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Wednesday 4 November 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 2 November 2026
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Whitmore, Arvella
(1922-2020) US teacher and author of novels for younger readers and the Young Adult market whose Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun: A Boy's Journey (1999) follows the ordeal of a contemporary African American teenager who is transported by Time Travel into the nightmare of Slavery-ridden antebellum America, from which he must escape. [JC]
Wertenbaker, G Peyton
(1907-1968) US editor and author, one of the pioneers of Hugo Gernsback's development of Scientifiction. Wertenbaker came from a literary and professional family; his brother Charles Wertenbaker (1901-1955) was a renowned journalist and his niece is the noted playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker (1946- ). His first story, written when he was still fifteen, "The Man from the Atom" (August 1923 ...
Science Fiction League
Launched April 1934 by Charles D Hornig and Hugo Gernsback through Wonder Stories, the Science Fiction League was the first and most successful of several professionally sponsored sf organizations. The formation of local chapters in the USA, Australia, and the UK brought sf readers together and provided a firm foundation for present-day sf Fandom; in ...
Thomson, James
Working name of Scottish poet and author James Thompson (1834-1882), best known for "The City of Dreadful Night" (1874 National Reformer as Bysshe Vanolis; 1975 chap), a long narrative poem whose rendering of an apocalyptic City very much like London contains a profusion of images and tropes that prefigure Steampunk and Urban Fantasy (see The ...
Jurassic Park
Film (1993). Amblin Entertainment/Universal. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R Molen. Written by Michael Crichton and David Koepp, based on Jurassic Park (1990) by Crichton. Cast includes Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Joseph Mazello, Sam Neill, Bob Peck and Ariana Richards. 127 minutes. Colour. / A ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...