SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 28 February 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 23 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Touponce, William F
(1948-2017) US academic and critic, with the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) from 1985, there becoming Professor of English and – after retiring in 2012 – Professor Emeritus until his death. His first four book-length critical studies addressed the works of Ray Bradbury (twice), Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov, in ...
Palmer, Jessica
(1953- ) US journalist and author of two fantasy series – Dark Lullaby and Renegade World, see Checklist for titles – and the Space Opera Factor sequence, comprising Random Factor (1994), Human Factor (1996) and Random Factor (1997), about a cruel war fought in interstellar space by opposing forces of Clones governed by a central ...
Lost World, The
1. Film (1925). First National. Directed by Harry O Hoyt. Script by Marion Fairfax, based on The Lost World (1912) by Arthur Conan Doyle. Cast includes Wallace Beery, Lloyd Hughes, Bessie Love and Lewis Stone. 9700ft (approx 105 minutes, cut to 60 minutes). Black and white, with some tinted sequences. / Wallace Beery makes an unlikely Professor Challenger in this slow-moving, wordy (a large number of dialogue frames) silent ...
Certificate X!
Letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema magazine. Published by World Distributors, from London despite the company name World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd. No editor named. One issue only, dated January 1965. / This was apparently only the second attempt – after Screen Chills and Macabre Stories – to produce a UK Monster Movies magazine. Leaving little doubt that its ...
Clothier, Bob
(1921-1999) Canadian artist who, after serving in World War Two, graduated in architecture from the University of British Columbia and then lived in the UK for some years. While there he did ten covers for New Worlds and several for Nebula Science Fiction, plus copious interior work for both of these magazines and for Science Fantasy; his ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...