More author lists than you could shake a stick at.

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Sender: John C. Wenn:ES AE:Xerox
Date: 18 Dec 88 21:28:23 PST (Sunday)
Subject: Author Lists: Bibliographic Sources
From: JWenn
To: SF-LOVERS%rutgers:EDU
cc: JWenn


A number of people have written and asked what references I've used for my
Author Lists.  So here is a list of my most used references, from most
useful to least used:

R. Reginald - "SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY LITERATURE" (2 Volumes) [1979]
This is my core reference.  It covers 15,884 SF books from 1700 to 1974
(plus about 2000 retitlings).  In addition it covers 1443 biographies of
SF&F people.  The book entries have title, alternate title, series and
information on first publication (year, publisher, etc.).  This is
exceptionally accurate and complete.  The only problem is that it's quickly
becoming dated.  An update has been promised in "Forthcoming Books In
Print" for several years now (covering 1975 - 1986, 2 Volumes, 1988,
$140.00, 600 pages), but I'll believe it when I see it.  (Please release it
soon!)

Curtis C. Smith, Ed. - "TWENTIETH-CENTURY SCIENCE-FICTION WRITERS (2nd
edition)" [1986].  This covers the works of 615 SF writers, lists all their
works until 1985 (including non-SF fiction and non-fiction in a separate
catagories) and has an essay on the author.  Unfortunately, this book isn't
as useful as it could be (although it is better than the first edition).
There are several entries that are sloppy or incorrect (large publishers
are generally OK, but small press books are often wrong).  In addition it
has an incomprehensible system for putting a book in the SF list or the
Other list (hard SF == SF, Mystery/Western/Romance == Other, Fantasy ==
Other [but not always, often different books in the same fantasy series are
split between the catagories!!]).  This is really annoying for authors who
write a mixture of genre & non-genre works.  It does have a useful listing
of all uncollected (in an single author collection) short stories [Randall
Garrett has nearly 200 uncollected stories listed!]  I generally only use
this for the 1974-1985 gap, and can only use it if it's one of the 615
people listed. (and can ignore it when Reginald's releases his update).

Charles N. Brown & William Contento - "SCIENCE FICTION IN PRINT: 1985"
[1986] and "SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, & HORROR: 1986" [1987]  This yearly
reference contains:  (1) A listing of all books published that year
(basically a concatination of the "Books Recieved" section from Locus, see
below), (2) A listing of stories published in SF magazines, new anthologies
and new collections (it doesn't give the contents of reprinted anthologies
or collections), (3) Misc info (year in review, awards, deaths, recommended
reading, and the like).  The book list and story list are given in several
formats: by author, by title, items originally published this year, by
subject (books) and by contents (books).  The 1986 version is much more
readable than the 1985 (in format, organization and typeface).   Volumes
covering 1987 (due last month!) and 1984 (scheduled April 1989) are being
worked on.

LOCUS Magazine - "Books Recieved" section.  [I own a nearly complete run
from December 1979].  The lists all the books recieved by Locus from
various publishers.  This is both good and bad.  The good news is that it
doesn't have bogus listings (the bane of the bibliographer).  The bad news
is that genuine books that they didn't happen to get are left out.  It's
like a theorm from math I've tried hard to forget: you can never get an
exact listing of all functions satisfying X.  Either you ignore some
functions that fit, or you include some functions that don't fit.  So do
you want accuracy or completeness?

L. W. Currey - "SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY AUTHORS - A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
FIRST PRINTINGS OF THEIR FICTION" [1979]  What it says:  A listing of the
the first editions of all fiction written by 217 authors.  It's useful if
you need some means of identifying a first edition, but it's use is limited
because it lists all fictiion without regard to genre.  It is extremely
accurate and complete.  I use it mainly as a check on Smith.

Donald Tuck - "THE ENCYLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY (3 Volumes)"
[1974, 1978, 1982].  This lists all SF published (or reprinted) between
1945 and 1968.  It's real problem is that it's so out of date.  It's quite
accurate (but not 100%).  The real use is that it REALLY covers all books
published between 1945 and 1968.  It lists all the editions of a book, it
lists the contents (stories, etc. in the book) and lists series.  I use
this when the relationships between older books aren't clear (e.g. "Are the
stories in XXX a proper subset of stories in YYY?")

You need a completely different set of references for short stories (none
of which I own, and most of which are out of print).  The only books that I
own that deal with the contents of collections/anthologies cover 1945-1968
[Tuck], 1985-1986 [Brown & Contento] (which is a huge gap).  Sorry to all
the short story lovers out there.

/John

arpa: JWenn.ESAE@Xerox.com

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