SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 13 May 2025
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 12 May 2025
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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Garrett, George
(1929-2008) US academic, poet and author, most of his work being technically nonfantastic, though a career-long pattern of subjecting various genres (like the historical novel) to metafictional stresses sometimes hinted at a sustaining undertow of meaning compatible with Fantastika. The Magic Striptease (coll 1973) contains work of more explicit interest, though sf readings are problematical. He is of some sf interest for his collaboration with R H W ...
Bogart, William G
(1903-1977) US editor and author of Pulp fiction from the late 1930s, best known under his own name for the Johnny Saxon series of nonfantastic thrillers beginning with Hell on Fridays (1940), noirishly illuminating about the pulp magazine word, including publishers like Street and Smith. He is best known for his contributions to the Doc Savage series as one of the authors publishing under the ...
Butler, Samuel
(1835-1902) UK artist, author, traveller and speculative thinker, whose family-induced sojourn in New Zealand 1859-1864 gave him raw material for Erewhon (see below) but did not cure him of his artistic inclinations; his best-known single work, the posthumously published autobiographical novel The Way of all Flesh (1903), describes the long conflict between Butler and his minister father, a conflict which also provided much of the force of the ...
Perkins, Penny
(1962- ) US author of Bob Bridges: An Apocalyptic Fable (1999), scattily Equipoisal between sf and Beast Fable [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], whose Computer programmer eponym has been predicting nuclear Holocaust, a vision confirmed by a cockroach from the ...
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 ...