SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 10 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
Sponsor of the day: David Cowhig
Weather Control
The human dream of controlling the weather is an old one. It appears in Proto SF in Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759), in the unreliable words of a Mad Scientist astronomer: "I have possessed, for five years, the regulation of weather, and the distribution of seasons: the sun has listened to my dictates, and passed, from tropick to tropick, by my direction; the clouds, at my call have ...
Karinthy, Frigyes
(1887-1938) Hungarian translator and author, best known for his work outside the sf field, mostly humorous Satires first published as newspaper feuilletons; he also translated into Hungarian works by Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, among others; father of Ferenc Karinthy. His untranslated first story, first published in an unidentified periodical and seemingly ...
Aksyonov, Vasily
(1932-2009) Russian author (see Mainstream Writers of SF), one of those whose careers began in the Khrushchev Thaw; he responded to the subsequent chill by emigrating to the USA in 1980, where he became a citizen, and where he taught at several universities before 2004, when he returned to Russia. He wrote two sf novels: Ozhog: roman v trekh knigakh (written late 1960s/early 1970s; 1980; trans Michael Glenny as ...
Wertenbaker, G Peyton
(1907-1968) US editor and author, one of the pioneers of Hugo Gernsback's development of Scientifiction. Wertenbaker came from a literary and professional family; his brother Charles Wertenbaker (1901-1955) was a renowned journalist and his niece is the noted playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker (1946- ). His first story, written when he was still fifteen, "The Man from the Atom" (August 1923 ...
Creature from Black Lake
Film (1976). Howco International Pictures/Cinema Shares International Distribution. Produced by Jim McCullough Sr. Directed by Joy N Houck Jr. Written by Jim McCullough Jr. Cast includes John David Carson, Jack Elam, Dennis Fimple, Roy Tatum, Dub Taylor and Bill Thurman. 91 minutes. Colour. / University of Chicago anthropology students Pahoo (Fimple) and Rives (Carson) hear reports of a Bigfoot-like creature (see Apes as Human) inhabiting swamplands ...
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 ...