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Friday 13 June 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.
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Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Karlins, Marvin
(1941- ) US academic and author, usually of nonfiction relating to his professional work as a Professor of Management. His first book is sf, The Last Man Is Out (1969; vt The New Atoms' Bombshell 1980 as by Robert Browne), a Near Future tale in which a bored scientist uses Computers and other devices to maximize outcomes for the Baseball team he has ...
Wollheim, Betsy
Working name of Elizabeth R Wollheim (1954- ), US editor and publisher, daughter of Donald A Wollheim; she worked as an associate editor of his DAW Books from 1975, took over the DAW presidency from him when his health began to fail in 1985, and still runs the company as President, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, the last two roles shared with Sheila E Gilbert. On ...
E-Zine
A form of Online Magazine which may be sent to a subscriber by email, sometimes as an email attachment. Most of the early digital magazines, starting with FSFnet, were e-zines as, until 1991, there was no World Wide Web. When Galaxy switched to online publication it called itself an E-zine, though it was really a web-based magazine that also distributed issues by CD-ROM, which is another form of digital distribution. ...
Johnson, Kenneth R [2]
(1942-2011) UK journalist, author of books on occult and fringe science, and Horror author included here to distinguish him from the US bibliographer Kenneth R Johnson and the US television worker and novelist Kenneth Johnson. The UK Johnson also publishes as Ken Johnson and Kenneth Rayner Johnson (the Rayner being his mother's maiden name). His novels are Blue Sunshine ...
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 ...