Today, February 19, is the birthday of Terry Carr (1937-1987). While Carr wrote a decent amoung of short fiction and a smattering of novels, he is best remembered as an editor.

He edited The Best Science Fiction of the Year for Ballantine and later Tor from the early seventies to the mid-eighties along with two companion valumes, The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year. (I wish someone would pout out such a volume these days.) Before  that there was the World’s Best Science Fiction with Don Wolheim from 1965 to 1971. There as also teh five volume fantasy reprint series, Fantasy Annual (1978-1982).

Those were all reprint anthologies. Carr edited three volumes of New Worlds of Fantasy (1967,1970, 1971). But his greatest achievement in original anthologies was the Universe series, which ran to seventeen volumes from 1971 to 1987, with a new volume every year except 1974, which saw the publication of volumes 4 and 5.

I’m going to look at original anthology series throughout this year, and Universe is going to be one of the series I dip into. Carr published writers who, at the time, were up and coming (or int he case of Robert Silverberg, experiiencing a renaissance in their careers). No holdovers from the pulp era, here, no siree. The names on the tables of contents changed from the seventies to the eighties, shifting from Gardner Dozois, George Alec Effinger, Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund, to Nacy Cress, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Michael Swanwick. Among others.

Most of the writers Carr published have gone from being up and coming to old guard to, in some cases (sadly), passed on. There will be a lot of great reading in them. I’ve read some of the stories in other places, especially the Harlan Ellison titles I saw when I perused the contents on the ISFDB. I’m looking forwards to this anthology series.