SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 15 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.
Site updated on 14 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Stuart Hopen
Tracy, Louis
(1863-1928) Irish-born UK journalist and author, born Patrick Joseph Treacy, in UK from early childhood, active from the early 1880s. He almost certainly changed his name legally before 1888; his birth name and place of birth have been examined by Steve Holland in his Bear Alley blog [see links below]. Tracy is best remembered for The Final War: A Story of the Great Betrayal (28 December 1895-1 August 1896 ...
Service, Pamela F
(1945- ) US author of fantasy and sf, mostly the former, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Chariot Ruts" in Asimov's for March-April 1978; she has written little short fiction. Her novels, usually designed for children or the Young Adult market, begin with the Winter sequence of Ruined Earth fantasies comprising Winter of Magic's Return ...
Bernstein, David Siegel
Working name of US data analyst, consultant and author David Jay Bernstein (? - ), who began publishing work of genre interest with "A Long Way Up" in Black Petals for Summer 2003 as by David J Bernstein. He is of some interest for the nonfiction Blockbuster Science: The Real Science in Science Fiction (2017), an informal survey of various topics, including comments on Black Holes, ...
Dunn, Waldo H
(1882-1969) US academic and author of a Prehistoric SF tale, The Vanished Empire: A Tale of the Mound Builders (1904), focusing on that paleo-Indian civilization in Ohio, which Dunn dramatizes through an invasion from the southwards by King Inca, whose martial forces defeat the Mound Builders. [JC]
Moore, F Frankfort
(1855-1931) Irish journalist, playwright and author, active from 1875, some of whose eighty or more novels contain supernatural elements; his satires against the idea of Irish Home Rule are not fantastic. Tales of sf interest include The Secret of the Court: A Romance of Life and Death (1895), in which a vast Underground complex is discovered beneath contemporary Egypt, home of the remnants of an ancient Lost Race ...
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 ...