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Wednesday 12 August 2026
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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Morgan, Arthur
(? -? ) UK author whose Invention tale, The Disintegrator: A Romance of Modern Science (1891) with Charles R Brown, features a device with the power to disintegrate matter through vibrations, while instantaneously transmitting and reintegrating it elsewhere (see Matter Transmission). The plot thickens, but little happens of any interest. ...
Lebeck, Oskar
(1903-1966) German-born stage, textile and furniture designer, illustrator, author and editor, in the USA from 1930. He produced cover and interior artwork for a 1939 abridged edition of L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900; vt The New Wizard of Oz 1903), and as art director/managing editor was an important figure in the establishment of Dell Comics during the 1930s-1940s "Golden Age" of ...
Beeton, Samuel Orchart
(1831-1877) UK publisher, editor, poet and author, married from 1856 to Isabella Mary Mason (1836-1865), with whom he produced Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861), the book for which they remain best remembered. Beeton began his career as a publisher with Charles H Clarke in 1852, as C H Clarke & Co; at Beeton's instigation, they came out with the first English edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), which both brought ...
My Greatest Adventure
US Comic (1955-1964; 2011), published by DC Comics. Monthly. Writers included Arnold Drake and Bob Haney. Artists included Mort Mesklin, Jim Mooney, Ruben Moreira, and Alex Toth. Its unrelated stories, in keeping with the comic's title, were always narrated by their protagonists. / In its early issues, the comic featured the realistic adventures of rugged he-men in exotic locales, similar to the stories ...
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 ...