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Saturday 27 July 2024
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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Arthur C Clarke Award
This award has been given since 1987 for the best sf novel whose UK first edition was published during the previous calendar year, and consists of an inscribed bookend and a sum of money from a grant initially donated by Arthur C Clarke. In 2001 the prize money – until then a constant £1000 – was increased to £2001 as a gesture to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); it has since risen by ...
Westerman, John F C
(1901-1991) UK soldier and author, son of Percy F Westerman, less prolific than his father but similar, an active contributor to boy's magazines (see Boys' Papers). Of moderate Children's SF interest is the John Wentley sequence, comprising John Wentley Takes Charge (1938), John Wentley Investigates (1939) and John Wentley Wins Through (1940), ...
Del Rey Books
US paperback imprint, founded 1977, a subsidiary of Ballantine Books, itself a part of Random House. The imprint was named by then-Ballantine editor Judy-Lynn del Rey for her husband Lester del Rey; the original Ballantine imprint is now little used for sf. Judy-Lynn, who died in 1986, was editor-in-chief and, from 1982, publisher; Lester, the very successful fantasy editor, retired ...
Elliott, William J
(1886-circa 1947) UK author moderately active between the Wars as an author of magazine stories under various names, including W E, W J E, E L Lowitt and L T J Wilte; his two novels of some sf interest are The Silver Panther (1931) and To-Morrow's Spectacles: A Romance (1946), which involves a Time Viewer. [JC]
Chesney, George T
(1830-1895) UK soldier, founder in 1871 of the Royal Indian Civil Engineering College at Staines, a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1892 for Oxford, and author of some fiction, including the famous The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer (May 1871 Blackwood's Magazine; 1871 chap; vt The Fall of England? The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer 1871 chap) [see Checklist for further details on vts] published anonymously, though the ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...