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Monday 20 April 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 20 April 2026
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Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Tales of Magic and Mystery
US Pulp magazine published by Personal Arts Company, Camden, New Jersey and edited by Walter B Gibson. It ran for five issues, December 1927 to April 1928. A weird fiction/occult magazine published partly to take advantage of Gibson's connections in the world of stage magic and particularly with Howard Thurston (1869-1936), for whom Gibson ghost-wrote several so-called true experiences starting with "The Miracle Man of Benares" ...
Smith, Surrey
Pseudonym of UK playwrights and authors William Dinner (? - ) and William Morum (1910-1980) for their fiction; active and prolific in the former capacity from the early 1940s, best known for a mystery drama, The Late Edwina Black (performed 12 July 1949 Ambassadors Theatre, London; 1950 chap). Their Near Future tale Near Future The Village That Wandered (1960) ...
Noyes, Alfred
(1880-1958) UK man of letters, poet and author, often resident in the USA or Canada; best known during his life for extremely conservative lyric verse, and for long narrative poems like The Flower of Old Japan: A Dim, Strange Tale for All Ages (1903 chap) or The Forest of Wild Thyme: A Tale for Children Under Ninety (1905 chap), which sentimentalize the Matter of Japan in fantasy terms, with fairies present; and The Torchbearers ...
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
1. Film (1932). Paramount. Produced and directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Written by Samuel Hoffenstein, Percy Heath, based on Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Cast includes Rose Hobart, Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March. 98 minutes, cut to 90 minutes, cut to 81 minutes. Black and white. / While Stevenson's suggestion is that civilization may be only skin-deep, his tale of a decent, ...
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 ...