TYMN, Marshall B(enton)

(1937-)

   US editor, academic, sf/fantasy bibliographer and editor, whose work concentrates on the pedagogical implications of both sf and fantasy (SF IN THE CLASSROOM). After a first, short, self-published bibliographicalguide - A Directory of Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing Houses and Book Dealers (1974 chap) - MBT issued a stream of helpful material,including A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies: An Annotated Checklist of Primary and Secondary Sources (1977) with L.W. CURREY andRoger C. SCHLOBIN, Recent Critical Studies on Fantasy Literature: An Annotated Checklist (1978 chap), A Basic Reference Shelf for Science Fiction Teachers (1978 chap), The Science Fiction Reference Book (anth 1981) and its abridged successor, Science Fiction: A Teacher's Guide \& Resource Book (anth 1988), and A Teacher's Guide to Science Fiction (1981 chap; exp 1982 chap). Of somewhat wider interest is the Year's Scholarship sequence of annotated checklists, appearing first in the journal EXTRAPOLATION, these instalments being incorporated in the book-formpublication of the series, which comprised The Year's Scholarship in Science Fiction and Fantasy: 1972-1975 (1979) with Roger C. Schlobin, TheYear's Scholarship in Science Fiction and Fantasy: 1976-1979 (1983) with Schlobin, The Year's Scholarship in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Literature: 1980 (1983), The Year's Scholarship in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Literature: 1981 (1984) and The Year's Scholarship in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Literature: 1982 (1985). After this last volume the series was again published in Extrapolation through coverage year 1987 (in 1988). A successor series, Year's Scholarship in Fantastic Literature and the Arts, began in 1990 in JOURNAL OF THEFANTASTIC IN THE ARTS, with coverage year 1988, but further work was hampered by the aftereffects of a serious auto accident in late 1989.Of even broader potential interest were several BIBLIOGRAPHIES of the genre itself, including: American Fantasy \& Science Fiction: Toward a Bibliography of Works Published in the United States, 1948-1973 (1979);Index to Stories in Thematic Anthologies of SF (1979) with L.W. Currey, Martin H. GREENBERG and Joseph D. OLANDER; Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide (1979) with Robert H. Boyer (1937-) and Kenneth J. Zahorski (1939-); Horror Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide (1981); Survey of Science Fiction Literature: Bibliographical Supplement (1982); and - perhaps most interesting of all his work - Science Fiction, Fantasy \& Weird Fiction Magazines (1985) with Mike ASHLEY, a comprehensive history of magazines in the field, arrangedas an encyclopedia. Though MBT's coverage of sf and fantasy has sometimes been partial, with some of his checklists eventually being supplanted by fuller works from Hal W. HALL, Robert REGINALD and others, MBT was for two decades an essential figure, and did much to focus the field for the academic world, not least through his editorial work with GREENWOOD PRESS. In 1990 he was given the PILGRIM AWARD for sf scholarship, his wifeaccepting on his behalf.

   JC

   See also: CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF; FANTASY; SF MAGAZINES.