R.I.P. Anne McCaffrey

Sorry to hear of Anne’s passing. She was quite a woman – full of life; in some ways larger than life. My memory of her is always Annie the Good Witch – in 1970-something Gay and I went to greet her in a shopping mall in St. Louis, for an autograph thing, and she swooped down on us in her huge billowing black cape, and we went off with Harry Harrison and Mack Reynolds to severely damage a bottle of scotch, maybe two. 
   
  I suppose it’s unfashionable to say, but she brought a woman’s touch to the boys’ club that was John W. Campbell’s Astounding/Analog, and helped to humanize it. 
   
   She’s sorely missed, both as a groundbreaking writer and a charming vivacious person.
    

Joe Haldeman