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Wednesday 14 May 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.
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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Farmer, Geoffrey Norton
(1881-1937) Welsh author of whom little is known beyond Quella (1914), an sf tale featuring a Mad Scientist whose plot to Drug humanity into submitting to his rule comes to grief when those he has addicted run riot after supplies have been interrupted. [JC]
Wheeler, Harvey
(1918-2004) US author, co-author with Eugene L Burdick (whom see for details) of Fail-Safe (13-27 October 1962 Saturday Evening Post; 1962), a novel filmed as Fail Safe (1964). [JC]
Plater, Alan
(1935-2010) UK Television screenwriter and playwright, extremely prolific from the early 1960s until his death; he is of sf interest for his 1988 television version of Chris Mullin's Near Future A Very British Coup (1982), in which America subverts a left-leaning UK government (see Politics). The novel ends with the morally ambiguous forced resignation of ...
Woodard, George C
(1924-2001) US editor and author whose New Day, Big World, Few People: A Novel of the Past and Future (1969) describes a Near Future world in which Overpopulation crises have been solved. [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 ...