The Retro Hugos

The Hugo Award is given annually to the best science fiction/fantasy novel published in that year. It's awarded by the participants at each year's World SF Convention. The voters are somewhat self selected as it costs money to be a participant. The result is a voting pool that numbers in the hundreds.
The first award was given in 1953. At the time they thought it would be a one time deal and they discontinued it. After the 1954 convention they decided that they missed it and brought it back in 1955 on a permanent basis.
Apparently there was some regret, both for the missed year and for the years before they started awarding it. And that's how the Retro Hugo was born. It was decided that a convention could award a book from 50, 75 or 100 years earlier as long as no Hugo had been awarded in that year. Got it? To date there have only been three awarded for Best Novel. In '96 they awarded one for the year of '46. The other two were for '51 and '54.
Apparently it's somewhat controversial. Critics feel that historical reputation has unfairly clouded the process. Not surprisingly, I disagree. I think we know the selections better now than we did then and have a better chance of picking the best one. Let's take a look (link goes to Wikipedia page with winners and other nominees).

For 1946 they awarded the Hugo to 'The Mule'. I thought that the award was more of a stand in for the series as a whole. Looking at the other noms I don't see any obvious snub. I haven't read any of the other four so I can't speak directly to value.
The 1951 vote went to 'Farmer in the Sky'. I'm a big Heinlein fan but I never once thought of this novel as an award winner. This one beat out some classic Asimov and part of the Lensmen stories. The biggest snub in my book was that it also beat out 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. I don't think they got this one right.
In 1954 they gave the vote to 'Fahrenheit 451'. An important book to be sure, but I think you have to strain to fit it under the science fiction heading. It beat out 'Childhood's End'. That wouldn't have been the way I voted. That's more because it better fits the genre than a quality judgment though.

The idea of the Retro Hugo seems to have fallen a bit out of favor. I'm a little curious if they'll revive it for the 2011 convention so that they can go back and look at 1936. That was the year that a little book called 'The Hobbit' was published...