SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 15 July 2025
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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Gammon, David
(1904-1996) UK author of two closely similar Lost Race novels, The Secret of the Sacred Lake (1947), set in a snake-infested jungle wilderness, and Against the Golden Gods (1947), set in the Australian outback. Both are designed for the Young Adult market; other titles by Gammon lack sf explanations. [JC]
Claudy, Carl H
(1879-1957) US journalist (for the New York Herald) and author, principally of nonfiction on Masonic themes, photography and popular science; for some years he was the Washington correspondent of Scientific American, and he served as Executive Secretary of the Masonic Service Association from 1929 until his death. His first story was "Wanted – An Explanation" (14 May 1899 Washington Post), a ghost story. He became highly active in the ...
Brunt, Captain Samuel
Pseudonym of the unidentified author (? - ) of A Voyage to Cacklogallinia; with a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners of that Country (1727); the facsimile edition of this rare text (1940), with an introduction by Marjorie Nicolson, is useful; the novel itself, best understood as a Satire on British politics, commerce and culture, takes Captain ...
Smith, Dale
(1976- ) UK author who began publishing work of genre interest with "The Puppet King" in Missing Pieces (anth 2001) edited by Shaun Lyon and Mark Phippen. He has since focused on Tie work for the Doctor Who universe, beginning with Heritage (2002) for the Doctor Who BBC Past Doctors subseries; and for the Time Hunter Shared World sequence ...
Alternate Cosmos
A Term used in this encyclopedia for the special case of Parallel World universes where the laws of Physics are and always have been importantly different; some sf stories posit this kind of radical change (or the threat of such change) to our own universe. George Gamow uses the device of dreams in Mr Tompkins in Wonderland (stories 1938-1939 Discovery; ...
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. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...