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Friday 11 July 2025
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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Buchanan, Ginjer
(1944- ) US editor and occasional author, active in Fandom from 1968, who while employed as a social worker in New York from the early 1970s carried out freelance work for sf publishers: she was consulting editor for the Star Trek Ties at Pocket Books and an outside reader for the US Science Fiction Book Club. In 1984 she became a full-time ...
Phillpotts, Eden
(1862-1960) Indian-born author, in UK from 1865, known mainly for his work outside the sf field (see Mainstream Writers of SF), primarily the Dartmoor series of regional novels; however, his first known publication, "Original Poem" (1880 Thespis), was about a Witches's Sabbath. Over his long career (see Longevity in Writers) he was extremely prolific, publishing about 250 books and plays, ...
Gilliam, Terry
(1940- ) US-born filmmaker, based in the UK from 1967; he became a British citizen in 1988. After editing a college humour magazine he became an editorial assistant and cartoonist on Harvey Kurtzmann's Help! from 1962 to 1965; after Help! folded he worked as an illustrator and copywriter for an agency in Los Angeles before moving to London to work on a short-lived magazine, The Londoner. On its demise he contributed sketches and art to television ...
Hathway, Alan
(1906-1977) Author, presumably US, known only for his four 1941 contributions to the Doc Savage universe, all under the usual House Name for that series: Kenneth Robeson. These began with "The Devil's Playground" (January 1941 Doc Savage; 1970). The remaining episodes – "The Rustling Death" (May 1941 ...
Manuel, Frank E
(1910-2003) US academic and author, married to his collaborator Fritzie P Manuel from 1931 until his death. Some of his early work – like the various articles later assembled as The Politics of Modern Spain (1938), contain prescient analyses of the consequences of the Spanish Civil War. He was a prolific historical scholar, though it is his magnum opus, Utopian Thought in the Western World (1979) with Fritzie P ...
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 ...