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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.
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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 ...
Cactus Makes Perfect
Short US film (1942). Columbia Pictures. Directed by Del Lord. Written by Elwood Ullman and Monte Collins (story and screenplay). Cast includes Ernie Adams (uncredited), Collins (uncredited), Vernon Dent (uncredited), Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Moe Howard and Eddie Laughton (uncredited). 17 minutes. Black and white. / The mother (Collins) of the Three Stooges (at the time Fine, Curly Howard, and Moe Howard) throws her slothful sons out of her house to seek their fortunes. Employing ...
Rhoades, Walter
(1860-1927) UK author of The Hidden City: A Story of Central America (1907), a Lost World tale for boys set in Central America. Rhoades wrote a number of other novels aimed at boys. [JC]
Pearson, Ryne Douglas
(1964- ) US screenwriter and author, mostly of thrillers; October's Ghost (1994), like most Technothrillers, is set in an indefinite very Near Future world, in this case during and after the Cuban launch of an atomic missile. Much confusion ensues. [JC]
Hatton, Joseph
(1837-1907) UK journalist and author, active from 1861 in a variety of modes; of genre interest is The Park Lane Mystery: A Story of Love and Magic (1887), which contains supernatural elements, and The White King of Manoa (1890; vt The White King of Manoa: An Anglo-Spanish Romance 1899), a Lost Race romance in which a member of Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to the Orinoco discovers an Incan land, in whose capital, the ...
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 ...