This book won the highly predictive Locus poll in the spring of 1983 (for best nonfiction of the field published in the previous year) and was on the Hugo final ballot; I came to Baltimore with the feeling that I was the logical favorite for the prized gonfalon. Engines of the Night, consistent to the last, however, lost.
It finished fourth to Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, by James E. Gunn. Also ahead of it were The World of the Dark Crystal, a nice book of photographs, by Brian Froud, and Reference Guide to the Fantastic, edited by Baird Searles. Engines, however, did narrowly beat out Fear Itself: The Fiction of Stephen King and No Award.
I also quit the North Jersey Symphony Orchestra. I may, at this writing, be found at the first stand second violins Glen Rock Pops but this condition, hopefully, will not last.