PRINGLE, David (William)

(1950-)

   Scottish editor and writer, resident in England, who served as Research Fellow for the SCIENCE FICTION FOUNDATION in East London 1978-9 and as editor of FOUNDATION 1980-86. With Malcolm EDWARDS he was one of the prime movers in the 8-strong collective which founded INTERZONE in 1982, eventually becoming its sole editor and publisher in 1988 andco-editing all 5 anthologies taken from the magazine: Interzone: The First Anthology (anth 1985) with John CLUTE and Colin GREENLAND, Interzone: The2nd Anthology (anth 1987) with Clute and Simon Ounsley, Interzone: The 3rd Anthology (anth 1988) with Clute and Ounsley, Interzone: The 4th Anthology (anth 1989) with Clute and Ounsley, and Interzone: The 5th Anthology (anth 1991) with Clute and Lee Montgomerie. As Series Editor for GW Books 1988-91 he was responsible (in tandem, from 1990, with Neil Jones) for commissioning and publishing several SHARED-WORLD fantasy and sf novels tied to GAMES WORKSHOP games like Warhammer and Dark Future, notably including titles by Kim NEWMAN (as Jack Yeovil), Brian M. STABLEFORD (as Brian Craig) and David S. GARNETT (as David Ferring). For GW he alsoedited some tied anthologies, including Ignorant Armies * (anth 1989), Wolf Riders * (anth 1989) and Red Thirst * (anth 1990) in the Warhammerseries, Route 666 * (anth 1990) in the Dark Future series, and Deathwing * (anth 1990) with Neil Jones in the Warhammer 40,000 series. In 1991 hebegan a second magazine, Million: The Magazine about Popular Fiction, some of whose articles deal with sf or fantasy writers.As a critic, DP's long advocacy of the works of J.G. BALLARD was developed in J.G. Ballard: The First Twenty Years (anth 1976 chap) ed with James Goddard, Earth is theAlien Planet: J.G. Ballard's Four-Dimensional Nightmare (1979 chap US) and J.G. Ballard: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1984 US). He then produced several guides to sf, fantasy and popular literature in alphabetized format: Science Fiction: 100 SF Authors (1978 chap), Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels: An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984(1985), Imaginary People: A Who's Who of Modern Fictional Characters (1987; rev 1989), Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels: An English-Language Selection, 1946-1987 (1988) and The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction: An A-Z of SF Books (1990) with Ken Brown (uncredited). DP's lack of an intuitive grasp of US sf could perhaps be detected in the 1949 inception date for books covered in the first of these (a significant few years after the beginning of the SMALL-PRESS movement in the USA), but the 200 short essays accumulated in that and the volume on fantasy provide a valuable conspectus of fantastic literature over the chosen timespan. DP also edited a retrospective collection of Theodore STURGEON's stories, A Touch of Sturgeon (coll 1987 UK). He contributed some major entries to thefirst edition of this encyclopedia and revised his BALLARD entry for the current edition.

   JC

   See also: SF MAGAZINES.