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Saturday 21 September 2024
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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Stoddard, Charles
Pseudonym of US author Charles Stanley Strong (1906-1962), whose sf novel, North of the Stars (1937), describes a clement Lost World near the North Pole, where a white queen rules a race of "primitive" "Eskimos". Stoddard should not be confused with the real American poet Charles Stoddard (1843-1909). [JC]
Shanks, Edward
(1892-1953) UK editor, poet and author in various genres whose Scientific Romance, The People of the Ruins: A Story of the English Revolution and After (16 October 1919-12 February 1920 Land and Water; 1920), seems clearly to reflect the aftermath of World War One (Shanks, who was invalided from front line combat in 1915, was a war poet). The novel applies ...
Wilbrandt, Conrad
(1832-1921) German economist, politician and author, whose possible relationship to Adolf von Wilbrandt is undetermined; of sf interest is Des Herrn Friedrich Ost Erlebnisse in der Welt Bellamy's: Mittheilungen aus des Jahren 2001 und 2002 (1891; trans Mary J Stafford as Mr East's Experiences in Mr. Bellamy's World: Records of the Years 2001 and 2002 1891), one of many negative responses to Edward ...
Gardner, Thomas S
(1908-1963) US chemist and author. He began writing sf with "The Last Woman" for Wonder Stories in April 1932 (erroneously published as by Thomas D Gardner), which has been anthologized, and went on to write another five stories in the next decade. Active in sf Fandom, he wrote an annual review of the sf and fantasy magazine field for Science Fiction Times (see Fantasy Times) and published ...
Smith, Gavin [1]
(? - ) Author, apparently US-based, of the novel DogFellow's Ghost (2008), which depicts the lives of surgically engineered creatures (see Uplift) on a Pacific Island after their "Master" has abandoned them. The tale reads almost as a grim Sequel by Other Hands to H G Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau (1896). ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...