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Wednesday 22 March 2023
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.
Site updated on 22 March 2023
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Hartmann, Franz
(1838-1912) German medical doctor, astrologer and author, a central figure (along with his associate Helena Blavatsky) in Theosophy, whose doctrines he espoused throughout his literary career. He wrote in both German and English; German originals for titles cited only in English have not been found. From his large output, of some moderate sf interest are An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians: By a Student of Occultism (1887) ...
Cowper, Richard
Pseudonym of UK author John Middleton Murry Jr (1926-2002), son of the famous critic; Cowper also published four non-sf novels under the name Colin Murry, beginning with The Golden Valley (1958); and, as Colin Middleton Murry – Colin being an early nickname, though he was normally addressed as John – two autobiographical volumes, One Hand Clapping (1975; vt I at the Keyhole 1975), which deals mainly with his relationship with his difficult, ...
Omni Online
US website originally an extension of Omni magazine but which continued in its own right once Omni ceased its print publication with the Winter 1995 issue. Omni had first set up an internet presence via Compuserve in September 1986 allowing subscribers access to a condensed version of the print magazine, an interactive "discussion" feature and the Omni Data Library. This facility was dubbed "Omni On-line" even at that stage. The experiment was ...
Wellman, Manly Wade
(1903-1986) Portuguese West Africa-born author (1903-1986), in America from the age of six, prolific in both Fantasy and sf, though far more significant for works in the former; he also wrote Westerns – though less frequently than did his brother, Paul I Wellman (1898-1966) – and crime fiction, most of his nonfantastic books appearing between 1947 and 1961. Wellman began to publish work of genre interest with a fantasy, "Back ...
Koch, Eric
(1919-2018) German-born author and television producer, in UK from 1935, in Canada from 1940, several of whose novels are of some sf interest. In The French Kiss: A Tongue in Cheek Political Fantasy (1969), set in a Near-Future Canada threatened – as usual – by separatism, a Reincarnated colleague of Napoleon muses on de Gaulle's similarity to the long-dead Emperor. ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began publishing sf reviews in 1964 and sf proper with "A Man Must Die" in New Worlds for ...