SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 29 September 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 25 September 2023
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
de Camp, Catherine Crook
(1907-2000) US author, married to L Sprague de Camp from 1939 until her death, and who served as his manager and accountant from the beginning of their partnership; additionally, over and above their several registered collaborations, she worked with her husband on many works released by publishers as by him alone, a lifetime collaboration he in fact openly acknowledged. The Raymond Z Gallun Award, for "outstanding contributions ...
May, Peter
(1951- ) Scottish journalist, screenwriter and author, active from around 1970; in France from around 2000. During the first twenty-five years of his career as a screenwriter, he was involved in something like 1,000 television productions, all seemingly nonfantastic. He began to publish fiction with The Reporter (1978), which he serialized for the BBC; most of his later novels have been crime thrillers, including the China Thrillers beginning ...
Ayrton, Michael
UK journalist, broadcaster, sculptor, painter and author born Michael Ayrton Gould (1921-1975), using his father's surname until adolescence, when he took the surname of his mother the politician Barbara Ayrton (1886-1950), also recognizing in this fashion his grandmother the engineer and mathematician Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923); married to Elisabeth Ayrton from 1952 until his death. He was much respected as an illustrator and stage designer; through much of ...
Dunn, Saul
Pseudonym used by UK author and publisher Philip M Dunn (1946-2007) for the original publication of his books in the UK, though he used his own name for their US release; he was also the director of Pierrot Publishing, a packaging-cum-publishing firm which became insolvent in 1981, owing large sums. Dunn was reported to have moved to India for religious reasons, but eventually returned to England. Releases generated by the company included Brian W Aldiss's ...
Keverne, Richard
Pseudonym of UK journalist and author Clifford James Wheeler Hosken (1882-1950), who wrote detective novels between 1926 and 1944, mostly as by Keverne, though occasionally under his own name; he was the first cousin of William Henry Martin Hosken, who wrote mostly as by Wyndham Martyn. Of sf interest is White Gas (1937), the eponymous Invention being an antidote to poison gas – in 1937 it was still assumed ...
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 ...