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Tuesday 28 November 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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Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Hersey, Harold
(1893-1956) US editor, publisher, short-story author and poet. A man of great energy and relatively little talent, Hersey edited such sf Pulp magazines as Thrill Book, Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories and Mystery Adventures, though most of his editorial work was not sf-related. His early writing, all negligible, appeared under various pseudonyms; but Night (coll ...
Thwackius, Herman
Pseudonym of US author Jonas Clopper (? -? ), who may have been a clergyman; his Proto SF Satire, Fragments of the History of Bawlfredonia: Containing an Account of the Discovery and Settlement, of that Great Southern Continent: And of the Formation and Progress of the Bawlfredonian Commonwealth [for full subtitle see Checklist below] (1819), recounts at least two ...
Measday, Stephen
(1950- ) Australian author and scriptwriter for various media, most significantly for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, his Television including The Time Game (1993), which he novelized as his first tale of sf interest, The Time Game (1993). The News on Aliens (1997), part of the otherwise nonfantastic Rick Street Roving Reporter sequence, deals with the discovery of ...
Despicable Me
Animated film (2010). Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment. Directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin. Written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, based on a story by Sergio Pablos. Cast includes Russell Brand, Steve Carell and Jason Segal. 91 minutes. Colour. / A suburban Supervillain has a simple dream: to steal the Moon. All that stands in his way is a younger, slicker supervillain and three adorable orphans. Will ...
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 consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and sf ...