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Post by dem bones on Nov 21, 2007 22:43:18 GMT
Mike Ashley (ed.) - The Illustrated Book Of Science Fiction Lists (Virgin, 1982) Wadsworth Keates 200 pages of SF trivia shouldn't hold much interest for an entrenched horror fan but thanks to Mike Ashley's superb way with a narrative and plenty of cross-over interest I found this utterly riveting! Mary E. Counselman's ten favourite Weird Tales, Michel Parry's favourite and least favourite SF/ Fantasy movies, ex- Asimov editor George Scitzen's ten last lines he hopes he's seen the last of, ten fastest or most compulsive writers (the guys I had as top contenders only came second and fourth!), most pseudonymous SF authors, 10 SF-Fantasy stories that were banned or withdrawn .... and so on, and so on. Great fun and an excellent resource for bibliophiles too.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 22, 2007 9:48:32 GMT
I tend to use the massive two volume THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ed. Donald H Tuck, which covers a lot of Horror, too. HOWEVER, for many years, my main reference book - the best of the lot - is as follows:
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Post by dem bones on Nov 22, 2007 10:08:16 GMT
Ah, yes. I don't own a copy of Who's Who but I managed to order a copy through the library once - and copied it out, word for word, by hand! The progressive degeneration in the writing looks like something out of Manly Wade Wellman's Back To The Beast when the mad doctor has devolved beyond subhuman! I think the biblio I've made most use of is E. F. Bleiler's Guide To Supernatural Fiction (Kent State University, 1983). It's probably best he put a 1970 ceiling on it otherwise there'd be nothing left for the rest of us.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 22, 2007 10:48:41 GMT
I managed to order a copy through the library once - and copied it out, word for word, by hand! I think that's most incredibly admirable thing I've ever heard about in my entire 60 years! Seriously. des
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Post by redbrain on Nov 22, 2007 11:55:31 GMT
I agree that Mike Ashley's Who's Who is the best of the lot. Over the last year or two (while I've been re-building my collection) it's been one of my two main reference books. The other is Sixty Years of Arkham House. I'm a bit of an Arkham House freak (not that I can afford to buy Arkham House books just now).
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