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Sunday 12 April 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.
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de Lautrec, Gabriel
(1867-1938) French author, cousin of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) whose short fiction, assembled in works like Poèmes en Prose (coll 1898), Les Histoires de Tom Joë (coll 1920) (see Club Story) and La Vengeance du portrait ovale (coll 1922; trans by Brian Stableford with excerpts from the previous two as ...
Sarac, Roger
Pseudonym of US photographer, motion-picture executive, broadcaster and author Roger Andrew Caras (1928-2001), prolific author of nonfiction on the environment and animals in the wild, all under his own name; as Sarac, he wrote an sf novel, The Throwbacks (1965), about genetic throwbacks (see Apes as Human; Devolution) who are seen as a threat to humans until they are given sanctuary. [JC]
Kuroma Hisashi
Working name of Japanese translator Hiroshi Sakuma (1951-1993), who had a profound impact on the sf genre as it appears to modern Japanese readers. A graduate in Law from the prestigious Tokyo University, he became a commercials director for Dentsū before drifting into translation and occasional criticism initially under the pen-name Seiki Shirakawa. / Kuroma's translations clustered around a group of authors whose works were suffused with neologisms or ...
Visit to a Small Planet
US film (1960). Hal Wallis Productions. Directed by Norman Taurog. Written by Edmund Beloin and Henry Garson, based on the play by Gore Vidal. Cast includes Joan Blackman, Fred Clark, Earl Holliman, Jerry Lewis and John Williams. 85 minutes. Black and white. / Mr Delton (Williams), an Alien geography teacher (see Education in SF), lectures his pupils on that minor galaxy which lies beyond ...
Stacy, Ryder
Joint pseudonym of Jan Stacy and Ryder Syvertsen (whom see for titles), and solo pseudonym, after 1985, of the latter. [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 ...