CRISPIN, Edmund

   Pseudonym for his literary work of UK composer, writer and editor Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978), who remains best known for his nine Gervase Fen detective novels. He also reviewed crime fiction for the Sunday Times and, as a composer, under his real name wrote the music for many UK films of the 1950s and 1960s, including several of the Carry On series. EC did not write sf, but his work as an sf anthologist was of great influence. When Best SF (anth 1955) appeared it was unique in several ways: its editor was a respected literary figure; its publisher (Faber \& Faber) was a prestigious one; and it made no apologies or excuses for presenting sf as a legitimate form of writing. Moreover, EC's selection of stories showed him to be thoroughly familiar with sf in both magazine and book form, and his introductions to this and succeeding volumes were informed and illuminating. Best SF was followed by Best SF Two (anth 1956), Three (anth 1958), Four (anth 1961), Five (anth 1963), Six (anth 1966) and Seven (anth 1970). It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the early volumes in this series in establishing sf in the UK as a respectable branch of literature. EC also edited two sf ANTHOLOGIES for schools, The Stars and Under (anth 1968) and Outwards from Earth (anth 1974), as well as Best Tales of Terror (anth 1962) and Best Tales of Terror Two (anth 1965).

   MJE

   See also: BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION; LONGEVITY (IN WRITERS AND PUBLICATIONS); MUSIC.