SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 14 August 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 10 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Ferman, Joseph W
(1906-1974) US publisher and editor (though the latter in name only), born in Lithuania, in the USA from childhood and naturalized as a US citizen in 1930. After a long career with the magazine American Mercury, Ferman – as general manager of Mercury Publications – become involved with 1947 plans for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, oversaw its launch in 1949, was listed from August 1954 to October 1970 as Publisher and from December ...
Jetta
US Comic (1952-1953). Three issues (numbered #5-#7). Standard Magazines, Inc. Artists Dan DeCarlo, Fred Eng and Joe Edwards; scripts by Joe Archibald and Dixon Wells. Each issue had five strips (though one was only a page or two) and one two-page text story. / With the popularity of Archie Comics – about the life of normal American teenager Archie Andrews and his friends in the town of Riverdale – it is not surprising that other comics appeared ...
Smith, D R
Working name of Donald Raymond Smith (1917-1999), UK author, editor and fan who along with J Michael Rosenblum was instrumental in maintaining lines of communication within UK Fandom during World War Two, in particular editing the British Fantasy Society Bulletin (1942-1946). He was an often controversial columnist in Britain's first ...
Parkin, Lance
(1971- ) UK author associated with the Doctor Who universe, beginning with contributions to Doctor Who Fanzines, moving on to nonfiction books about the universe, such as A History of the Universe (1996), and concentrating subsequently on fiction, beginning with Doctor Who: The Missing Adventures: Cold Fusion (1996). Other nonfiction books include ...
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 ...