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Wednesday 22 January 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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.
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Lynch, David
(1946-2025) US actor, artist and musician and primarily filmmaker whose work extended Surrealism into mainstream Cinema and Television. Lynch's films tend to examine the uneasy truce between rationality and the unconscious mind by revealing how intimations of Sex, Identity and death make themselves felt in modern American communities. The term Lynchian was defined by David Foster ...
Comfort, Alex
(1920-2000) UK medical doctor, poet and author of significant popular work in the fields of sexology and gerontology, being perhaps best known for The Joy of Sex (1972; frequently revised), many of whose interior illustrations were by Chris Foss. Before World War Two he established an extremely precocious reputation for his poetry and fiction, and for the pacifism he espoused rigorously during the years of conflict (later, in 1961, in connection ...
Automat Na Přání
Czech/French film (1967; vt Les chevaliers des rêves; vt The Wishing Machine 1971 US). Krátký film Praha / Filmové studio Gottwaldov / Société Générale de Production Paris. Directed by Josef Pinkava. Written by Josef Pinkava. Cast includes Rudolf Deyl, Josef Hlinomaz, Miroslav Holub, Vít Weingartner and Milan Zeman. 83 minutes, cut for ...
Dallas, Oswald
(1881-1951) UK author who sometimes signed himself as Captain Oswald Dallas, moderately active in British magazines from before World War One, in which he served. In The Man Who Wasn't (1912), an invented "Q" ray is used to create artificial life, but the new being has the consciousness of an Ancient Egyptian (see Reincarnation); The Treasures of Asshur (1925) ...
Santesson, Hans Stefan
(1914-1975) US editor and author born in France of Swedish parents, raised in Sweden and emigrated with his mother to the USA in 1923 after his parents divorced. They settled in Brooklyn where his mother worked as a commercial artist. Before entering the world of publishing Santesson devoted much of his time helping immigrants to America, especially from India. He was noted for his humanitarianism and this was reflected in his work as an editor with a selfless dedication to helping others. His ...
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 ...