SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 24 January 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.
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
High, Philip E
(1914-2006) UK author, variously employed before working (from 1950 until his retirement in 1979) as a bus driver. He began to publish sf in September 1955 with "The Statics" for Authentic Science Fiction #61 and contributed to other UK magazines, including New Worlds and especially Nebula Science Fiction, for several years before the appearance of his first sf novel. He ...
Henderson, Walter Brooks Drayton
(1887-1939) Jamaican-born critic, teacher and poet, who lived mostly in the UK and North America. His book-length epic poem, The New Argonautica: An Heroic Poem in Eight Cantos of the Voyage Among the Stars of the Immortal Spirits of Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Francis Drake, Ponce de Leon & Nunez da Vaga (1928), traces the interstellar Fantastic Voyage of its reincarnated crew after Ralegh's spirit-visit to ...
Lindsay, John V
(1921-2000) US lawyer, politician (mayor of New York 1965-1973), and author of an sf novel, The Edge (1976), set in a Near Future America threatening to become a police state on grounds of the increased need for security (see Prediction). [JC]
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 ...