BLEILER, Everett F(ranklin)

(1920-)

   US editor and bibliographer who for many years remained best known as the compiler of The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (1948; rev vt The Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction 1978), which SHASTA PUBLISHERS was formed to produce, and which soon became recognized as the cornerstone of modern sf BIBLIOGRAPHY. The fact that other works - like R. REGINALD's Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature (1979 edn) - have hugely expanded on its coverage (5000 books listed from the period 1800-1948) does not diminish the significance of EFB's original work. In two further books he has himself expanded upon that work: The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983), solo, and Science Fiction: The Early Years (dated 1990 but 1991), with the assistance of his son, Richard BLEILER, bibliographies of the categories designated, are both annotated with an extraordinary thoroughness; they are essential reference sources for any student of the field; any otherwise unsourced quotations from EFB to be found in this encyclopedia - to which he has also contributed several entries - come from these two volumes. Two large edited studies - Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (anth 1982) and Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror (anth in 2 vols 1985) - cover much the same area, again thoroughly. In collaboration with T.E. DIKTY, EFB produced in the late 1940s the first series of best-of-the-year ANTHOLOGIES: The Best Science Fiction Stories, 1949 (anth 1949) and The Best Science Fiction Stories, 1950 (anth 1950; cut vt The Best Science Fiction Stories 1951 UK), both being assembled as Science Fiction Omnibus (omni 1952); The Best Science Fiction Stories, 1951 (anth 1951; cut vt The Best Science Fiction Stories, Second Series 1952 UK; further cut vt The Mindworm 1967 UK); The Best Science-Fiction Stories, 1952 (anth 1952; cut vt The Best Science Fiction Stories, Third Series 1953 UK); The Best Science-Fiction Stories, 1953 (anth 1953; cut vt The Best Science Fiction Stories, Fourth Series 1955 UK) and The Best Science Fiction Stories, 1954 (anth 1954; cut vt The Best Science Fiction Stories, Fifth Series 1956 UK) (the varying hyphenation of the titles is sic). Frontiers in Space (anth 1955) presented a selection from the second, third and fourth volumes. A second series presented a selection of longer stories: Year's Best Science Fiction Novels, 1952 (anth 1952; cut vt Year's Best Science Fiction Novels 1953 UK); Year's Best Science Fiction Novels, 1953 (anth 1953; cut vt Category Phoenix 1955 UK) and Year's Best Science Fiction Novels, 1954 (anth 1954; cut vt Year's Best Science Fiction Novels, Second Series 1955 UK).EFB joined Dover Publications in 1955, rising to Executive Vice-President in 1967, and retiring in 1977. Beginning with Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce (coll 1964), he edited for the firm a series of well produced, cogently introduced and sometimes revelatory editions and anthologies of a wide range of fantasy writers, some of whom had been forgotten. The anthologies per se included Three Gothic Novels (omni 1960), Five Victorian Ghost Novels (omni 1971), Three Supernatural Novels of the Victorian Period (omni 1975) and A Treasury of Victorian Ghost Stories (omni 1981). Of more original importance than any of these, perhaps, was EFB's edition of The Frank Reade Library (omni 1979-86) in 10 vols, which reprinted the complete sequence (FRANK READE LIBRARY; Luis SENARENS). He has also translated works from Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Polish and Swedish; his Prophecies and Enigmas of Nostradamus (trans 1979 US) as by Liberte E. LeVert (an anagram of Everett Bleiler) was of some genre interest. EFB won the PILGRIM AWARD in 1984.

   JC

   Other works: Imagination Unlimited (anth 1952) ed with T.E. Dikty; editions of the work of Algernon BLACKWOOD, P. Busson, Robert W. CHAMBERS, Arthur Conan DOYLE, Lord DUNSANY, M.R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu, H.P. LOVECRAFT, G. MEYRINK, G.M.W. Reynolds, Mrs J.H. Riddell and H.G. WELLS.

   See also: ANONYMOUS SF AUTHORS; CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL WORKS ABOUT SF; DISCOVERY AND INVENTION; HISTORY OF SF; LOST WORLDS; NEW ZEALAND; PREDICTION; SLEEPER AWAKES.