SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 27 July 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.
Site updated on 25 July 2024
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Arthur C Clarke Award
This award has been given since 1987 for the best sf novel whose UK first edition was published during the previous calendar year, and consists of an inscribed bookend and a sum of money from a grant initially donated by Arthur C Clarke. In 2001 the prize money – until then a constant £1000 – was increased to £2001 as a gesture to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); it has since risen by ...
Abramson, Ben
(1898-1955) Lithuanian-born book dealer, book collector, agent, bibliographer, publisher and editor, in USA from early childhood. He established the Argus Book Shop in Chicago in 1920, transferring the business to New York, where he was active from 1944 to 1949. Although he does not seem to have been an active participant in early sf Fandom, his interest in the literature of the fantastic in general was initially demonstrated through a ...
Incident at Raven's Gate
Film (1988; vt Encounter at Raven's Gate). Hemdale. Directed by Rolf de Heer. Written by Marc Rosenberg, de Heer. Cast includes Vince Gil, Celin Griffen, Saturday Rosenberg, Ritchie Singer and Steven Vidler. 89 minutes. Colour. / Australian cinema has produced a number of under-appreciated genre items, such as The Last Wave (1977) and Razorback (1984). This is another, a conspiracy-cum-UFO ...
Laurie, André
Pseudonym of Paschal Grousset (1844-1909), French politician and author. His first political novel, Le rève d'un irreconciliable ["Dream of a Diehard"] (1869) and several political works were published under his real name, but thereafter he used the Laurie pseudonym. While living as a communard exile in London, Laurie wrote the original version of the book which was later published – significantly modified – as Les Cinq Cent Millions de la Begum ...
Waugh, Sylvia
(1935-2022), UK teacher, librarian, careers adviser and author whose first book was the children's fantasy The Mennyms (1993), about a miniature Wainscot Society comprising a single family living quasi-secretly in a house in the suburbs of some north-England town or City: the well-delineated family members are not human but magically animated life-size rag dolls, whose quiet existence is here seemingly endangered ...
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 ...