Back when I edited Nova Express, I tried to pick up all the important SF reference works I could afford that I could lay my hands on. Among those were two extensive Magill’s references sets: Survey of Science Fiction Literature and Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature. Each covers hundreds of key works, alphabetized by title, providing title, author, year of publication, type (novel, etc.), time, setting, key characters, a summary of the book that touches in some measure on its major themes, and a short secondary bibliography. Several notable science fiction writers, editors and critics contributed entries, including Brian Aldiss, John Clute, David Pringle, Brian Stableford and Jack Williamson.
In some ways, the material in these books have been superseded by the aggregate knowledge contained in the Internet. But it’s still a useful reference source. If i want to know, say, what Harry E. Martinson’s Aniara is about, I can read the short entry here rather than the entire book-length poem and be reasonably sure that it’s accurate.
I kept my eyes out for those sets, and picked them up off eBay when affordable copies appeared. I also picked up two more Magill’s sets at a library sale dirt cheap (I think $10 for each set) and those are on the same top shelf.
Magill, Frank N., Editor (series editor). Survey of Science Fiction Literature. Salem Press, 1979. First edition hardbacks, five volume set, Ex-Library copies, otherwise VG with interior library markings, etc.
Magill, Frank N., Editor (with bibliographies compiled by Marshall b. Tymn). Survey of Science Fiction Literature Bibliographic Supplement. Salem Press, 1979. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight edgewear. Additional secondary bibliographic material for 295 of the entries in the five volume work. Purchased separately.
Magill, Frank N., Editor (series editor). Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature. Salem Press, 1983. First edition hardbacks, five volume set, Ex-Library copies, otherwise VG with library markings, etc.
Magill, Frank N., Editor (with Stephen L. Hanson and Patricia King Hanson, Associate Editors). Magill’s Bibliography of Literary Criticism. Salem Press, 1979. First edition hardbacks, four volume set, Ex-Library copies, otherwise VG with library markings, etc. Covers some 2,500 works, listed alphabetically by author. Very little genre coverage.
Magill, Frank N., Editor. Materplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction Series. Salem Press, 1991. First edition hardbacks, four volume set, Ex-Library copies, otherwise VG with library markings, etc. Listed alphabetically by title. Includes some genre coverage, even of books I wouldn’t associate with YA (such as Babel-17, Dreamsnake, Dune, etc.).
On the end of the row in the picture is an Ex-Library copy of the first edition of Neil Barron’s Anatomy of Wonder.
There are two other Magill SF/F reference sets I don’t own: Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature from 1996, which culls and condenses the two five volume sets down to a single four volume set, and Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature from 2002, which condenses them down still further into a two volume set with still more additional material, including my own entry on Patrick O’Leary’s Door Number Three. I believe that Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature is the only thing I’m in for which I lack a contributor’s copy.
In Anatomy of Wonder 4, Neil Barron calls Survey of Science Fiction Literature “an essential tool, although its price will limit it to larger libraries.” Well, I guess mine qualifies…
Related Posts
Lawrence Person’s Library of Science Fiction First Editions
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 1: Key Reference Works
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 2: Oversized Books
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 3: Contributor Copies
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 4: H. P. Lovecraft
