SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 14 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
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King, Louis Magrath
(1886-1949) China-born UK diplomat, whose work in the British Consular Office took him to the China-Tibet borderlands, and author whose By Tophet Flare: A Tale of Adventure on the Chinese Frontier of Tibet (1937; vt The Warden of the Marches: A Tale of the Chinese Frontier of Tibet 1938), reflecting his travels, describes the discovery of a Lost Race is deep within the Inner Asian Frontier of China. [JC]
Weldon, Fay
(1931-2023) UK Television and Radio scriptwriter, and author, active from the early 1960s; born Franklin Birkinshaw, granddaughter of Edgar Jepson and niece of Selwyn Jepson She began writing work of genre interest with "Angel, All Innocence" in The Thirteenth Ghost Book (anth 1977) edited by James Hale. Almost all of her work – with considerable ...
Caillou, Alan
Pseudonym of UK-born soldier, actor, screenwriter and author Alan Samuel Lyle-Smythe (1914-2006) who lived and worked in the Middle East, Africa and Canada before moving to the US late in life; he was awarded an MBE (Civil Medal of the Order of the British Empire) in 1938 for his work in Palestine, and an MC (Military Cross) 1944 for his work with partisans in Yugoslavia. As Alan Caillou he wrote adventure thrillers from 1955, and as Alex Webb from 1985. A Caillou novel, Alien Virus ...
Mudd, Steve
(? - ) US author whose sf novels in the Tangled Webs Space Opera sequence, comprising Tangled Webs (1989) and The Planet Beyond (1990), are adventures set in a totalitarian Galactic Empire. [JC]
Morlan, A R
(1958-2016) US author, principally of horror and fantasy, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Four Days Before the Snow" in Night Cry for Summer 1985. The Amulet sequence opening with the short The Cat with the Tulip Face (1991 chap), followed by two novels, is horror. Her many short stories are assembled in a number of collections beginning with Smothered Dolls (coll 2001) [see Checklist below], with that of greatest sf relevance being ...
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 ...