SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 27 June 2022
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 20 June 2022
Sponsor of the day: John W. Knott Bookseller LLC
Bowen, Robert Sidney
(1900-1977) US aviator, journalist, editor; his middle name is spelled Sydney, but is given as Sidney in his books; he also wrote nonfantastic tales as James Robert Richard. He served during World War One, in 1917 as an ambulance driver for the American Field Service, and from 1918 in active service as a pilot. After the war he worked for the London Daily News, and in his later career worked as an editor, including a stint as editor-in-chief of Aviation Magazine. As an author of tales for young ...
Hallen, A L
(? -? ) UK author whose Angilin: A Venite King (1907) is among several novels by early writers that prefigure the Planetary Romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs, though without the flair. The planet in question is Venus; the protagonist is an Earthman who transports his psyche there in an attempt to find his dead love, and finds himself inhabiting the soul of the eponymous king of Venus (see Identity Transfer). The plot is ornate and dynastic, and Airships are used ...
Kesteven, G R
Pseudonym of UK teacher and author Geoffrey Robins Crosher (1911-1990), some of whose stories for children were published under his own name. Of sf interest are two Young Adult novels: The Pale Invaders (1974), a Ruined Earth tale set in the Far Future and describing the effect upon an isolated valley culture of the discovery of Technologies which reveal much hitherto hidden history; and The Awakening Water (1977), which has less impact, though its vision of a source of pure water that clears ...
Sale, David
(1932- ) UK-born author, television screenwriter and producer, born Ernest Swindells, in Australia for many years since emigrating in 1950; he remains best known for creating and producing in Australia The Mavis Bramston Show (1964-1968), a Satirical review. His first novel, Come to Mother (1971), which is set in the Near Future, traces the consequences of the re-awakening of a woman from Cryonic suspension after half a century; it was later made into a film for ...
Reade, Philip
A probable pseudonym of an unidentified US author (? -? ); used for dime novels (see Dime-Novel SF) in Street & Smith's Good News and The Nugget Library in competition to Tousey's Frank Reade, Jr. stories (see Frank Reade Library); he is not to be confused with the author Philip Hildreth Reade (1844-1919). Reade wrote nine stories about Tom Edison, Jr, no relation to the inventor (see Edisonade); unusual in being plotted (instead of haphazard) in terms of ...
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. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began publishing sf reviews in 1964 and sf proper with "A Man Must Die" in New Worlds for November 1966, where much of his earlier criticism also appeared. This criticism, despite some studiously ...