It is the 1930s and John P. Moore, an ambitious author, has just had his first story, a science fiction tale featuring the adventures of scientists and journalists taking the first trip to the planet Mars, published in Amazing Stories.But you won't find that story, along with its two sequels, inside the pages of any copy of Amazing Stories – not in a pulp magazine collector's vault, not on the internet archive and that is because the Amazing Stories that published ...

"America is the world's biggest haunted house and American Scary is the only travel guide you need. I loved this book."—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support GroupFrom the acclaimed author of American Comics comes a sweeping and entertaining narrative that details the rise and enduring grip of horror in American literature, and, ultimatel...

The definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke—****“a tremendous explication of a tremendous film….Breathtaking” (The Washington Post).Fifty years ago a strikingly original film had its premiere. Still acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and important motion pictures ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey

**WINNER OF THE 2023 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS BOOK CIRCLE AWARD IN NONFICTIONNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES • THE GLOBE AND MAIL • GRANTA • THE NEW YORKER • CBC • VULTUREA TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ATLANTIC • KIRKUS REVIEWS • PUBLISHERS WEEKLY • BARNES AND NOBLEThe critically acclaimed author of In the Wak...

"If 2001 has stirred your emotions, your subconscious, your mythological yearnings, then it has succeeded."--Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick's extraordinary movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1969. The critics initially disliked it, but the public loved it. And eventually, the film took its rightful place as one of the most innovative, brilliant, and pivotal works of modern cinema. The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey consists of testimony from Kubrick's collaborators and co...

The sweeping story of cartoons, comic strips, and graphic novels and their hold on the American imagination.Comics have conquered America. From our multiplexes, where Marvel and DC movies reign supreme, to our television screens, where comics-based shows like The Walking Dead have become among the most popular in cable history, to convention halls, best-seller lists, Pulitzer Prize–winning titles, and MacArthur Fellowship recipients, comics shape American ...

**A TIME BEST BOOK OF 2025: "A completely true look at America’s infatuation with aliens at the turn of the 20th century that feels like it could be science fiction . . . The Martians is not only a captivating look at recent history, but also a poignant cautionary tale, offering hard-to-ignore parallels between the alien enthusiasts of the Gilded Age and the conspiracy theorists of today."A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEARLonglisted for the 2025 An...

Science fiction is at the intersection of numerous fields. It is a literature which draws on popular culture, and which engages in speculation about science, history, and all types of social relations. This volume brings together essays by scholars and practitioners of science fiction, which look at the genre from these different angles. After an introduction to the nature of science fiction, historical chapters trace science fiction from Thomas More to more recent years, including a chapt...

The first historical dictionary devoted to science fiction, Brave New Words:The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction shows exactly how science-fictional words and their associated concepts have developed over time, with full citations and bibliographic information. It's a window on a whole genre of literature through the words invented and passed along by the genre's most talented writers. In addition, it shows how many words we consider everyday vocabulary-words like "spacesuit," "blast o...

Much has been written about the 'long Sixties,' the era of the late 1950s through the early 1970s. It was a period of major social change, most graphically illustrated by the emergence of liberatory and resistance movements focused on inequalities of class, race, gender, sexuality, and beyond, whose challenge represented a major shock to the political and social status quo. With its focus on speculation, alternate worlds and the future, science fiction became an ideal vessel for this upsur...

An acclaimed cultural historian takes readers on an intellectual thrill ride through the kaleidoscopic story of futurology, a surprisingly powerful force in the modern world.For millennia, predicting the future was the province of priests and prophets, the realm of astrologers and seers. Then, in the twentieth century, futurologists emerged, claiming that data and design could make planning into a rational certainty. Over time, many of these technologists and trend...

A personal, social, and intellectual self-portrait of the beloved and enormously influential late Randall Kenan, a master of both fiction and nonfiction.Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies and in small journal...