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Monday 16 February 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 16 February 2026
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Garson, Paul
(1946- ) US photographer and author whose The Great Quill (1973) is kind of road story, featuring motorcycles, but set in a baroquely degenerate 4000 CE Ruined Earth version of England; there are Satirical effects. As a writer and photographer, Garson's focus is in fact primarily on the motorcycle: his Born to Ride: A History of the American Biker and Bikes (2003) is impassioned and ...
Trueman, Chrysostom
Pseudonym of UK author H Cowen (? -? ) who identified himself, under this pseudonym, as "Editor" of The History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864) [for full title see Checklist], a Proto-SF tale whose author remained unidentified until a copy was auctioned in 2014 at the Swann Galleries of New York, containing "an inscription identifying the author as H Cowen." As of 2023, this or some other similarly inscribed copy had ...
Britton, Lionel
(1887-1971) UK playwright and author, a conscientious objector during World War One who gained some prominence in the interwar period for his Scientific Romance Hunger and Love, Etc (1931), a speculative proletarian/modernist Dystopia, written before (and influential upon) but published after Brain: A Play of the Whole Earth (performed 1930; 1930), a drama in ...
Wharton, William
Pseudonym of US teacher, painter and author Albert William du Aime (1925-2008), mostly in Paris from about 1960. Though his real name was known for many years, it was not revealed publicly until late in life, so that his pseudonymous writing career could be conducted separately from his career as a painter. Best known for Fabulations with a Magic-Realist colouring, like Birdy (1979), whose protagonist's longing to ...
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Film (1948). Universal-International Pictures. Directed by Charles T Barton. Produced by Robert Arthur. Screenplay by John Grant, Robert Lees and Frederic I Rinaldo, using characters created by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Bram Stoker. Cast includes Bud Abbott, Lenore Aubert, Charles Bradstreet, Lon Chaney Jr, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, Jane Randolph, Glenn Strange and ...
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 reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...