SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 12 April 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 6 April 2026
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Palencar, John Jude
(1957- ) American artist. After receiving a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design, he received further training at the Illustrators Workshop in Paris before embarking upon a highly successful career of painting book covers. He is noted for an intense, almost photographic realism with bold colours, though his figures are sometimes juxtaposed with more abstract backgrounds. Primarily working in the fields of Fantasy and ...
Wind, David
(? - ) US author who has published in various genres since 1981, his first novel of sf/fantasy interest being the mediaeval historical Fantasy Queen of Knights (1985) as by Monica Barrie. The Others (1993) as D M Wind is Horror; portions of this novel were revised and incorporated into the paranormal thriller Infinity's Doorway (2015 ebook), which ...
Wolfe, Louis
(1905-1985) US author in whose Children's SF tale, Journey of the Oceanauts: Across the Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on Foot (1968), three genetically engineered (see Genetic Engineering) Mutants make the eponymous 4000 mile trek. [JC]
McNeil, Everett
(1862-1929) US scenario creator for silents (mostly Westerns) and author of adventure tales for boys, including two Lost Race adventures, The Lost Treasure Cave; Or, Adventures with the Cowboys of Colorado (1905), in which the Indians the cowboys must deal with are in fact Aztecs; and the more fully developed The Lost Nation (1918), set in Underground venues haunted by apemen ...
Edison, Thomas Alva
(1847-1931) US inventor, entrepreneur and author, credited with numerous Inventions – including the light bulb, the phonograph and significant contributions to the development of the motion picture – for which he received more than 1093 patents. It has been argued that Edison's working practice was to supervise the original work of others, taking corporate credit for them in his own name (a practice which, under various descriptions, remains common in ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...