Smith, Curtis C
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic.
(1939- ) US critic and bibliographer, most of whose work in the first category has focused upon two authors: Olaf Stapledon, beginning with essays like "William Olaf Stapledon: Saint and Revolutionary" for Extrapolation in 1971, and culminating in Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography (1984) with Harvey J Satty; and upon Mack Reynolds, culminating in Welcome to the Revolution: The Literary Legacy of Mack Reynolds (1996), which focuses on Reynolds as a writer of Utopias. He is best known, however, for editing the first two editions of Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers (1981; rev 1986), part of a series of genre Bibliographies designed for library use; he did not participate in the third edition of 1991. The work offers coverage of about 600 sf (and fantasy) writers, some names being dropped (and others added) with each successive edition. The brief biographical sections are generally accurate; the critical pieces vary in quality, with some excellent short essays by a wide range of authors; but the bibliographies are flawed by a murkily inconsistent methodology (perhaps due to the series' house style), and are error-strewn. [JC]
see also: Critical and Historical Works About SF.
Curtis Cooper Smith
born Huntingdon, New York: 29 July 1939
works
- Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984) with Harvey J Satty [nonfiction: bibliography: hb/]
- Welcome to the Revolution: The Literary Legacy of Mack Reynolds (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1996) [nonfiction: hb/]
works as editor
- Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers (New York: St Martin's Press, 1981) [nonfiction: anth: hb/nonpictorial]
- Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers: Second Edition (Chicago, Illinois: St James Press, 1986) [nonfiction: anth: rev vt of the above: hb/nonpictorial]
links
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