SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 16 February 2026
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 16 February 2026
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Man Who Turned to Stone, The
Film (1957). Clover Productions/Columbia Pictures. Directed by László Kardos. Produced by Sam Katzman. Written by Bernard Gordon. Cast includes Charlotte Austin, Tina Carver, Paul Cavanagh, Ann Doran, William Hudson, Victor Jory, George Lynn, Victor Varconi, Friedrich von Ledebur (credited as Frederick Ledebur) and Jean Willes. 71 minutes. Black and white. / Social worker Adams (Austin) and her romantic interest, state psychiatrist Dr Jess Rogers (Hudson), grow ...
Rexner, Romulus
Pseudonym of US author born Andrezej Mariusz Toporski (1920-2009); he legally changed his name to Marion Matarisvan in 1956. In his sf novel, Planetary Legion: A Story of War and Peace, 1940-1980 (1960; rev vt Planetary Legion for Peace: Story of their War and our Peace, 1940-2000 1987), progressive forces successfully manipulate the Near Future world into a state of Utopia; it is heartfelt. There have been ...
Anderson, Karen
Working name of US author and fan June Millichamp "Karen" Kruse Anderson (1932-2018), married to Poul Anderson from 1953 until his death in 2001, and with whom – after some poetry – she published her first work of genre interest, Innocent at Large (vt "The Innocent Arrival" in Space, Time & Crime, anth 1964, ed Miriam Allen deFord; 2016 ebook), in ...
Wells, Basil
(1912-2003) US author in various genres, including detective stories and Westerns, who began publishing sf with "Rebirth of Man" as Basil E Wells in Super Science Stories for September 1940, and became a frequent contributor to Planet Stories. His generally workmanlike short fiction is assembled in Planets of Adventure (coll 1949) and Doorways to Space (coll ...
Sargasso Sea
This region in the west of the North Atlantic Ocean, with Bermuda near its western edge, is named for the Sargassum seaweed that grows there and which – along with historical accounts of sailing ships being becalmed there – gave rise to the popular legend of a seaweed-choked Zone of mystery, a mist-shrouded oceanic Lost World of derelict ocean craft, very probably infested with Monsters and ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...