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Tuesday 14 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 14 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 ...
Beagle, Peter S
US fantasy author (1939- ) who has written no sf, but whose influence has extended beyond the range of his actual writing. He is given a full entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy [see under links below]. In the present encyclopedia, references to Beagle may be found under F&SF; Fantasy Magazine; Mythology; Robert ...
Hewson, David
(1953- ) UK journalist and author, most of whose novels are detective thrillers, and whose Solstice (1998) anticipates global Disaster when the Millennium arrives, including a spasm of sunspots, and the use of armed satellites in near orbit. Native Rites (2000) is horror. [JC]
Coxwell, Henry
(1819-1900) UK balloonist, editor and author; working under the name Henry Wells he was founder and editor of The Balloonist; Or, Aerostatic Magazine in 1845, which lasted only until 1847. His interest in piloting Balloons extended, through at least one dangerous crash, until his retirement from flying in 1885. Of some sf interest is A Knight of the Air; Or, the Aereal Rivals (1895) in which flight is achieved, not through an advanced ...
Robertson, Dale
(? - ) US author known only for The Son of the Phantom (1944), a Tie to the Comic The Phantom scripted by Lee Falk. The novel is based on the 1944-1945 newspaper storyline "The Childhood of the Phantom", telling of the young Phantom's jungle childhood, US education, and return to Africa to inherit the crime-fighting role of ...
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 ...