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Sunday 29 May 2022
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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Taylor, Isaac
(1787-1865) UK author, also known as Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers, one of several children of Isaac Taylor (1759-1829), an engraver and author with whom his son should not be confused, a task with some difficulty as the younger Isaac Taylor often published anonymously, as did his several siblings (almost all of whom were authors) including Jefferys Taylor; he followed this practice with The Temple of Melekartha (1831 3vols) anonymous, a long disquisitional tale at the heart of which may be ...
Vercors
Pseudonym used by French artist, illustrator and author Jean Marcel Adolphe Bruller (1902-1991) for his written work from 1942 on, including his first publication, Le silence de la mer (1942 chap; trans Cyril Connolly as Put Out the Light 1944 chap; vt The Silence of the Sea 1944 chap), a novella which includes an early rendering of an anguished "good German"; to publish this he founded the French Resistance press Les Éditions de Minuit. After the experience of World War Two in the ...
Fantastic
US Digest-size magazine, companion to Amazing Stories; published by Ziff-Davis (Summer 1952-June 1965), Ultimate Publishing Co. (September 1965-October 1980); edited by Howard Browne (Summer 1952-August 1956), Paul W Fairman (October 1956-November 1958), Cele Goldsmith (December 1958-June 1965; as Cele G Lalli from July 1964), Joseph Ross (September 1965-November 1967), Harry Harrison (January-October 1968), Barry N Malzberg (December 1968-April 1969), Ted White (June 1969-January 1979), Elinor ...
Yates, Alan G
(1923-1985) UK-born author, in Australia from 1948, who was best known for his long series of detections under the House Name Carter Brown, writing about 150 volumes as Brown, sometimes at a rate of twenty or more a year; he wrote also as Tom Conway, Dennis Sinclair, Paul Valdez and Peter Yates. He began to write sf – usually to rigid formula – with some short stories around 1950, with G C Bleeck (see Belli Luigi), for Thrills Incorporated; and with a series of short novels in the ...
Ayckbourn, Alan
(1939- ) UK playwright, active from 1959 with at least eighty-five plays produced; much of his work verges into Fantastika, some of which is of strong specific sf interest, including a triad of dramas which might almost (but not quite) be thought of as a loose series devoted to Androids in distressed English domestic environments. Henceforward (performed 1987; 1988) is set in an oppressive Near Future where a blocked composer uses his personal Robot to reshape his bad ...
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 ...