The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968, compiled by Donald H. Tuck, in three volumes -- Volume 1: Who's Who, A-L (1974); Volume 2: Who's Who, M-Z (1978); Volume 3: Miscellaneous (1983)
Science fiction fans are notoriously obsessive, and in the period from the mid-1950s to 1980, perhaps none were more so than Tasmanian industrial manager and bibliographer than Donald H. Tuck (1922-2010).
Shortly after the founding of the first "scientifiction" magazine, Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories, in 1926, young readers began communicating with one another, discussing stories and favorite authors, and joining together to form clubs. The first science fiction bibliography was a flawed and incomplete pamphlet, appropriately titled Science Fiction Bibliography (1935), published by the US fan group The Science Fiction Syndicate; a similar UK project, British Science-Fiction Bibliography, edited by Douglas W F Mayer for the Science Fiction Association appeared in 1937. a yet-unpublished bibliography by Ben Abramslon formed the basis of J. O. Bailey's ground-breaking Pilgrims Through Space and Time: Trends and Patterns in Scientific Utopian Fiction (1949); Abrahamson later self-published his checklist, albeit in a truncated form. (Abramson, BTW, also published the first edition of Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature.)
The first truly important bibliography of the field was E. F. Bleiler's The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird, and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (1948). Bleiler did not differentiate between science fiction and fantasy, and included mainstream authors often overlooked by most science fiction fans, and gave no indication of the content of the books listed. Despite this, and despite a number of errors, the book remained a pivotal resource for the science fiction fan. Bradford M. Day added another 3000 titles to Bleiler's tome with his The Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature in 1963. Another important resource was Joseph H. Crawford's "333": A Bibliography of the Science-Fantasy Novel (1953), which despite being limited to the titular number has proved to be quite valuable.
The stage was then set for Tuck's first bibliography, the self-published A Handbook of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1954; revised and enlarged to two volumes, 1959 -- the revised edition garnering a Special Award from the 1962 Worldcon). The 400-page 1959 edition contained mush information that had never been previously compiled, and it cleared the path for Tuck's far more ambitious Encyclopedia, whose first volume appeared fifteen years later.
For much of his bibiliographies, Tuck relied on a world-wide web of science fiction fans, researchers, and correspondent, including Ron Graham (Sidney, Australia), Douglas Harding (Winnepeg, Canada), Dr. Remson T. Schenk (Bangor, Pennsylvania), Piere Versins (Lausanne, Switzerland), Antonio Dupla (Zaragoza, Spain), Jakob Bleymehl (the Saar), Heinz Bingenheimer and family (Berlin), Manfred Alex (Berlin), Franz Rottenstteiner (Austria), Sqam Lundwell, Roland Adlerberth, and Sture Sedolin (all of Sweden), Norio Itoh, Takumi Shibano, and Koichiro A Noda (all of Tokyo), T. G. L. Cockcroft (Lower Hutt, New Zealand) John C. Nitka (Richmond Hill, New Jersey), Mark Owings (Bronx, New York), Robert Reginald (San Bernardino, California), Roy Hunt (Denver, Colorado), and many others, including editors and writers such as Ted Carnell (London), Forest J. Ackerman, Anthony Boucher, Robert Briney, Basil Davenport, August Derleth, Henry Eichner, Philip Harbottle, and Earl Kemp, as well as many of the reference books mentioned above, plus Donald B. Day's Index to the Science Fiction Magazines (1952).
As can be seen, Tuck managed to garner a wide range of international support for this project. And, as with any project of this scope, a few errors of omission and in fact and opinion managed to sneak in. Still, the scope of the work remains incredible.
Over the years, much of the information has been supplanted and added to by such online resources as ISFDb, the FictionMags Index, and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Yet, Tuck's Encyclopedia remains a valuable source of information, and has set a template for others to follow.
Volume 1 contains of 286 pages of double column text covering authors from "Anthony Abbott" to Lord Lytton. Most entries detail first editions (hardcover, paperback, and English language foreign), with brief description of the works and contents of collections and anthologies; where possible, a description of the author's biography is included.
Volume 2 does the same in 188 pages for authors from J. Cecil Maby (whose 1933 collection By Stygian Waters I'm still trying to locate) to Czech author Stanley Zuber, with an additional 52 pages listing all the books covering in the first two volumes alphabetically.
Volume 3 covers various miscellaneous topics over 389 pages -- Magazines (listings of all known issues, including notable fiction), from A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, to the German publication Zauberkreis SF; Paperbacks, 96 pages, listed by author, from Edwin Abbott's Flatland to Albert Zugsmith & Robert Hill's The Private Lives of Adam and Eve; Paperback Publishers, 74 pages listing all covered books from publishers from Ace Books to A. Zwemmer, Ltd., plus an additional three pagers of "Ephemerals"; Paperback Titles, 37 pages, listing titles from A for Andromeda (Fred Hoyle & John Elliot) to The Zolotov Affair (Robert H. Rimmer); Pseudonyms: 31 pages, listing first, "Pseudonyms/Real Names' ("A., D. E." - M. Dominick to "Zweig, Allen" - Frederik Pohl [fan pseud.]), then "Real Names/Pseudonyms" (Aarons, Edward S. - "Edward Ronns)" to Zinberg, Leonard S. - "Ed Lacy"); Series, Connected Stories, and Sequels: 11 pages (for sories within a given series, the reader is directed to the authors' listings in the first two volumes; i.e., for the "AAA Ace Interplanetary Decontamination" series, see Robert Sheckley's listing); General Selected Material, not necessarily covered elsewhere, including definitions, organizations, publishers, various international publications, an incomplete list of SF and fantasy films, and a listing of selections from the Science Fiction Book Club).
Phew!
I purchased the first two volumes of Tuck's Encyclopedia nearly fifty years ago, and have been using on a regular basis ever since (the third volume had not been ;published then, and I never went back to pick it up. The binding on my copies is long gone, as is the duct I used to hold the volumes together. The pages are loose and covered with copious notes and updates, much of which is faded. But today is my birthday (Yay, me!) and I now entire my 90th decade on this planet (Double yay, me!), so as a birthday treat to myself, I managed to locate pristine copies of all three volumes.
I optimistically look forward to another fifty years of treating myself to these books.
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