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Monday 17 August 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 17 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld (see Flat Earth) resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the ...
Bennett, Arthur
(1862-1931) UK author, father of Alfred Gordon Bennett. His A Dream of an Englishman (1893) describes in inadequately fictionalized terms the history of the world in the twentieth century; Space Flight is mooted. The Dream of a Warringtonian (1900), self-published in Warrington, UK, describes a similar period as it applies to Warrington. [JC]
Merril, Judith
(1923-1997) US-born anthologist, critic and author, in Canada from 1968. Born Josephine Juliet Grossman, she preferred the forename Judith, and became Judith Zissman by her first marriage; she began to use the surname Merril before later marrying Frederik Pohl (1949-1953), and took Judith Merril as her legal name on becoming a Canadian citizen in 1973. She occasionally used the pseudonym Rose Sharon. Merril was associated with the ...
Reynolds, Mack
Working name of US author Dallas McCord Reynolds (1917-1983), who began writing work of genre interest with "Isolationist" in Fantastic Adventures for April 1950. He occasionally used the pseudonyms Clark Collins, Guy McCord, Mark Mallory and Dallas Ross; he wrote two Gothics as Maxine Reynolds and one other non-sf book as Todd Harding. Some of his early work was with Fredric Brown, including a Joe Mauser story, ...
Hasson, James
(? - ) French-born author long in the UK, in whose Bid Time Return (1960) a cancer researcher (see Medicine) discovers the dangerous secret of Rejuvenation. The novel does not focus on realistic consequences. [JC]
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...