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Tuesday 6 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.
Site updated on 5 June 2023
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Churchill, R C
(1916-1986) UK literary historian whose A Short History of the Future: Based on the Most Reliable Authorities With Maps (1955), like John Atkins's Tomorrow Revealed (1955), is an imaginary History, in this case set about 7000 CE, and similarly draws on genuine contemporary sources, mainly George Orwell and other literary figures like Kurt ...
Astounding She-Monster, The
Film (1957; vt Mysterious Invader UK). Hollywood International Pictures, American International Pictures. Produced and directed by Ronald V Ashcroft (credited as Ronnie Ashcroft). Written by Frank Hall and Ashcroft (uncredited) from their original story. Cast includes Robert Clarke, Kenne Duncan, Marilyn Harvey, Shirley Kilpatrick and Jeanne Tatum. 62 minutes. Black and white. / Geologist Dick Cutler (Clarke) is in the ...
Bullett, Gerald
(1893-1958) UK broadcaster, poet and author, in active service during World War One, active as an author from 1916 or earlier, and as a broadcaster from April 1926, when he was the first author to read a story of his own composition on the BBC; he also wrote as by Sebastian Fox. Much of his short fiction contains fantasy elements, often with a surreal edge [for details on fantasy stories by Bullett, and for Crosshatch and Faerie below, see The ...
Smith, Robert Arthur
(1944- ) UK-born author, in Canada from an early age; he is of sf interest for The Kramer Project (1975), a Near Future Technothriller describing in a Cold War frame a conflict between the Russians and the West over the Invention of a serum capable of raising Intelligence, though with unknown ...
Gotlieb, Phyllis
(1926-2009) Canadian author who may be best known for her Poetry, some of which – such as the long performable poems assembled in Doctor Umlaut's Earthly Kingdom (coll 1974) – is strongly fantastic. She took an MA with the University of Toronto in English language and literature, and married a professor of computer science, whom she credited for assistance on her second sf novel. She began publishing sf with "A Grain of Manhood" for ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...