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Friday 13 March 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.
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Paul, Frank R
(1884-1963) American artist, born in Austria. He studied art in Vienna and Paris before moving to London to obtain additional training in architecture, which later became one of his professions, as he designed several buildings in New York City while also earning money by illustrating textbooks. After emigrating to New York in 1906, Paul initially drew political cartoons for a newspaper before meeting fellow immigrant Hugo Gernsback, who hired him to do ...
Naylor, Charles
(1941-2005) US editor and author, the partner of Thomas M Disch between 1969 and 2005. He wrote a gothic novel, Steps to the Grotto (1974) as by Cassandra Nye, echoing the Cassandra Knye pseudonym used earlier for gothics by Disch and John T Sladek. Under his own name, Neighboring Lives (1981) with Thomas M Disch is a non-sf ...
Bradford, Columbus
(1901-1938) US author whose Terrania: or, The Feminization of the World (1930) posits a Near Future Aristophanean strike by women against marriage until War is ended; the victorious leader of the strike becomes World President in 1950. [JC]
Bessière, Richard
(1923-2011) French author of much sf, initially as F Richard-Bessière, then as Richard-Bessière, finally under his name properly spelled; and spy thrillers as by F-H Ribes. Series of works not yet translated – little of his work has appeared in English – include the Conquérants de l'Universe ["Conquerors of the Universe"] a Fantastic Voyage sequence of Space Operas, beginning with ...
Nuclear Energy
The claim that sf is a realistic, extrapolative literature is often supported by the citing of successful Predictions, among which atomic power and the atom bomb are usually given pride of place. When the news of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was released in 1945, John W Campbell Jr, editor of Astounding Science-Fiction, was exultant, claiming that now sf would have to be taken seriously. ...
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 ...