SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 5 June 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 3 June 2023
Sponsor of the day: Bruce Gillespie
Putnam, George Haven
(1844-1930) UK-born publisher and author, in US from childhood, involved in his father's firm, G P Putnam, from 1866, becoming head of the firm in 1872. Of sf interest is The Artificial Mother (1894 chap), in which a Robot is invented to take over some of the chores of parenthood. [JC]
Bonanno, Margaret Wander
(1950-2021) US author whose first books were the mainstream feminist novels A Certain Slant of Light (1979), Ember Days (1980) and Callbacks (1981); a later title, Risks (1989), is also nonfantastic. She made her mark on sf with a highly successful Star Trek tie, Dwellers in the Crucible (1985). Two others were soon published: Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky (1987); and ...
Gothic SF
In current usage a "Gothic" is a romantic novel with a strong element of the mysterious or the supernatural which usually features the persecution of a woman in an isolated locale; but this restricted and specialized use of the word, and the marketing category associated with it, have little to do with most sf. The term "Gothic" entered the English language as a descriptive term for a particular kind of story with the publication of The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764) by ...
Potocki, Jan
(1761-1815) Polish military engineer, ethnologist, linguist, traveller and author whose first stories – which show the influences of Arabian Fantasy [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] – appeared in the 1780s, embedded into his travel books. He is best-known for Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse ["The Manuscript Found at Saragossa"], a complex text whose publication history is so convoluted ...
Attack of the Puppet People
Film (1958; vt Six Inches Tall UK; vt The Fantastic Puppet People). Alta Vista Productions, American International Pictures. Directed and produced by Bert I Gordon. Written by George Worthing Yates from an original idea by Gordon. Cast includes John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney (credited as June Kenny) and Jack Kosslyn. 79 minutes. Black and white. / Lonely doll-maker Mr Franzy (Hoyt) ...
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 ...