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Saturday 11 April 2026
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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Scorpion, The
US Pulp magazine, one issue, April 1939, published by Popular Publications; edited by Ejler and Edith Jakobsson. The Scorpion was in every respect a sequel to The Octopus, only the alias of the villainous protagonist being changed. The sadistic, borderline-sf feature novel, "Satan's Incubator" by Randolph Craig (Norvell W Page), was reprinted by Robert E ...
Fitch, Anna M
(1840-1904) US author of Better Days; Or, a Millionaire of To-Morrow (1891) with her husband Thomas Fitch; it is a Utopia told from a conservative point of view, describing advances in Technology as due to the positive actions of a very rich man who buys part of Manhattan (see New York), which he turns into a commune dominated by males. [JC]
Chilton, Charles
(1917-2013) UK Radio producer and scriptwriter whose three sf novels comprise a rewrite into novel form of his three-part BBC radio series, Journey Into Space (1953-1956), which he produced and wrote, and which were – and have remained through rebroadcasts – extremely popular. The individual volumes are Journey Into Space (1954), novelizing the first story (broadcast 21 September 1952 to 19 January 1954); The Red Planet ...
Langford, George
(1876-1964) US industrialist, amateur palaeontologist and author of several Prehistoric SF tales for juvenile readers (see Children's SF), beginning with the two Pic the Weapon-Maker tales, Pic the Weapon-Maker (1920) and Kutnar, Son of Pic (1921), set 25,000 years ago and featuring what may be Telepathic rapport with mammoths; ...
Wood, George
(1799-1870) US government official in the Treasury Department and author; his Peter Schlemihl in America (1848) anonymous is derived from Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte ["Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story"] (1814; trans J Bowring as Peter Schlemihl 1824) by Adalbert Von Chamisso (1781-1838), a supernatural fantasy whose protagonist, having sold his shadow to the Devil, wanders the world in search of wisdom and knowledge, aided in his travels by ...
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 ...