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Sunday 10 May 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 4 May 2026
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Conway, Gerard F
(1952-2026) US author informally known as Gerry Conway who began his career in Comics, writing some non-fantastic scripts for Marvel Comics, and editing the short-lived 1973 weird fiction magazine The Haunt of Horror and writing for the 1973-1975 anthology Comic Worlds Unknown. He also worked extensively for ...
Wood, James Playsted
(1905-1983) US teacher, editor and author whose works included a range of nonfiction as well as tales for the children and the Young Adult market. Of sf interest is The Mammoth Parade (1969), in which an eccentric entrepreneur discovers a Siberian Mammoth (see Prehistoric SF) in Rhode Island, and goes to ground with it in Central Park (see New York). Some ...
Berkey, John
(1932-2008) US illustrator, occasionally working as just Berkey, probably best remembered for his sf and space-science Illustration but who also worked in a wide variety of other genres, including the images for no fewer than 16 US postage stamps, among them the Santa Claus stamps for 1983 and 1991; he also painted the Old Elvis Stamp, the image that lost a nationwide poll in 1992 to choose between this and the Young Elvis Stamp (painted by Mark Stutzman). / ...
Barbusse, Henri
(1873-1935) French author, best known for his strongly realistic fiction, especially that concerning World War One. Les enchaînements (1925 2vols; trans Stephen Haden Guest as Chains 1925 2vols) attempts – like many novels from the first third of the century – to present a panoramic vision of mankind's prehistory and history, in this case through the transcendental experiences of a single protagonist who is struck ...
Halford, John
(? -? ) UK author whose Hidden Saria (1934) is a Lost Race tale featuring an advanced civilization, hidden in a valley in Asia and descended from ancient Greek wanderers. [JC]
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 ...