SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 27 July 2024
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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Arthur C Clarke Award
This award has been given since 1987 for the best sf novel whose UK first edition was published during the previous calendar year, and consists of an inscribed bookend and a sum of money from a grant initially donated by Arthur C Clarke. In 2001 the prize money – until then a constant £1000 – was increased to £2001 as a gesture to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); it has since risen by ...
Marvelman
UK reprints of the US character Captain Marvel published by L Miller were successful enough to warrant continued independent publication under a new name after the original character was deemed a copy of Superman and the courts forbade any further publication. The character was revised and changed just enough to avoid copyright issues, and re-dubbed Marvelman (346 issues, 1954-1963) in the process. Drawn by Mick ...
Ehrlich, Max
(1909-1983) US author initially active as an author of Radio plays for various series, including The Shadow (see The Shadow); he also wrote some Television scripts of sf interest, include one in 1965 for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and one in 1967 for Star Trek. His first novel, The Big Eye (1949), ...
Weybright, Victor
(1903-1978) American publisher who co-founded New American Library in 1948 and served for many years as chairman, retiring in 1966. In 1967 he and his stepson, Truman Talley (1925-2013) – who had long served as an editor at NAL – founded Weybright and Talley, which during its brief period of activity published a number of sf novels. [GF]
Loudon, Jane Webb
(1800-1858) UK author of books on popular natural history and gardening, and of The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827 3vols; rev 1828), published anonymously, like Mary Shelley, and also when she was relatively young, though not in her teens. Her birth year is almost certainly 1800 (as given here from 2022) not 1807, the earlier date having been established through research by Nickianne Moody, Andy ...
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 ...