The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
Clute & Grant - The Encyclopedia of Fantasy Coverart.png
Cover of the first edition
AuthorsJohn Clute
John Grant
Cover artistPeter Goodfellow
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectFantasy
PublisherOrbit Books UK; St. Martin's Press US
Publication date
3 April 1997
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback), On-line
Pages832 pp (first edition)
ISBN978-1-85723-368-1
OCLC37106061

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is a 1997 reference work concerning fantasy fiction, edited by John Clute and John Grant. Other contributors include Mike Ashley, Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, David Langford, Sam J. Lundwall, Michael Scott Rohan, Brian Stableford and Lisa Tuttle.

The book was well-received on publication. During 1998, it received the Hugo Award,[1] World Fantasy Award,[2] and Locus Award.[3] The industry publication Library Journal described The Encyclopedia of Fantasy as "the first of its kind".[4]

Since November 2012, the full text of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is available on-line, as a companion to the on-line edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.[5] The editors of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction have stated that there are not any plans to update The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, at least for the foreseeable future, although some death dates post-1997 have been added. However, author and theme entries in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction often borrow terminology from entries in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.[6]

Format and content

The Encyclopedia was published in a format that matches the 1993 second edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. It is slightly smaller in terms of content, containing 1,049 alphabetical pages, over 4,000 entries and approximately one million words, the bulk of which were written by Clute, Grant and Ashley. A later CD-ROM edition contains numerous revisions.

The Encyclopedia uses a similar system of categorization to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, but does not include an index of theme entries. A theme index was later included in the on-line addenda: see "External links" below. One of the major differences is that there are no entries related to publishing.

Neologisms

The Encyclopedia often invented new terms for theme entries, rather than using headings that may have previously appeared in critical literature. Examples include:

Reception

Characterizing the book as "an excellent and highly readable source for fantasy", the industry publication Library Journal described The Encyclopedia of Fantasy as "the first of its kind".[4]

Awards

Editions

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Hugo Awards: 1998 Hugo Awards". 26 July 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  2. ^ a b "World Fantasy Convention: 1998 World Fantasy Award Winners and Nominees". Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  3. ^ a b "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1998 Locus Awards". Archived from the original on 8 October 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  4. ^ a b Dollard, Peter A. (1997). "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy". Library Journal (1 October 1997). Retrieved 10 July 2008.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "At last the Encyclopedia of Fantasy is free and searchable online!". i09. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  6. ^ "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy". 1 December 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.