SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 4 September 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 31 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Murray, Will
Working name of US author William Patrick Murray (1953-2026), who showed an interest throughout his career in Superheroes of the Pulp tradition (on which he was a known authority) such as Doc Savage, about which figure he wrote the nonfiction Secrets of Doc Savage (1981 chap). In this context he had been literary agent for Lester Dent's estate since 1979. ...
Oh, Temi
Working name of Temitoyen Ochugboju (1993- )n UK neuroscientist and author whose married name is Temitoyen Ochugboju Douglas-Scott. Her first novel, the Young Adult Do You Dream of Terra-Two? (2019), set in an Alternate History version of the world mainly distinguished from the real world through its suffering even more savage Climate Change and through ...
Pohl, Frederik
(1919-2013) US man-of-letters, professionally involved in the sf field as an editor, literary agent, fan and author since becoming active in American Fandom in his teens, his first published piece being a poem, "Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna" (October 1937 Amazing) as by Elton V Andrews, and his first story proper – the first of well over 200 in an active professional career of more than seven decades (see ...
Taine, John
Pseudonym for all his fiction of Scottish-born mathematician and author Eric Temple Bell (1883-1960), permanently in US from 1902; under his own name he wrote at least 250 papers and several studies in mathematical history and theory. Taine's first novels were Lost-World tales: The Purple Sapphire (1924), set in Tibet where an ancient race possesses the secret of atomic power; and The Gold Tooth (1927), set in Korea, where another ...
de Parville, Henri
Pseudonym of French author François Henri Peudefer (1838-1909) who is of sf interest for Un habitant de la planète Mars: roman d'anticipation (1865; trans Brian Stableford as An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars 2008), based on a hoax newspaper article by Peudefer (signed A Lomon). published 17 June 1864 Le Pays, and purporting to describe the discovery of a humanoid fossil from Mars in ...
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 ...