SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 7 December 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 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Roberts, W Adolphe
(1886-1962) Jamaican editor, poet, journalist and author, in USA 1904-1949, initially involved in American literary life, who also wrote as by Stephen Endicott; his first book, Pierrot Wounded (coll 1919) was a volume of poems inspired by his apparently unfulfilled relationship with Edna St Vincent Millay; in his later career he became a significant advocate for Jamaican independence. He is credited as having written the first African American mystery novel in English, ...
Huggins, James Byron
(1949- ) US author whose Cain (1997) edges beyond sf through the fact that the assassin resurrected by scientists is inhabited by a demon, though in the case of Hunter (1999) the Monster created by experiments in Genetic Engineering lacks this provenance. [JC]
Anderson, Karen
Working name of US author and fan June Millichamp "Karen" Kruse Anderson (1932-2018), married to Poul Anderson from 1953 until his death in 2001, and with whom – after some poetry – she published her first work of genre interest, Innocent at Large (vt "The Innocent Arrival" in Space, Time & Crime, anth 1964, ed Miriam Allen deFord; 2016 ebook), in ...
Turzillo, Mary A
Working name of US academic, poet and author Mary A Turzillo Brizzi (1940- ), whose scholarly work (see Critical and Historical Works About SF) appeared as by Mary T Brizzi; she is married to Geoffrey A Landis. Most of her fiction has appeared in the form of short stories, beginning with "The Great Age" in Pig Iron: Science Fiction (anth 1982 chap) edited by ...
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 ...