SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 2 June 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.
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Goodwin, John C
(1891-1951) UK author of several popular books on crime and criminals, and of The Rainbox (1935), an Invention tale about a rain-making device. [JC]
Tracy, Louis
(1863-1928) Irish-born UK journalist and author, born Patrick Joseph Treacy, in UK from early childhood, almost certainly changed his name legally before 1888; his birth name and place of birth have been examined by Steve Holland in his Bear Alley blog [see links below]. He is best remembered for The Final War: A Story of the Great Betrayal (28 December 1895-1 August 1896 Pearson's Magazine; 1896), ...
Mastin, John
(1865-1932) UK author, clergyman and science popularizer, author of three sf novels. The Stolen Planet (1906) features the picaresque adventures of two Earthmen who, after Earth has been shaken by a vast Disaster, undertake a Fantastic Voyage through the solar system and beyond, as narrated by Jervis Meredith, co-developer of an "aerostat" capable of Space Flight. Centuries ...
Captain America
1. Comics character – a patriotic American Superhero whose costume design includes stars and stripes – created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) for Timely Comics, later Marvel Comics. This title ceased in 1950; the character was briefly but unsuccessfully revived by Atlas Comics in 1953-1954; Marvel ...
Shazam!
US juvenile tv series (1974-1976). Filmation Associates for CBS television. Directors included Hollingsworth Morse, Chuck Menville, Henry J Lange Jr and Robert Chenault. Writers included character creator C C Beck, Donald F Glut, Marianne Means and Olga Simms. Cast includes Jackson Bostwick, John Davey, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. 28 30-minute episodes. Colour. / In this live-action series Billy Batson (Gray) is a teenager with the ability to ...
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 ...