An obituary notes that
'.... the world of Pern.....was a distant planet settled by humans but threatened regularly by life-destroying "Threads", which fell from a neighbouring planet. To combat these, the humans genetically modified a species of winged reptile, native to Pern, each one of which was bonded symbiotically with a rider from the moment of the human's birth. These dragons then dealt with the global menace against the same kind of daunting odds as were faced by the RAF's "few" when repelling the Luftwaffe in 1940 – a parallel sometimes quoted by McCaffrey...
'McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After high school she went to Radcliffe College, where she majored in Slavonic languages and literature. Like many writers-to-be, she had several short-lived jobs in her 20s, including working for a music shop, the Helena Rubinstein cosmetics company, and writing advertising copy. She had a good soprano voice and studied singing for nearly a decade. While working in the theatre she became interested in stage direction of opera, and produced (and performed in) the first American performance of Carl Orff's Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus.
'McCaffrey married in 1950 and raised three children, ... The marriage ended acrimoniously 20 years later, and she moved herself and the children from New York to Ireland, where she lived for the rest of her life.
'Her writing career started slowly, with a few short stories published in the low-paying science-fiction magazines of the time, but once she had been recognised for her Pern stories, a course was set. The novels were all consistent with each other, but some were addressed overtly to younger audiences. Many Dragonrider books followed at a steady pace....
'A prolific writer (there are approximately 100 titles), McCaffrey developed many more sequences of stories and novels....
'Closely following the Pern books in popularity are the novels known as the Brainship sequence, which began with a story soon to make her famous, The Ship Who Sang (1961). This deeply personal work, with resonances of the death of her father (a colonel in the US army), describes a society in which the undamaged minds of severely disabled babies are groomed to become cyborg intelligences in command of starships. Such a cyborg mind is partnered with a "brawn", a trained human companion. The story ends with the funeral service of a brawn, in which the cyborg sings Taps, the US army bugle call. Audiences at McCaffrey's public readings were often moved to tears by the climax, and the author herself often succumbed....
'.... the world of Pern.....was a distant planet settled by humans but threatened regularly by life-destroying "Threads", which fell from a neighbouring planet. To combat these, the humans genetically modified a species of winged reptile, native to Pern, each one of which was bonded symbiotically with a rider from the moment of the human's birth. These dragons then dealt with the global menace against the same kind of daunting odds as were faced by the RAF's "few" when repelling the Luftwaffe in 1940 – a parallel sometimes quoted by McCaffrey...
'McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After high school she went to Radcliffe College, where she majored in Slavonic languages and literature. Like many writers-to-be, she had several short-lived jobs in her 20s, including working for a music shop, the Helena Rubinstein cosmetics company, and writing advertising copy. She had a good soprano voice and studied singing for nearly a decade. While working in the theatre she became interested in stage direction of opera, and produced (and performed in) the first American performance of Carl Orff's Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus.
'McCaffrey married in 1950 and raised three children, ... The marriage ended acrimoniously 20 years later, and she moved herself and the children from New York to Ireland, where she lived for the rest of her life.
'Her writing career started slowly, with a few short stories published in the low-paying science-fiction magazines of the time, but once she had been recognised for her Pern stories, a course was set. The novels were all consistent with each other, but some were addressed overtly to younger audiences. Many Dragonrider books followed at a steady pace....
'A prolific writer (there are approximately 100 titles), McCaffrey developed many more sequences of stories and novels....
'Closely following the Pern books in popularity are the novels known as the Brainship sequence, which began with a story soon to make her famous, The Ship Who Sang (1961). This deeply personal work, with resonances of the death of her father (a colonel in the US army), describes a society in which the undamaged minds of severely disabled babies are groomed to become cyborg intelligences in command of starships. Such a cyborg mind is partnered with a "brawn", a trained human companion. The story ends with the funeral service of a brawn, in which the cyborg sings Taps, the US army bugle call. Audiences at McCaffrey's public readings were often moved to tears by the climax, and the author herself often succumbed....
'McCaffrey was a warm, kind and emotional woman with a wonderful no-nonsense attitude and a love of hard work. She was still writing just before she died.'
No mention of her cat stories in the obit, but there are multiple books, as in
No One Noticed the Cat (1996) which is blurbed: 'On the death of a wise ruler, his cat inherits his wisdom and guides the young prince who takes over. With advice from Niffy, Prince Jamas outwits his enemies, saves his country and gains the hand of a princess.'
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