Read Summer 2007 for Free Online Page B

So this went round and round and round, and I believe it went all
the way to the very top of World Science Fiction Society, to the clandestine
meetings of which we have only sketchy details of, because they were not
supposed to take notes, and it turns out that he did manage to get that
overturned. And indeed that was the final straw between Asimov and Winton for
many many years, until, of course, their death bed reconciliation, when Winton
was right at the end. But let’s not get into that. I do want to point out one
more Hugo, which he was nominated for an won, which was for Loudest Clothes
Hugo.
 SM: Clearly only because he did not have to compete with
David Hartwell.
 JS: : It’s funny you mention that, because he did,
in fact, compete with a young David Hartwell.
 SM: Oh! Not in his
prime.
 JS: : Not in his prime. He hadn’t reached his stride yet.
This was the first of many Hugo nominations – and sadly, failures –
for David Hartwell, up until last year. Indeed, I think if you ask David
Hartwell, he would tell you Winton was an inspiration in so many ways –
one, if you’re only doing verbs one days and nouns the next, you do actually
learn something about editing. I do believe Hartwell did go back and study
those texts. And also the clothes.
 NS: I would like to point out
that although we are painting a picture of Godfrey as a bitter, deranged
individual, he did have a sense of humor about himself.
 JS: : Oh,
sure. He’s the sort of person who you wouldn’t mind putting your child in his
lap.
 NS: Yes, well. That’s another story. All I know, and you can
correct me if this is untrue, is that before he started winning Hugos, he was
so obsessed with it that he made a joke out of it – he wouldn’t drive
himself, because he was very frightened of cars. But he had a driver named
Hugo, and he would bring him around and say, have you seen my Hugo? Which was
kind of a nice way to poke fun at the fact that he hadn’t won the big one.
 JS: : The funny thing is that after he won the Hugo, he fired Hugo. And then
his next driver was Oscar.
 NS: That’s right. But nothing ever came
of that.
 JS: : No. You can’t go to the well more than once.
I
want to talk a little bit about his novels. One of the things that was very
interesting about Winton was that as with many science fiction authors, he
didn’t make a lot of money writing science fiction.
 SM: Because
you can’t.
 JS: : Because you can’t. Even today it’s very
difficult. And of course he had the various day jobs; I remember you, Nick,
saying that he spent some time at JPL.
 NS: Yes.
 JS: :
And we’ll get to that in a minute.
 SM: He was very proud of his
stint well-digging in Maine. He claimed it gave him more material for his books
than any ten years of college.
 JS: : It’s true. One of the
interesting things about Maine is that its water table is so random because the
rock shelf, it makes it actually very hard to farm there, and makes it hard to
dig wells, so you do end up building some character. I would assume.
 SM: Yes, although unfortunately not an ability to dowse.
 JS: : No,
and that did become a problem. He was run out of El Paso, I think, because of
that. Is that right? In ’56? ’57?
 SM: Was it El Paso?
 JS: : Was it El Paso?
 SM: Yes. Yes, it was El Paso. In ’55.
 JS: : The Great Drought of ’55. That’s right. He claimed to be a dowser.
 SM: To be fair to Winton, he was at that point extremely hard up.
 JS: :
Yes. The things that you will do. And I believe he was exchanging his dowsing
skills for, what was it? Two goats, and…
 SM: Piano lessons.
 JS: : …A piano lesson, that’s right. And he actually took delivery of the piano
lesson. Although not of the goats. Which was good, because he was ridden out on
a rail, and it’s hard to take goats with you.
 SM: It would be very
hard on the goats.
 JS: : Yes. It’s just as well the goats weren’t
involved. But because was,