SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 10 August 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 3 August 2026
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Cowper, Richard
Pseudonym of UK author John Middleton Murry Jr (1926-2002), son of the famous critic; Cowper also published four non-sf novels under the name Colin Murry, beginning with The Golden Valley (1958); and, as Colin Middleton Murry – Colin being an early nickname, though he was normally addressed as John – two autobiographical volumes, One Hand Clapping (1975; vt I at the Keyhole 1975), which deals mainly with his relationship with his difficult, ...
Bagnall-Stubbs, James
(1878-1955) UK author who served in World War One, and who was responsible for two novels containing sf elements of interest: in Ora Pro Nobis (1899), a spirit journey is undertaken to another planet, where human-like beings live in peace; and in The Order of Isis: A Story of Mystery and Adventure in Egypt (1900), occult chemists in the eponymous order create a vapour capable of enabling eavesdropping at a distance. [JC/MA]
Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation, The
UK Fanzine/Newszine edited by Tony Chester, Graham Connor (until his death in late 2018) and Jonathan Cowie. Launched at the 1987 UK Eastercon as a nominally annual A4 print publication with nine issues to 1997 (skipping 1995 and 1996); after a two-year hiatus it migrated online in 1999. Currently updated each academic term: spring, summer and autumn. / Print editions of SF² Concatenation ...
Coward, Noël
(1899-1973) UK actor, poet, composer, playwright and author, who performed professionally on the stage from 1911 and in films from 1917; after some apprentice work beginning in 1917, his first successfully produced play I'll Leave It To You (performed 1920; 1920 chap) was followed by dozens of successful comedic satires over the next decades. He did not often engage in the fantastic as a dramatist (and never as a fiction writer), though his anti-war play, ...
Hunter, Alan [2]
(1923-2012) UK artist who is best known for his intricately detailed black-and-white ink drawings. He also painted covers in the brightly coloured Pulp tradition for the first two issues of Nebula Science Fiction published in Autumn 1952 and Spring 1953, and was credited as this magazine's art consultant. Numerous early drawings in his more typical manner appeared as interior art in ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star ...