1953 in science fiction

The year 1953 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.

Births and deaths

Births

• Pat Cadigan
• Brad Ferguson
• Lisa Goldstein
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Annette Curtis Klause
• David Langford
• Ged Maybury
• Alan Moore
• Charles Pellegrino
• Tony Rothman
• J. Neil Schulman (d. 2019)
• John Shirley
• S. M. Stirling
• Walter Jon Williams
• Robert Charles Wilson

Deaths

Events

The first Hugo Awards were presented at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia in 1953, which awarded Hugos in seven categories. The awards presented that year were initially conceived as a one-off event, though the organizers hoped that subsequent conventions would also present them. At the time, Worldcons were completely run by their respective committees as independent events and had no oversight between years. Thus there was no mandate for any future conventions to repeat the awards, and no set rules for how to do so.

The 1954 Worldcon chose not to, but the awards were reinstated at the 1955 Worldcon, and thereafter became traditional. The award was called the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award, with "Hugo Award" being an unofficial, but better known name. The nickname was accepted as an official alternative name in 1958, and since the 1992 awards the nickname has been adopted as the official name of the award.

Literary releases

Serialized novels

• The Duplicated Man by James Blish and Robert Lowndes, Dynamic Science Fiction (August), published in book form in 1959.
• Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement, Astounding Science Fiction (April–July), published in hardcover in 1954.
• The Virgin of Zesh by L. Sprague de Camp, Thrilling Wonder Stories (February), later becoming the fourth book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series.

First editions

• The Abyss of Wonders by Perley Poore Sheehan, follows a diverse group on a spiritual quest to a technologically advanced, lost city in the Gobi Desert.
• Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, explores a future Earth where humans are confined to one city.
• ' by Francis Rufus Bellamy, a Robinson Crusoe-like tale of a man who is hit by lightning and wakes up to find himself half an inch tall.
• Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore, an alternate history where the South won the Civil War.
• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, a novel about a peaceful alien invasion of Earth.
• The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, set in a future where telepathy is common, focusing on a murder mystery.
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a dystopian novel about a society where books are banned.
• Iceworld by Hal Clement, follows an alien narcotics agent on Earth, where he teams up with humans to stop the smuggling of tobacco to Sirius.
• The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (published in the US as Out of the Deeps), a novel about Earth's response to underwater aliens.
• Man of Many Minds by E. Everett Evans, the adventures of George Hanlon, a secret service agent who has the ability to read minds.
• More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon, a novel about individuals with psychic powers forming a new society.
• The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness, a dystopian future where rebels use time travel to fight tyranny.
• Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak, explores the discovery of parallel universes and the implications for identity and existence.
• Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov, third book in the Foundation series, a Second Foundation guides the fate of humanity amidst a crumbling Galactic Empire.
• Space Lawyer by Nat Schachner, a fix-up from two short stories, "Old Fireball" and "Jurisdiction", both of which had originally appeared in Astounding.
• The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, a satirical novel about a future dominated by corporate interests and advertising.
• Star Rangers by Andre Norton, a novel about interstellar exploration and the struggle for survival in a distant, hostile galaxy.
• The Syndic by Cyril M. Kornbluth, in a future North America ruled by rival gangs, a man infiltrates an exiled government to uncover assassination plot secrets.
• The Undying Fire by Fletcher Pratt, an interstellar expedition to steal a neptunium motor, punctuated by various political and romantic complications.
• The Universe Maker by A. E. van Vogt, a man is drawn into a complex future society and discovers his pivotal role in its destiny.