Name: DEL REY, Judy-Lynn Benjamin Aged: 43
Born: January 26, 1943 Where: New York, New York
Died: Feb 20, 1986 Where: New York, New York
Interred: Cremated
Married: Lester del Rey When: March 21, 1971
Awarded: 1970 E. E. Smith Memorial Award (Skylark) for Contributions to Imaginative Fiction from NESFA (photo). Posthumously: 1986 Hugo for Best Editor; and, the l986 SF Chronicle Award.

Publishing executive, graduated from Lawrence (NY) High School in 1961 and received her BA from Hunter College in 1965. Then worked her way up in the science fiction field from scratch. Associate editor at Galaxy, 1966-69; then managing editor of Galaxy, 1969-73; then senior editor at Random House, Ballantine Books, 1973-77; and editor-in-chief of DEL REY Books, 1977-82; becoming publisher at DEL REY, 1982-86.

DEL REY Books had the good fortune to have the rights to the Star Wars book by George Lucas, which took the new company into black ink. Judy-Lynn's editorial choices and promotions were continually making money and DEL REY's paperback line often made the New York Times best seller lists. Judy-Lynn suffered a brain hemorrhage in October of 1985 and never recovered.

Prior to her death, Philip K. Dick said the following in reference to Judy-Lynn's work on his novel, A Scanner Darkly: "Judy-Lynn del Rey is probably the greatest editor since Maxwell Perkins. She went over that novel page by page and showed me how to create a character. I've been selling novels for 22 years and she showed me how to develop a character. Now I know what to do when I write a book. She was a master craftsman."

[Historical Note: Lester del Rey declined to accept the posthumous and well deserved award of the Hugo for his wife saying that such awards were without meaning, or words to that effect. Lester was the kind of guy who would go to a wedding just to pick a fight with the cake. He didn't mean anything by it, just expressing anger and pain at death. Besides, Lester didn't have the right to decline, even if his objections were sustainable. Honor bestowed on one, cannot be declined by another. GCW]

Thumbnail from a 1969 photo taken at Boskone when she was working for Galaxy/If.

BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Who in America, Vol IX, p91

OBITUARY: New York Times, February 22, 1986, p29.

Send relevant email to George C. Willick