Gotta say I love that waistcoat. The black on black designs look very fancy. Roger must be jealous.

That star trek review is hilarious

Love the story you told about finding this book. Maybe next time you'll discover Necronomicon.

Harlan Ellison hasn't been forgotten, but he has been widely slandered and maligned.

That entry about Star Trek is both humorous and instructive.

What a magnificent essential! Why do my little libraries never have anything worthwhile like this?

It is a must for every science fiction aficionado.

That analysis of Star Trek is hilarious. Where they got the idea that almost all the fans were women! Hah.

Harlan Ellison is popular with the talk show circuit in the 70s and 80s. The Tom Snyder interviews are on KZfaq, among others.

Reading old dated books and magazines is great if you're able to put yourself in the context of the time.

Never read Nicholls' encyclopedia, but I was a big fan of his Fantastic Cinema book. One of my local libraries used to have that back in the 90s and I read it multiple times back then. It would also obviously be terribly out of date (published 1983) but I still found a lot of use for it; I always found his contention that 1968 was an important dividing line between older forms of SF/fantasy and horror cinema and the new ones that came in the 70s was a very useful point, as was his distinction in the book's viewing guide between the star ratings he gave the films and the skull ratings he also applied... as he put it, horror movies being scary and being disgusting were two different things, which is something else I've always taken to heart. Only just discovered that Nicholls was actually Australian, which makes me wonder what the entry on Doctor Who was like, cos DW's history in this country was kind of chaotic. We started showing it in 1965 but by the time Nicholls was working on the encyclopedia he would've only had a pretty scattered idea of its history... assuming, obviously, he was working from actual experience of the show rather than just ABC/BBC documentation about it. The website version is pretty positive about the show, but I feel somehow the original 1979 book entry would've been rather less so, given what the book evidently said about Star Trek...

Very snappy tie/shirt/waistcoat combo Michael. I have a few UK-published encyclopedias of SF from the 70s and early 80s which are equally interesting as snapshots into the past. And the colour photos and cover reproductions are wonderful. It sounds like the reviewer of Star Trek is covering his/her ignorance about the series' mechanisms of characterisation, plot and story-telling by rolling out simplistic condemnations. I have to hand it to you, you always find unusual and unexpected books to showcase.

Great video Michael! Love that entry on the original Star Trek. Classic! (Now I have to dig out my World Encyclopedia of Comic Books!)

What a treasure!

The second edition came in 1993 and credited John Clute as a co-editor. It was again re-issued in 1995. They also released a companion volume, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, in 1997. Great stuff. Thanks for bringing this little gem to light again.

The new Harlan Ellison anthology is fantastic. Only complaint is that it could have been two or three times larger. They've also re-released the Dangerous Visions books. All of it is must have. He may have been one of the most difficult, opinionated and cantankerous people to deal with, but nobody would argue the fact that he was one hell of a writer and editor. He needs a Library of America volume.

“Have you got the jets to swing this load”. - dialogue from some E.E. “Doc” Smith book

Found a 1993 Hardcover of the second edition of this Encyclopedia some years ago .To make sure I checked and yes it still has the same Star Trek quotes and all but with more info for the later years upto a mentioning of TNG episode 22. The book has expanded to a 1370 page wealth of info for the genre.

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Love that book. Proofread it. Found a couple of errors in the comics section. Two small errors in a book of that size! It is a book to HUG.

That Star Trek write-up...wow. They ground that axe down to a butter knife. Speaking of Star Trek and Harlan Ellison, have you seen his original idea for The City on the Edge of Forever? If not, check that out sometime. It's *quite* different.

Nobody hated on Star Trek harder than that beloved rascal Harlan Ellison.

I loved this so much, thank you for sharing this gem! I just managed to snag a red hardback 1979 school library copy on eBay for about $16 USD after tax. Best wishes and subscribed!

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is superb as well. Maybe even better.

Ellison had many awards, and was the leading author for number of awards for many years. I think Connie Willis is now the author with most awards.

It's almost shocking how little understanding these authors had about Star Trek. Your assesment of them is on point. In Germany here where i live, this opinion is still around especially in the mainstream media and among self-proclaimed "intellectuals". (so its basically still like in the late 70 in the US) It's sad to say the least.

In France we have "L'Encyclopédie de L'utopie, des Voyages Extraordinaires & de la Science-fiction" de Pierre Versins, 1st ed. 1972, reprint in 1982. ... Really good book also ! ... But in french 🙂.

You are absolutely right Michael. That is a wonderful book to just browse through. I've had my copy for years and I find it a source of true pleasure.

Harlan Ellison did some crazy things.

A treasure for sure!!

Just snagged one in good condition for less than $10 online, same edition, paperback.

I'm old and out of date, so I don't mind books that are!

I was looking for my copy of this a few weeks ago. Did I give it to a book fair? and the other edition? Ergh. Make room, make room, but alas, though needs make loss, others may gain.

Love that book, got a few similar books and they are always great to pick up and they are a great inspiration to find many old (as well as new-ish for the time) authors. Harlan Ellison is /was one of the greatest authors ever. Always fascinating to read the opinions about shows back in the 70s (such as Star Trek), same for any series. Clearly it did slightly better than they could have thought back then. I guess Star Wars probably was also a little dismissed ?

MKV..Hes always down with the 'bukes'...

Notwithstanding the Fox news style opinion of that Star Trek piece, it does make an interesting point - that of the female audience. That would have been unexpected back when it first aired.

I'm Vintage 1978, I'm not out of date! ;P Well, technically, considering my actual time is like the year 30 billion... ahem... :D

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Very Goth, Michael. YOu look right at home with Roger in that outfit. Bring it back more often. I missed getting one Star Trek encyclopedia. The one I picked up later is more updated but not as good. I have to admit that most of what was said about Star Trek was actually right, except the interaction and humor of Star Trek (OS) was lost in the guy and Hey, there was NOTHING 'ambiguous' about Spock's sexuality! It took me years to realize that the human I ended up marrying was closer to him than I could have found than if I had purposely searched for one.

Co-editor John Clute also did an Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Still with us! Peter Nicholls died in 2018.

I believe this volume's 80s version has an entry on The Empire Strikes Back basically calling it a boring piece of crap.

I guess the editors liked Lost in Space better. Their level I suppose.

Does the Encyclopedia say anything about the difference between what Robert Heinlein meant by "Speculative Fiction" and what it has come to mean. Maybe we need a new term, "H-Spec Fiction"!

Michael, what's happened to Roger's Cheapass Horror Book Club?

I have a "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" forward by Isaac Asimov, (1978 Publication)....and it seems it's the same book in style....interesting there are or were published two books of the same type and almost title?

Actually, I think Connie Willis has won more awards than Harlan Ellison.