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Wednesday 16 September 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 14 September 2026
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Lermina, Jules
(1839-1915) French journalist and author, who sometimes wrote as William Cobb (usually for work set in America), active from 1859, suffering arrest for his opposition to the Second Empire of Napoleon III; in the 1880s, he became honorary president of a contorted dynastic descendant of the Theosophical Society (see Theosophy); his novels include two nonfantastic sequels to Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo ...
Cassilis, Robert
Pseudonym of UK historian and author Michael Edwardes (1923-1990), who specialized in Indian history under his own name; as Cassilis, his sf novel, Winding Sheet (1978), posits a Near Future Britain where the monarchy has regained genuine power, though Scotland has become more or less autonomous, and a revolt is in the offing. Edwardes is not to be confused with the business executive and writer Sir Michael Edwardes, who gained his knighthood not ...
Paltock, Robert
(1697-1767) UK lawyer and author, known almost solely for what was probably his only work of fiction, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man: Relating Particularly his Shipwreck Near the South Pole; his Wonderful Passage Thro' a Subterranean Cavern into a Kind of New World [for full subtitle see Checklist] (dated 1751 but 1750 2vols), an example of Proto SF that, after half a century of neglect, became almost as well known in the ...
Priest, Christopher
(1943-2024) UK author, first trained as an accountant; active in Fanzines and Fandom from 1964; married 1981-1987 to Lisa Tuttle, 1988-2011 to Leigh Kennedy, and partner of Nina Allan from 2011 (they married in 2023). He published several Ties under various pseudonyms, only two of which he formally acknowledged: John ...
Ward, David
(? - ) Canadian author whose Young Adult Perimeter One Adventures series, beginning with Perimeter One Adventures #1: The Misenberg Accelerator (1994), comprises a set of Near Future adventures experienced by the Graham family in the knowledge that God (see Religion) is on their side against various enemies. Ward ...
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 ...