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Saturday 12 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
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Forrest, Henry J
(1823-1899) UK compositor, printer's reader, journalist and author of an early sf Utopia, A Dream of Reform (1848), which tamely introduces the usual visitor to a mildly socialist planet designed on anti-industrial lines. The book is thus a vague precursor to the work of William Morris. [JC]
Howrey, Meg
(? - ) US dancer and author whose first works of genre interest, the City of Dark Magic fantasy sequence beginning with City of Dark Magic (2012), was written as by Magnus Flyte in collaboration with Christina Lynch. She is of sf interest for The Wanderers (2017), a Near Future narrative whose protagonist, a female astronaut, finds life on Earth desolatingly hard at a time when ...
Spofford, Harriet Prescott
(1835-1921) US author, much of whose work was Fantasy or Supernatural Fiction [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], beginning with her first novel, Sir Rohan's Ghost: A Romance (1860) anonymous. Several tales of interest are assembled as "The Amber Gods" and Other Stories (coll 1989), its title story – "The Amber Gods" (January-February 1860 ...
Voyage dans la Lune, Le
Film (1902; vt A Trip to the Moon). Star-Film. Directed and written by Georges Méliès, from novels cited below. Cast includes Henri Delannoy, François Lallement, Jules-Eugène Legris, Georges Méliès. 21 minutes. Tinted. / This is the first sf film (apart from short subjects lasting only 1-2 minutes). French Cinema pioneer Méliès based his amusing spectacle ...
Schisgall, Oscar
(1901-1984) Russian-born editor and author, in USA from an early age; extremely prolific in short forms, with at least 4,000 stories and articles credited, many of them for the Reader's Digest. He is of sf interest for the Baron Ixell sequence which appeared in Clues from 1927 to 1932, beginning with "The Circle of Terror" (July 1927 Clues) and ending with "The Crime of the Century" (October 1932 Clues); Baron Ixell: Crime Breaker (coll 1929) ...
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 ...