BAILEY J(ames) O(sler)

(1903-1979)

   US scholar, professor of literature at the University of North Carolina. His Pilgrims through Space and Time: Trends and Patterns in Scientific and Utopian Fiction (1947) was the first academic study of sf, which it analyses primarily on a thematic basis, and without ever using the term "science fiction", referring instead to "scientific fiction" and the SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE. Only a small amount of its subject matter is taken from sf magazines, which is less surprising when one realizes that the work was based on JOB's 1934 doctoral dissertation. JOB had much trouble finding an academic publisher who would consider sf worthy of serious study; the book represents the first trickle of the great torrent of SF IN THE CLASSROOM. He was honoured when the SCIENCE FICTION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION's PILGRIM AWARD (given annually for contributions to sf scholarship) was named after his book, and he himself was the first recipient (1970). JOB edited the 1965 edn of the HOLLOW-EARTH novel Symzonia (1820) by Adam SEABORN. See also: CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF; DEFINITIONS OF SF.