SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 17 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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Wasserstein, Izzy
(? - ) US poet and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Unplaces: An Atlas of Non-Existence" in Clarkesworld for March 2018; a representative sample of her incessantly Equipoisal short fiction has been assembled as All the Hometowns You Can't Stay Away From (2022). Wasserstein's first novel, These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (2024), is ...
MacKinnon, Joseph
(? - ) US author whose first novel of sf interest was Faultline 49 (2012) as by David Danson, a Near-Future political thriller set in an Alternate History some time after a successful American Invasion of Canada has been instigated by the destruction of the World Trade Centre in Edmonton, Alberta. The protagonist of the tale, whose name is ...
Symmes, John Cleves
(1779-1829) US army officer, nephew of the politician and land speculator John Cleves Symmes (1742-1814); he reached the rank of Captain, distinguished himself in the War of 1812, retired, and subsequently devoted his life to propagandizing (largely through speeches, apparently charismatic) on behalf of his theory of a Hollow Earth consisting of five concentric spheres, with openings at the poles. He twice petitioned Congress (1822, 1823) for funds to mount an ...
Amazing Spider-Man, The
1. US tv series (1977-1979). Charles Fries Productions for CBS-TV. Character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for Marvel Comics, debuting in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) and appearing in his own title The Amazing Spider-Man from March 1963. Produced by Robert Jones, Lionel E Siegel, Edward Montagne. Directors included Cliff Bole, Michael Caffey, Don MacDougall. ...
Arkell, Will J
(1856-1930) US author of Napoleon Smith (1888) with A T Worden (? -? ), writing together as by A Well-Known New Yorker. Arkell, a wealthy US businessman, had bought Judge magazine in the mid-1880s (and used it as a Republican platform to attack the Democratic administration): the novel – a tame political Satire set in the Near Future – appeared from The Judge Publishing ...
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 ...