Author Anne McCaffrey died of a massive stroke on 21 November 2011 at her adopted home in Ireland. Born Anne Inez McCaffrey on 1 April 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she earned worldwide fame as the author of the ongoing Dragonriders of Pern series. She was the Pro Guest of Honor at ConAdian, the 1994 World Science Fiction Convention. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named her a Grand Master in 2005. In 2006, she was inducted into the SF Hall of Fame.
McCaffrey graduated from Radcliffe College in 1947, and worked as an advertising copywriter while participating in amateur theatre. She married H. Wright Johnson in 1950, and had three children. They divorced in 1970 (he died in 2009), and she moved to Ireland, where she opened a stable and began raising horses. Her second son, Todd, has been co-writing Pern novels with his mother since Dragon’s Kin (2003).
Her first published story, “Freedom of the Race,” was written in 1952, while she was pregnant with her first child. It appeared in the Sam Moskowitz-edited anthology Science-Fiction Plus. Her second story, “The Lady in the Tower,” appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and was reprinted in editor Judith Merril’s for The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction. Her first novel, Restoree, was published by Ballantine in 1967. That same year, she began publishing the series that would make her name. The first Pern story, the novella “Weyr Search,” appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Set on a colony-world with dragons and very little technology, the series is the subject of an ongoing debate over whether it is science fiction or fantasy.
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database has McCaffrey’s exhaustive bibliography on this page.
The first Pern story, the novella “Weyr Search” (1967) won the Hugo Award and was a finalist for the Nebula Award. “Dragonrider” (1968) won the Nebula and was a Hugo finalist. “Dramatic Mission” (1969) was a finalist for the Hugo and the Nebula. Dragonquest (1971) was a Hugo finalist. The White Dragon (1978) was a finalist for the Hugo and Ditmar awards. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983) was a Hugo finalist. All the Weyrs of Pern (1991) was a Hugo finalist.
McCaffrey is survived by her three children, Alec Anthony, (born in 1952), Todd (1956), and Georgeanne (1959), and four grandchildren.

Todd McCaffrey provides the following statement:
At about 5PM Monday November 21st, 2011, Anne McCaffrey passed away.
Mum was getting ready to go back to the hospital because she was feeling “puny” and collapsed while she was moving into her wheelchair. Her daughter, Georgeanne Kennedy, and son-in-law, Geoffrey Kennedy were with her. She was in no pain and it was over in an instant.
She first had a heart attack in late 2000 and a stroke in 2001, so we were well-prepared and knew that we were on “golden time” with Mum these past ten years and more.
She leaves behind an incredible legacy of marvelous books and a huge legion of fans. She won practically every major award in available to authors of science fiction and fantasy, including both Hugo and Nebula Awards, the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards award for Lifetime Literary achievement in Young Adult fiction, was an inductee into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and was a SFWA Nebula Grandmaster.
She was also a great cook, magnificent mother, doting grandmother, ardent quilter, knitter, bridge player, horsewoman, fencer, actress, singer, and all-around nice person.
We are blessed to have known her, just as we are blessed with the knowledge that she has touched so many lives and made such huge changes in them.
Mum always said, “Don’t just pay back a favor—pass it on!” In light of that spirit, we ask that, instead of condolences or flowers, that commemorators make a donation to their favorite charity.
We know that we haven’t lost Mum—that she has truly passed on her legacy of love and honor to all those who were touched by her—and that we have only to open one of her books to find her again.
Rest well, Mum, you’ve earned it!