George R.R. Martin will not accept honorary degree from Texas A&M “till WINDS is done”

George R.R. Martin may have gotten his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, but that’s not the only institution of higher learning he’s associated with. Martin has long sent his personal papers to Texas A&M University’s Cushing Memorial Library and Archives for safekeeping, and now the university is returning the favor by giving the author an honorary degree.

Well, it’ll probably give him an honorary degree. The university’s board of regents is scheduled to approve the notion in a meeting to take place this Thursday, February 11. I refer you to item 6.11 on their schedule: “Authorization to Award an Honorary Degree to Mr. George R.R. Martin.”

On top of Martin’s written work, the Cushing Memorial Library houses a treasure trove of other material the author has sent along, from replica swords to games and calendars based on his work to a first edition copy of The Hobbit he somehow came by. The Cushing library had a notable collection of sci-fi and fantasy works even before Martin started to donate to it, but thanks to Martin’s generosity, it’s now one of the most preeminent in the world.

The main draw has to be some of the early drafts of Martin’s work. Martin admitted, for example, that he revised, restructured, or otherwise altered a great many things about A Dance with Dragons while writing it. We never got to see what he changed, but he sent all of his intermittent drafts to Texas A&M, where they’re available to any student with a thirst for knowledge and a lot of time on their hands. From Martin’s Not a Blog:

"Some day, maybe, some student of fantasy literature may want to peruse all of these partial manuscripts, and document how A DANCE WITH DRAGONS changed over the years. Every time I printed out a copy to send to my editors, I made a second and sent it to the Special Collections at Texas A&M University, where my papers are kept. Maybe someone will get a master’s thesis out of my struggles with this book. And who knows, maybe in the end he or she will conclude that I was making the book worse and worse all along."

I would totally read that thesis. Anyway, congratulations to Martin for his (probable) honorary degree.

UPDATE: George R.R. Martin has weighed in on his honorary degree on his Not a Blog. Naturally, he’s pleased about it, but added that he’s not going to accept it until he finishes a very important project. “When will I be returning to College Station to get the degree? Not till WINDS is done.”

So it seems that Martin is really and truly keeping his nose to the grindstone. I’m many fans are happy to hear it.

h/t Chron