SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 29 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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Franklin, H Bruce
(1934-2024) US critic and academic, a cultural historian in various positions at Stanford University from 1961, in that year giving one of the earliest university courses in sf in the USA. In 1972, despite holding tenure, he was dismissed by Stanford for making speeches allegedly inciting students to riot against the university's involvement in the Vietnam War – a case well known to those interested in questions of academic freedom. He became full professor, again with tenure, at Rutgers ...
Arnold, Frank Edward
Working name of UK author Francis Joseph Eric Edward Arnold (1914-1987), active in World War Two; in the 1930s he was an early member of UK Fandom, publishing in Fanzines – including the first two issues of this incarnation of New Worlds – as Francis Arnold. His first professional sale was "City of Machines" in Tales of Wonder ...
Van Vorst, Bessie McGinnis
(1873-1928) US social reformer and author, mostly in France from around 1900, who usually wrote as Mrs John Van Vorst, but also as by Esther Kelly; her early nonfiction was mostly written in collaboration with her sister-in-law Marie Louise Van Vorst (1867-1936). She is of some sf interest for Magda Queen of Sheba: From the Ancient Royal Abyssinian Manuscript [for full title see Checklist below] (1907) as Mrs John Van Vorst, a Lost Race tale set in ...
Harker, Kenneth
(1927-2003) UK author with a training in physics, employed as a technical officer in the thermal insulation business, whose first published sf story was "Cog" in New Worlds, April 1966; he had previously sold crime and fantasy fiction, an earlier nonrealistic story being "Colossus of Roads" (August 1961 Storyteller). His sf novels – The Symmetrians (1966), which concerns a ...
Worlds of the Universe
UK pocketbook-size Magazine. One undated issue [November] 1953, published by Gould-Light Publishing, London; edited anonymously by its publisher, Norman Light. Contributors of the three negligible stories were John Russell Fearn as Mark Denholm, Thomas W Wade as Manning Stern and John Sylvassey. Copies are rarely seen. [FHP] links / ...
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 ...