Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" series of science fiction anthologies, and his Checklist of Fantastic Literature has been called "the foundation of modern SF bibliography".[1] Among his other scholarly works are two Hugo Award–nominated volumes concerning early science fiction—Science-Fiction: The Early Years and Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years[2]—and the massive Guide to Supernatural Fiction.
Bleiler worked at Dover Publications from 1955, becoming executive vice-president of the company from 1967 until he left in 1977; he then worked for Charles Scribner's Sons until 1987.[1] He edited a number of ghost story collections for Dover, containing what the genre historian Mike Ashley has described as "detailed and exemplary introductions".[3]
Bleiler received the Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship in 1984, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1988,[4] the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1994, and the International Horror Guild Living Legend award in 2004.[1]
In the 1970s Bleiler wrote two works of fiction, which were not published until 2006: the fantasy novel Firegang: A Mythic Fantasy, set in the tree of Yggdrasil as well as moving across time and space, and Magistrate Mai and the Invisible Murderer, a detective story set in ancient China, similar to the work of Robert van Gulik.
Bleiler's son, Richard, is also a science fiction historian and assisted his father on several of his works.[2]
Selected bibliography
As editor
The Best Science Fiction
- The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949 (with T. E. Dikty)
- The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1950 (with T. E. Dikty)
- The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1951 (with T. E. Dikty)
- The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1952 (with T. E. Dikty)
- The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1953 (with T. E. Dikty)
- The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1954 (with T. E. Dikty)
- Year's Best Science Fiction Novels: 1952 (with T. E. Dikty)
- Year's Best Science Fiction Novels: 1953 (with T. E. Dikty)
- Year's Best Science Fiction Novels: 1954 (with T. E. Dikty)
Other anthologies
- Imagination Unlimited (with T. E. Dikty, 1952)
- Frontiers in Space (with T. E. Dikty, 1955)
- Three Gothic Novels (1966)
- Five Victorian Ghost Novels (1971)
- Eight Dime Novels (1974)
- Three Supernatural Novels of the Victorian Period (1975)
- Three Victorian Detective Novels (1978)
- A Treasury of Victorian Detective Stories (1979)
- A Treasury of Victorian Ghost Stories (1981)
Single-author collections
- Three Prophetic Science Fiction Novels of H. G. Wells (1960)
- Best Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu (1964)
- Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce (1964)
- The Best Tales of Hoffmann, by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1967)
- The King in Yellow and Other Stories, by Robert W. Chambers (1970)
- Best Max Carrados Detective Stories, by Ernest Bramah (1972)
- Gods, Men and Ghosts, by Lord Dunsany (1972)
- The Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories, by R. Austin Freeman (1973)
- Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood (1973)
- Best "Thinking Machine" Detective Stories, by Jacques Futrelle (1973)
- Ghost Stories and Mysteries, by J. S. Le Fanu (1975)
- Best Martin Hewitt Detective Stories, by Arthur Morrison (1976)
- Great Cases of the "Thinking Machine", by Jacques Futrelle (1976)
- The Collected Ghost Stories of Mrs J. H. Riddell (1977)
- The Department of Dead Ends: 14 Detective Stories, by Roy Vickers (1978)
- The Best Supernatural Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle (1979)
- The Old Man in the Corner: Twelve Mysteries, by Baroness Orczy (1980)
Nonfiction
- The Checklist of Fantastic Literature (1948; corrected and revised edition [as The Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction], 1978)
- The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983)
- Science-Fiction: The Early Years (with Richard Bleiler) (1990)
- Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years (with Richard Bleiler) (1998)
As editor and contributor
- Science Fiction Writers (1982)
- Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror (1985)
Fiction
- Firegang: A Mythic Fantasy. The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box Press, 2006. ISBN 1-55246-728-7
- Magistrate Mai and the Invisible Murderer. The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box Press, 2006. ISBN 1-55246-727-9
References
- ^ a b c "Everett F. Bleiler, 1920–2010". Locus Online. Locus Publications. 17 June 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
- ^ a b John Clute, "Bleiler, E(verett) F(ranklin)" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Clute and Peter Nicholls (Orbit, 1993), pp. 134–35.
- ^ Ashley, Mike, "Bleiler, E F", in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (Orbit, 1997), p. 121.
- ^ World Fantasy Convention. "Award Winners and Nominees". Archived from the original on 2010-12-01. Retrieved 4 Feb 2011.
External links
- Interview with E. F. Bleiler by Brian J. Showers
- Complete E. F. Bleiler bibliography
- Everett F. Bleiler at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Bleiler, Everett F at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 3rd edition
- E. F. Bleiler at Library of Congress, with 33 library catalog records
