PHILMUS, Robert M(ichael)

(1943-)

   US sf critic, professor of English literature at Concordia University, Montreal. He became a co-editor of SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES with the Nov 1978 issue and remained in that position until the last issue of 1991; he remains a contributing editor. His Into the Unknown: The Evolution of Science Fiction from Francis Godwin to H.G. Wells (1970; rev1983) is scholarly and informative, and something of a pioneering study for its time. RMP also wrote the section on "Science Fiction: From its Beginning to 1870" for the 1st edn of Anatomy of Wonder: Science Fiction(1976; rev 1981; rev 1987) ed Neil BARRON. With David Y. Hughes he ed H.G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction (coll 1975), and with Patrick PARRINDER he ed H.G. Wells's Literary Criticism (coll 1980). A variorum edition of Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau (1896), appeared in 1993.

   PN

   See also: CANADA; CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF.