Anne McCaffrey Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Anne McCaffrey Biography

Anne McCaffrey was born in 1926, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures.

She spent some years on the stage as a character actress, appearing in the first successful summer music circus in Lambertsville, NJ. She also worked for Liberty Music Shops and Helena Rubinstein, until the birth of Alec Anthony, the first of her three children, in 1952.

McCaffrey's first story was published by Sam Moskowitz in Science Fiction + Magazine. She wrote her first novel, Restoree, published by Ballantine Books in 1967, as a protest against the unrealistic portrayals of women in s-f novels in the 50s and early 60s. She has written a wide range of s-f novels but is best known for her books set on the world of Pern, which began with Dragonflight (1968). In total, she wrote almost 100 books; coauthoring her later books with her son, Todd.

In her final years, arthritis restricted her travel so she spent most of her time in the house she designed, Dragonhold-Underhill (because she had to dig out a hill on her farm to build it) in Wicklow County, Ireland where she ran a private livery stable.

She died, aged 85, on November 21, 2011 following a stroke. She is survived by her two sons and a daughter.

Anne McCaffrey's website

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