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Wednesday 18 February 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.
Site updated on 16 February 2026
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Letcher, Montgomery E
(? -? ) US author of Wonderful Discovery: Being an Account of a Recent Exploration of the Celebrated Mammoth Cave in Edmonson County, Kentucky, by Dr Rowan, Professor Simmons and Others, of Louisville, to its Termination in an Inhabited Region, in the Interior of the Earth (1839 chap): a Lost World tale told as a hoax – after the example of Edgar Allan Poe and others ...
Lynch, Bohun
(1884-1928) UK amateur boxer, caricaturist and author whose early nonfantastic novel, The Tender Conscience (1919), recounts the traumatic experiences of a young man returned from active service in World War One. His one novel of sf interest is Menace from the Moon (1925), a Scientific Romance which rather casually blends Alien Invasion ...
Flynn, Katie M
(? - ) US editor and author, active from around 2005, who is of sf interest for her first novel, The Companions (2020), set in a moderately distant Near Future California some time after a devastating plague Pandemic has savagely reduced the population of the state, a Disaster severe enough to warrant a permanent ...
London, Jack
Working name of US author John Griffith London (1876-1916), known primarily for his work outside the sf field. After leaving school at the age of 14, London spent seven years of adventure and hardship as an oyster pirate, sailor, hobo, prisoner and Klondike gold-seeker. During this period, he gave himself an education steeped in the most influential scientific and philosophic theories of the late nineteenth century – Darwinism (see Evolution; ...
Hartmann, William K
(1939- ) US astronomer, painter and author mostly of nonfiction like The Grand Tour: A Travelers Guide to the Solar System (1981; rev 1993; rev 2005) with Ron Miller, Out of the Cradle: Exploring the Frontiers Beyond Earth (graph 1984) with Pamela Lee and Ron Miller, and In the Stream of Stars: The Soviet/American Space Art Book (graph 1990) with Ron ...
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 ...