SMITH, Curtis C(ooper)

(1939-)

   US critic and bibliographer, most of whose work in the first category has focused upon Olaf STAPLEDON, beginning with essays like "William Olaf Stapledon: Saint and Revolutionary" for Extrapolation in1971, and culminating in Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography (1984) with Harvey J. Satty. He is best known, however, for editing the first 2 edns of Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers (1981; rev 1986), part of a series of genre BIBLIOGRAPHIES designed for library use; he did not participate in the 3rd edn of 1991. The work offers coverage of about 600 sf (and fantasy) writers, some names being dropped (and others added) with each successive edn. The brief biographical sections are generally accurate; the critical pieces vary in quality, with some excellent short essays being included; but the bibliographies are flawed by a murkily inconsistent methoddology (perhaps due to the series' house style), and are error-strewn.

   JC

   See also: CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF.