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Tuesday 14 January 2025
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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Bickham, Jack M
(1930-1997) US author who began publishing sf with Kane's Odyssey (1976) as by Jeff Clinton, and who later wrote two sf novels under his own name. ARIEL (1984) posits a Computer whose AI is both charming and alarming. Day Seven (1988) is a Technothriller. [JC]
Herrman, Louis
(1883-1980) UK-born zoologist and author, in South Africa from the early years of the twentieth century; he is the author of a Gulliver tale (see Jonathan Swift), In the Sealed Cave: Being a Modern Commentary on a Strange Discovery Made by Captain Lemuel Gulliver in the Year 1721 and Now Published from Manuscript Notes Recently Come to Light. A Scientific Fantasy (1935), the discovery being that of a tribe of ...
Gustafson, Jon
(1945-2002) US art and artbook appraiser, expert in sf art, active sf fan (see Fandom) and author, married to V E Mitchell. He began publishing professional fiction of genre interest with "Beast" in L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume II (anth 1986) edited by Algis Budrys, though he had earlier begun and continued for many years the "Gimlet Eye" column (1975-1993) about ...
Le Guin, Ursula K
(1929-2018) US author, based in Portland, Oregon, whose first novel was published in 1966; by 1970 she was already recognized as one of the most important writers within the field. Decades before her death, her reputation had extended far beyond the readership of Genre SF, while within the genre she was honoured with five Hugos and six Nebulas; as much attention has been paid to her by the academic community as to ...
George, W L
(1882-1926) French-born author in UK from early adulthood, prolific from 1911, modestly controversial in various contexts, including Feminism; but a figure whose work (and reputation) never quite jelled. His one novel of sf interest, Children of the Morning (May-December 1926 The Fortnightly Review; 1926), retains some interest for its unmistakable prefiguring of William Golding's Lord of the Flies ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...