The award was named after Gandalf the wizard, who appears in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien; Tolkien was the inaugural recipient of the award.
Recipients 1974 - J. R. R. Tolkien 1975 - Fritz Leiber 1976 - L. Sprague de Camp 1977 - Andre Norton 1978 - Poul Anderson 1979 - Ursula K. Le Guin 1980 - Ray Bradbury In 1978 and 1979, a Gandalf Award for Book-Length Fantasy was also awarded. 1978 - The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien 1979 - The White Dragon, Anne McCaffrey