boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (02/23/86)
As those of you who also read net.sf-lovers know, I frequently answer
bibliographic questions with the slogan "Bibliography is my business".
I feel behooved to put in my two cents on the current controversy over
Bill Dippert's bibliographic listings...
Bibliography is a passion of mine, and I have a couple of shelves full
of indexes (or indices, if you prefer), checklists, and bibliographies.
I understand well the effort that goes into compiling something like
Bill's listings, as well as the usefulness of such works. I only ques-
tion the need to continually post them to the net. I could flood the
net with such listings myself, but I refrain from doing so. I would and
have posted such listings only in response to a specific request.
As specificly regarding Bill's lists, I looked at the first few and
noticed quite a few omissions or errors. I had meant to send him errata
and addenda, but as the lists kept piling up, I quite frankly did (and
don't) have the time to do so.
[Aside to Greg Rawlins, if he's reading this: I never sent errata and
addenda to your sf bibliography posted to sf-lovers for much the same
reason. I printed it out and wrote in titles that I could come up with
just off the top of my head. Doing so, I was able to almost double your
list. Going through my collection, I could probably double *that*. Going
then through my reference books and dealers' catalogs, I could probably
double it yet again. If I had the time to do that, I'd publish my own
bibliography.]
I appreciate the work that Bill Dippert has done, though frankly, they
aren't that useful to me. Some of the authors he's done I have no real
interest in. For those I do, I already have as much, if not more, info
within arm's reach.
Instead of continually posting these listings to the net, may I suggest,
Bill, that instead you post a message stating that you have a list of
books by <joe blow> and that you'll mail it to anyone who is interested?
That might satisfy both those who like such lists and those who don't.
I might also recommend the following reference books for people interested
in bibliographies of particular authors in the sf and mystery fields. This
isn't by any means an exhaustive bibliography of bibliographies, but it
covers the most of the better and more comprehensive references. It also
is not meant to cover indexes to short fiction, only books. Short fiction
is another matter entirely.
Most of these are fairly expensive or hard to find, so you might
want to check out your local library for copies to look at (if your local
library doesn't have them, you might suggest that it gets them).
Science Fiction:
Bleiler, E. F., THE CHECKLIST OF SCIENCE-FICTION AND SUPERNATURAL FICTION
[1800-1948] (Glen Rock, NJ: Firebell, 1978). Revised edition of
THE CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC LITERATURE.
-------, A GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION [1750-1950] (Kent, Ohio: Kent State
University, 1983).
Currey, L. W., SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY AUTHORS: A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FIRST
PRINTINGS OF THEIR FICTION AND SELECTED NONFICTION (Boston: G. K.
Hall, 1979).
Nicholls, Peter (General Editor), et alia, THE SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA
(New York: Doubleday, 1979). Both hardcover and trade paperback.
Reginald, R., SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY LITERATURE: A CHECKLIST, 1700-1974
[in two volumes: VOLUME I: INDEXES TO THE LITERATURE and VOLUME II:
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES] (Detroit: Gale Research, 1979). The second
volume is a revised edition of his earlier CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE
FICTION AUTHORS. Reginald is supposedly working on a supplemental
volume.
Searles, Baird, et alia, A READER'S GUIDE TO FANTASY (New York: Avon, 1982).
Paperback.
-------, A READER'S GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION (New York: Avon, 1979). Ditto.
Smith, Curtis C. (Editor), et alia, TWENTIETH CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS
(New York: St. Martin's, 1981 (2nd edition, 1985).
Tuck, Donald H., THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY [in three
volumes: VOLUME 1: WHO'S WHO AND WORKS, A-L; VOLUME 2: WHO'S WHO
AND WORKS, M-Z AND LISTING BY TITLE; VOLUME 3: MISCELLANEOUS]
(Chicago: Advent, 1974, 1978, 1982). Unfortunately only goes up
through 1968.
Wells, Stuart W. III, THE SCIENCE FICTION AND HEROIC FANTASY AUTHOR INDEX
(Duluth: Purple Unicorn Books, 1978). Both hardcover and trade
paperback.
Also, both Underwood-Miller (San Francisco) and G. K. Hall (Boston)
have published bibliographies of individual science fiction authors.
The Underwood-Miller volumes are among the most impressive and
detailed bibliographies I've ever seen.
Mystery:
Barzun, Jacques, and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A CATALOGUE OF CRIME (New York:
Harper & Row, 1971).
Hubin, Allen J., CRIME FICTION, 1749-1980: A COMPREHENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
(New York: Garland, 1984). An updated and revised edition of his
earlier THE BIBLIOGRPAHY OF CRIME FICTION, 1749-1975. I would say
that of all the books I'm listing here, I'm most impressed by
this one. Hubin is probably *the* most knowledgible authority on
the mystery field.
Reilly, John M. (Editor), et alia, TWENTIETH CENTURY CRIME AND MYSTERY
WRITERS (New York, St. Martin's, 1980).
Smith, Myron J. Jr., CLOAK-AND-DAGGER BIBLIOGRAPHY: AN ANNOTATED GUIDE TO
SPY FICTION, 1937-1975 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1976).
Steinbrunner, Chris, Otto Penzler (Editors-in-Chief), et alia, ENCYCLO-
PEDIA OF MYSTERY AND DETECTION (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976).
This has, in the past year, appeared as a trade paperback.
It should also be noted that St. Martin's has published other volumes
in their TWENTIETH CENTURY <genre> WRITERS series, including Western,
Romance and Gothic, and Children's.
CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS (over 100 volumes), from Gale Research, is also a
useful reference tool.
You may want to note that CATALOGUE OF CRIME and CLOAK-AND-DAGGER BIB-
LIOGRAPHY are the only books listed above of which I do not own copies.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}
!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM
<"Bibliography is my business">shuju@videovax.UUCP (Shuju Burgess) (03/04/86)
In article <1297@decwrl.DEC.COM> boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) writes: >Science Fiction: >... >Reginald, R., SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY LITERATURE: A CHECKLIST, 1700-1974 > [in two volumes: VOLUME I: INDEXES TO THE LITERATURE and VOLUME II: > AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES] (Detroit: Gale Research, 1979). The second > volume is a revised edition of his earlier CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE > FICTION AUTHORS. Reginald is supposedly working on a supplemental ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > volume. ^^^^^^ Yes, he is working on the supplement. It will cover 1975-1984. I don't know when it will be published. Shu-Ju -- Shu-Ju Wang Burgess UUCP: {ucbvax, allegra, uw-beaver, ihnp4,...}!tektronix!videovax!shuju