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Sunday 19 May 2024
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.
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Corman, Roger
(1926-2024) US film-maker, a number of whose films are sf. Born in Los Angeles, he graduated in engineering from Stanford University in 1947, and spent a period in the US Navy and a term at Oxford University before going to Hollywood, where he began to write screenplays; his first sale was Highway Dragnet (1954), a picture he coproduced. He soon formed his own company and launched his spectacularly low-budget career. From 1956 he was regularly associated with ...
Back to the Future
Film (1985). Amblin Entertainment/Universal. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg among the executive producers. Written by Zemeckis, Bob Gale. Cast includes Michael J Fox, Crispin Glover, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas F Wilson. 116 minutes. Colour. / One of the major sf hits of the 1980s, Back to the Future is a disarming, calculated and intelligent comedy about ...
Diplomat, A
Pseudonym of the unidentified US author (? -? ) of The Rise and Fall of the United States: A Leaf from History, A D 2060 (1898), a Future History describing the Near Future fall of America after the working classes have conducted an ill-advised rebellion against the wealthy. [JC]
Rathborne, St George
(1854-1938) US author, often of Dime Novels under many names, including Harrison Adams, Herbert Carter, Oliver Lee Clifton and Harry St George. Under the Gulf; or, The Strange Voyage of the Torpedo Boat (1889 chap), tells of treasure-hunting Under the Sea in the submarine Vampire, with some mild conflict; the influence of Jules Verne's ...
Cole, Walter R
(1933-2002) US sf fan and bibliographer, compiler of A Checklist of Science-Fiction Anthologies (1964), reissued in facsimile – it was originally stencilled – by Arno Press in 1975. Though it has now been superseded and updated by William Contento's indexes of Anthologies, it is remembered as one of the essential pioneering efforts in ...
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 ...