Science-Fiction: The Early Years

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Science-Fiction: The Early Years
Science-Fiction The Early Years.jpg
Author Everett F. Bleiler, Richard Bleiler
LanguageEnglish
Subject Science fiction
Genre Reference book
Publisher Kent State University Press
Publication date
12 December 1990
Publication placeUnited States
Pages1024
Awards Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction
ISBN 0-87338-416-4
Preceded by The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983) 
Followed by Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years (1998) 

Science-Fiction: The Early Years is an American reference book on early science fiction of all countries up until 1930, published by Kent State University Press. The book catalogues over 3000 science fiction works, many of which are very rare and have never been described before. [1] The included works are novels, novelettes, short stories and occasional plays. Several indexes are included: motif and theme index, date index, magazine index, title index and author index. The book received the Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction in 1992. [1]

Contents

The book's foreword acknowledges the difficulty of selecting both the initial and terminal date; the authors regard Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634) as the first story "that could indisputably be called science-fiction". The year 1930 was chosen as the least objectionable of several possible terminal dates, being the point at which genre magazines became widely available in the United States. The book's catalogue is not regarded as complete, as at least two unimportant omissions have been noted (Garret Smith's "You've Killed Privacy!" and Donn Byrne's "Through 'HELL' to Peace"). [2]

Reception

John Clute, writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction , commented that Bleiler's suite of reference works consisting of The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983), Science-Fiction: The Early Years (1990), and Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years (1998) "stands as a central resource for the study of sf books" alongside the works of authors such as Neil Barron (author of Anatomy of Wonder ) and Donald H. Tuck (author of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy ). Clute also wrote that all three works are characterized both by extraordinary scope and extraordinary thoroughness. [3]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Science-Fiction: The Early Years". Goodreads . Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  2. Mullen, R. D. (July 1991). "Review: Science, Fictive Science, and Science Fiction: Bleiler's Massive Bibliography". Science Fiction Studies. 18 (2): 267. JSTOR   4240064.
  3. Clute, John (2023). "Bleiler, Everett F". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-08-08.