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A. E. Van Vogt
Alfred Elton van Vogt ( ; April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born American science fiction author. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, notably Philip K. Dick. He was one of the most popular and influential practitioners of science fiction in the mid-twentieth century, the genre's so-called Golden Age, and one of the most complex. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him their 14th Grand Master in 1995 (presented 1996). Early life Alfred Vogt (both "Elton" and "van" were added much later) was born on April 26, 1912, on his grandparents' farm in Edenburg, Manitoba, a tiny (and now defunct) Russian Mennonite community east of Gretna, Manitoba, Canada, in the Mennonite West Reserve. He was the third of six children born to Heinrich "Henry" Vogt and Aganetha "Agnes" Vogt (née Buhr), both of whom were born in Manitoba and grew up in heavily immigrant communities. Until he was four, van Vogt spoke only Pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gretna, Manitoba
Gretna is an unincorporated urban community in the Municipality of Rhineland within the Canadian province of Manitoba that held town status prior to January 1, 2015. Just north of the Canada - United States border on PTH 30, Gretna had a population of 541 in 2016. It is bordered by Pembina County, North Dakota. The nearest American community to Gretna is Neche, North Dakota. History Once home to roaming Buffalo herds, the area around Gretna attracted European settlers as far back as the early 19th century. Originally, Gretna was only known as "Smuggler's Point", a simple border crossing where the flow of undeclared goods were smuggled over the border by early settlers and fur trappers. Soon after establishing the 49th parallel as the international border, Gretna became an important customs centre and border community for both the Canadian and American governments. Gretna's strategic geographic location raised the interest of the Canadian Pacific Railway which encouraged the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. The newspaper's offices are located at One Yonge Street in the Harbourfront, Toronto, Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto. The newspaper was established in 1892 as the ''Evening Star'' and was later renamed the ''Toronto Daily Star'' in 1900, under Joseph E. Atkinson. Atkinson was a major influence in shaping the editorial stance of the paper, with the paper having reflected his values until his death in 1948. The paper was renamed the ''Toronto Star'' in 1971. The newspaper introduced a Sunday edition in 1973. History The ''Star'' was created in 1892 by striking ''Toronto News'' printers and writers, led by future mayor of Toronto and social reformer Horatio Clarenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Far Centaurus
''Far Centaurus'' is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, first published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' in 1944. Writer and critic P. Schuyler Miller called it "unforgettable and unforgotten." The story involves the crew of a spaceship that arrive at Centaurus after hundreds of years, only to find it settled by people who arrived in faster ships. The basic idea of technological progress rendering previous advances obsolete, has been explored in many works. Plot summary Pelham invents Eternity, a drug that puts the body into a hibernation-like state that can last decades. Realizing that this makes interstellar space travel possible, his rich college friend Jim Renfrew builds an atomically powered spacecraft capable of missions lasting hundreds of years. To fill out the crew, they are joined by two of their other college friends, Ned Blake and Bill Endicott. The ship is launched some time in the 23rd century making for Alpha Centauri, a 500- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Kramer (artist)
Frank Kramer (November 23, 1905 – July 10, 1993) was an American artist known chiefly for his illustrations for Jack Snow's two Oz books, ''The Magical Mimics in Oz'' and ''The Shaggy Man of Oz'', founded on and continuing the famous Oz stories by L. Frank Baum. He also illustrated Robert A. Heinlein's ''Solution Unsatisfactory'', Maureen Daly's ''Twelve Around the World'' (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1957), and many of Caary Paul Jackson's sports novels for children, including the Bud Baker series. Other than a short biography (with an incorrect birth date) in Jack Snow's reference work '' Who's Who in Oz'' (1954), almost nothing was written about Kramer. Recently, however, the Spring 2011 issue of ''The Baum Bugle'' featured articles discussing his life, career, and work. Snow notes that Kramer was born in New York City and lived in Brooklyn, and was a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, living as modestly as a "typical" (Snow's quotation marks) business man. He had indeed been a busi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantasy Book 1947 V1 N2
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga, animations and video games. Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the respective absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these genres overlap. In popular culture, the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Traits Most fantasy uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Magic, magic practitioners ( so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alien (movie)
''Alien'' is a 1979 Science fiction film, science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug ''Nostromo'', who, after coming across a mysterious derelict spaceship on an undiscovered moon, find themselves up against Alien (creature in Alien franchise), an aggressive and deadly extraterrestrial set loose on the ''Nostromo''. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill (director), Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extraterrestrial Life
Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might range from simple forms like prokaryotes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more advanced than humankind. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology. Speculation about the possibility of inhabited "worlds" outside the planet Earth dates back to antiquity. Multiple early Christian writers discussed the idea of a "plurality of worlds" as proposed by earlier thinkers such as Democritus; Augustine references Epicurus's idea of innumerable worlds "throughout the boundless immensity of space" (originally expressed in his Letter to Herodotus) in ''The City of God''. In his first century p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Destroyer
"Black Destroyer" is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, first published in ''Astounding magazine, Astounding SF'' in July 1939. It has been marked as the story that represents the start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. "Black Destroyer" was combined with several other short stories to form the novel ''The Voyage of the Space Beagle''. It was claimed as an inspiration for the movie ''Alien (film), Alien'' and van Vogt collected an out-of-court settlement of $50,000 from 20th Century Fox. Plot summary A Coeurl, a large, intelligent, black cat-like animal, considers its near-future starvation as its food source of id-creatures has been hunted to extinction. Just as all seems lost, a spaceship lands near an abandoned Coeurl city and id-creatures pour out. He quickly surmises they are a scientific expedition from another star, which excites him as he considers scientists to be unlikely to harm him. He approaches them as if simply curious. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vault Of The Beast
"Vault of the Beast" is a science fiction short story by Canadian writer A. E. van Vogt. Plot summary Beings from another dimension have sent a living plastic "robot" to Earth to find the "greatest mathematical mind in the Solar System," and get that person to open a vault on Mars, containing one of the race of its creators. It is able to imitate any form of matter, and to tap the thoughts of the being it duplicates. The creature kills its way to one man, Jim Brender, who it believes is the man. The creature, in the form of another man, reveals that the Martian vault was built by the Ancient Martians, made up of an 'ultimate metal'. The vault is known as the "Tower of the Beast", located in a buried Martian city. It says that the key to opening it is 'factoring the ultimate prime number'. Brender does not believe the tale and the creature causes a stock market crash, bankrupting Brender to achieve its aim. Brender is forced by his circumstances to take a job as a space pilot. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Thing (1982)
''The Thing'' is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay by Bill Lancaster. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella ''Who Goes There?'', it tells the story of a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous "Thing", a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates, other organisms. The group is overcome by paranoia and conflict as they learn that they can no longer trust each other and that any of them could be the Thing. The film stars Kurt Russell as the team's helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady, with A. Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites in supporting roles. Production began in the mid-1970s as a faithful adaptation of the novella, following 1951's ''The Thing from Another World''. ''The Thing'' went through several directors and writers, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Thing From Another World
''The Thing from Another World'', sometimes referred to as just ''The Thing'', is a 1951 American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporation, and released by RKO Pictures. The film stars Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer. James Arness plays The Thing; he is difficult to recognize in costume and makeup due to both low lighting and other effects used to obscure his features. ''The Thing from Another World'' is based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell (writing under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart).Warren 1982, pp. 151–163. The film's storyline concerns a U.S. Air Force crew and scientists who find, frozen in the Arctic ice, a crashed flying saucer and a humanoid body nearby. Returning to their remote research outpost with the body still in a block of ice, they are forced to defend themselves against the still al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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