlds of Fantasy: New Worlds of Fantasy (anth 1967; vt Step Outside Your Mind 1969 UK); \#2 (anth 1970); \#3 (anth 1971).Universe: The sequence continued with Universe 2 (anth 1972), \#3 (anth 1973), \#4 (anth 1974), \#5 (anth 1975), \#6 (anth 1976), \#7 (anth 1977), \#8 (anth 1978), \#9 (anth 1979), \#10 (anth 1980), \#11 (anth 1981), \#12 (anth 1982), \#13 (anth 1983), \#14 (anth 1984), \#15 (anth 1985), \#16 (anth 1986) and \#17 (anth 1987), plus The Best from Universe (anth 1984).Best Science Fiction of the Year: The sequence continued with The Best Science Fiction of the Year 2 (anth 1973), \#3 (anth 1974), \#4 (anth 1975), \#5 (anth 1976), \#6 (anth 1977), \#7 (anth 1978), \#8 (anth 1979), \#9 (anth 1980), \#10 (anth 1981), \#11 (anth 1982), \#12 (anth 1983), \#13 (anth 1984; cut vt Best SF of the Year \#13 1984 UK), Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year \#14 (anth 1985; vt Best SF of the Year \#14 1985 UK), Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year \#15 (anth 1986; vt Best SF of the Year \#15 1986 UK) and \#16 (anth 1987; vt Best SF of the Year \#16 1987 UK).Finest Fantasy: The sequence continued with The Year's Finest Fantasy \#2 (anth 1979), \#3 (anth 1981), \#4 (anth 1981) and \#5 (anth 1982).Best SF Novellas: The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year \#1 (anth 1979) and \#2 (anth 1980).

   See also: CITIES; INVASION; LINGUISTICS; MILFORD SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS' CONFERENCE; MYTHOLOGY; RELIGION; SCI FI.