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Saturday 21 September 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Locke, Richard Adams
(1800-1871) UK-born journalist, editor and customhouse official in later years, in the US from 1832, now universally regarded as author of the famous "Great Moon Hoax" (see also Scientific Hoax). Beginning on 21 August 1835, several issues of the New York Sun carried articles purporting to describe the inhabitants of the Moon and their environs, culminating on 30 August with a description of the "Temple of the Moon", where ...
La Voie, Julia
(circa 1870-? ) US author of the Lost World tale, A Tale Half Told (1904), which depicts a contemporary Utopia in Asia Minor. [JC]
Cyrano de Bergerac
The form of his name under which French soldier and author Hector Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) is best known. He fought with the Gascon Guard but retired after sustaining bad wounds. He is famous as the hero of a play by Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), Cyrano de Bergerac (performed 1897; 1898; trans Gladys Thomas and Mary E Guillemard 1898), which made legends of his swordsmanship and the size of his nose. Parts only of his major work of ...
Beast Must Die, The
Film (1974; vt Black Werewolf). Amicus Productions and the British Lion Film Corporation. Directed by Paul Arnett. Written by Arnett (uncredited), Scott Finch (uncredited) and Michael Winder, based on "There Shall Be No Darkness" (April 1950 Thrilling Wonder Stories) by James Blish. Cast includes Tom Chadbon, Marlene Clark, Peter Cushing, Anton Diffring, Charles Gray, Michael Gambon, Calvin Lockhart and Ciaran Madden. 93 ...
Johns, Willy
(? - ) US author known only for The Fabulous Journey of Hieronymus Meeker (1954), a Fantastic Voyage tale in which a Gulliver-like protagonist (see Gulliver; Jonathan Swift) travels in the good ship Jeemarad to a planet where he discovers a Utopia based on constant transformation. [JC]
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 ...