SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 12 March 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 9 March 2026
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American Comics Group
US Comics publisher founded in 1939 by Benjamin W Sangor, based in New York and at first informally known as the Sangor Shop. It operated as ACG from 1948 to 1967 and ceased as an independent publisher in 1968. Titles with entries in this encyclopedia are: Adventures into the Unknown; Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub; ...
Lamartine, Alphonse De
(1790-1869) French poet and political thinker who probably did not write in 1843 (as claimed by its publisher) the Future History published in English as Time on My Hands (1848); it depicts a complex and somewhat pixilated pattern of confederacies in Europe, with various scientific achievements to boast of, though not clearly. [JC]
Maturin, Charles R
(1782-1824) Irish author, playwright and clergyman, the son of French Protestants in exile, who wrote several Gothic romances and sensational plays with intermittent success – most notably The Fatal Revenge, or The Family of Montorio (1807 3vols) as by Dennis Jasper Murphy – before the publication of his definitive terror-romance, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820 4vols) anonymous. The eponymous hero, who is reminiscent of figures ...
Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories
US Pulp magazine, two issues, April/May and June/July 1931, published by Good Story Magazine, New York, one of the new companies set up by Harold Hersey, previously editor of Thrill Book. The magazine was edited by Douglas M Dold, who had been blinded in the First World War, so effectively worked in collaboration with his brother, the artist Elliott ...
Crawford, Ned
(? - ) UK author whose Naming the Animals: A Haunting (1980) congestedly depicts a rather mild Dystopian future, out of which, freighted in symbol, the protagonist of the book ambivalently imagines a new Eden. [JC]
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 ...