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Saturday 4 February 2023
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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Lockwood, Ingersoll
(1841-1918) US lawyer and author whose Baron Trump sequence is an unusually Equipoisal mixture of sf and fantasy, even at a time before the use of commonly adhered-to distinctions between these modes of the fantastic, in a manner that anticipates L Frank Baum's inspired opportunism in the Oz books. The sequence comprises The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulgar (1890) ...
Haigh, Richard
(1924-1991) UK civil servant and author not to be confused with the Richard Haigh pseudonym used by Laurence James (whom see) for his two Pigs horror novels. Richard Douglas Haigh – his full name – wrote one unremarkable Space Opera for Robert Hale Limited, The Golden Astronauts (1980). [JC]
Certificate X!
Letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema magazine. Published by World Distributors, from London despite the company name World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd. No editor named. One issue only, dated January 1965. / This was apparently only the second attempt – after Screen Chills and Macabre Stories – to produce a UK Monster Movies magazine. Leaving little doubt that its ...
Wagner, Z M
(? - ) US author of an sf Satire, One Nation Under George (2005), set in a very Near Future America (2004-2008) responding, under the leadership of George W Bush, to the post 9/11 world in terms of a (to outsiders) surreal exceptionalism. As with most satires of American Politics, reality outstripped the jokes. [JC]
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Film (1964; vt Santa Claus Defeats the Aliens). Jalor Productions. Directed by Nicholas Webster. Written by Glenville Mareth, based on a story by Paul L Jacobson. Cast includes Vincent Beck, John Call, Donna Conforti, Leonard Hicks, Bill McCutcheon and Victor Stiles. 81 minutes. Colour. / In an effort to cheer up the children of Mars, who have learned about Santa Claus by watching television programmes from Earth, the Martian Kimar (Hicks) resolves to ...
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 ...