Searles, Baird
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor.
(1934-1993) US bookshop proprietor and author who co-edited the 1975 critical journal The Science Fiction Review (Monthly) and published several nonfiction works on sf and fantasy, beginning with Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1975 chap) for Cliffs Notes and continuing with The Science Fiction Quizbook (1976) with Martin Last (1929-2006), composed at a time when Genre SF was still compact enough to compass in this fashion; A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction (1979) with Last, Michael Franklin and Beth Meacham; A Reader's Guide to Fantasy (1982) with Franklin and Meacham; and Films of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1988). With Brian Thomsen he edited Halflings, Hobbits, Warrows & Weefolk: A Collection of Tales of Heroes Short in Stature (anth 1991). As a reviewer, he was a consistent and judicious influence for many years, publishing a large number of Cinema reviews in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction between September 1970 and July 1984; and the On Books column for Asimov's between May 1979 and October 1993. [JC]
William Baird Searles
born Indianapolis, Indiana: 30 April 1934
died Montreal, Quebec: 22 March 1993
works
- Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (Lincoln, Nebraska: Cliffs Notes, 1975) [nonfiction: chap: Robert A Heinlein: in the publisher's Cliffs Notes series: pb/]
- The Science Fiction Quizbook (New York: Drake Publishers, 1976) with Martin Last [nonfiction: pb/Ted Enik]
- A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction (New York: Avon Books, 1979) with Michael Franklin, Martin Last and Beth Meacham [nonfiction: pb/Stanislaw Fernandes]
- A Reader's Guide to Fantasy (New York: Avon Books, 1982) with Michael Franklin, Martin Last and Beth Meacham [nonfiction: pb/]
- Films of Science Fiction and Fantasy (New York: Harry N Abrams, 1988) [nonfiction: hb/]
works as editor
- Halflings, Hobbits, Warrows & Weefolk: A Collection of Tales of Heroes Short in Stature (New York: Warner Books, 1991) with Brian Thomsen [anth: pb/Tim Hildebrandt and Greg Hildebrandt]
links
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