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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Bleiler, E F

Tagged: Author, Editor.

(1920-2010) US editor and bibliographer whose work has contributed to a wider appreciation of and access to the fields of Supernatural Fiction and Science Fiction. Bleiler's seminal work, The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (1948; rev vt The Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction 1978) provided a grounding in sf and fantasy bibliography which remained unsurpassed until the works of Donald H Tuck (1922-2010) and Robert Reginald (real name Michael Roy Burgess, 1948-2013), although Bleiler also took his research forward with The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983), which provided plot summaries and analyses of 1775 books dated 1750-1960 and included further groundbreaking work in its phenomenology and motif index. Bleiler undertook a similar analysis of proto-sf in Science Fiction: The Early Years (1991), compiled with his son Richard Bleiler, and Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years (1998), and also edited two significant studies of the respective fields in Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (anth 1982) and Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror (anth 1985 2 vols). With Thaddeus E Dikty, Bleiler co-edited a series of sf Anthologies 1949-1954. In 1955 he joined Dover Publications, becoming Executive Vice-President in 1967 and retiring in 1977. For Dover he compiled many books on a wide range of subjects, including many translations. His particular talent was in identifying rare and often forgotten Victorian works of singular quality. Volumes compiled by Bleiler of genre interest, most with detailed and exemplary introductions, include Three Gothic Novels (anth 1960), Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce (coll 1964), Best Ghost Stories of J.S. Le Fanu (coll 1964 US) and its companion Ghost Stories and Mysteries by J Sheridan Le Fanu (coll 1975 US), The Best Tales of Hoffmann (coll 1967) by E T A Hoffmann, The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories by Robert W Chambers (coll 1970), Five Victorian Ghost Novels (anth 1971), Gods, Men and Ghosts (coll 1972 US) by Lord Dunsany, Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood (coll 1973 US), Classic Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens and Others (anth 1975) ed anon, Three Supernatural Novels of the Victorian Period (anth 1975), The Golem and The Man Who Was Born Again (omni 1976), The Collected Ghost Stories of Mrs J.H. Riddell (coll 1977 US) by Mrs Riddell, The Best Supernatural Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle (coll 1979 US) by Arthur Conan Doyle, and Prophecies and Enigmas of Nostradamus (trans 1979 US) (see Nostradamus). For Scribners' Bleiler compiled A Treasury of Victorian Ghost Stories (anth 1981). For his distinguished contributions to the field of research Bleiler received the Pilgrim Award in 1984. [MA]

Everett Franklin Bleiler

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