SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 10 February 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 10 February 2025
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Hamilton, Edmond
(1904-1977) US author, married to Leigh Brackett from 1946 until his death. With E E "Doc" Smith and Jack Williamson, he was one of the prime movers in the development of US sf, sharing with those writers in the creation and popularization of classic Space Opera as it first appeared in Pulp magazines from about 1928. His first story, ...
Susann, Jacqueline
(1918-1974) US author most famous for her first novel, Valley of the Dolls (1966); her only sf is the posthumous Yargo (1979), which, written in the 1950s, tells the tale of a young woman abducted by a UFO actually trying to kidnap Albert Einstein; she falls in love with Yargo, the ruler of the planet Yargo (see Exogamy), but is sent off on Planetary Romance adventures ...
Gorey, Edward
(1925-2000) US author and artist who produced many book jackets and internal illustrations, often for children's books. As an artist he was essentially self-taught despite a single semester of study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1943; his acknowledged influences included Chinese, Japanese and Symbolist art. Though his many covers for Doubleday Anchor books in the 1950s were important in establishing the "quality paperback" as a prestige marketing category, he is best known ...
Classics Illustrated
US Comics publication. Published by The Gilberton Company Incorporated and later Frawley Corporation from 1967 (see below). 169 issues in total, from 1941 to 1971. / Founded in 1941 by Alfred Lewis Kanter (1897-1973) to introduce reluctant readers to classic literature, Classics Illustrated proved to be one of the few success stories in US comics publishing which did not focus on Superheroes. Originally entitled ...
Sherriff, R C
(1896-1975) UK screenwriter, playwright and author, active from 1919. He is best known for his hit play, the nonfantastic Journey's End (performed 9 December 1928 Apollo Theatre, London: 1929), directed by James Whale, who also directed the 1930 film version; it remains the best-known play about World War One, in which Sherriff had served 1914-1917. He also wrote the screenplay for Whale's version of the 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 ...