This book may only exist in my head.
February 7, 2011 7:40 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for the title of a book about sci-fi film from my youth.
I haven't touched nor seen this book in at least ten years, so my recollections may be hazy. I remember it being hardcover, thick (something like 400 pages), possibly with a white/silver cover.
The content of the book was an extended history of science fiction film, covering at least until 1980. I'm reasonably sure that it isn't The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction, as I have a copy of that sitting next to me. I recall that the format of the book wasn't like the stand-alone film entries in Overlook, but rather longer, multi-paragraph, prose-ish passages that led into one another, with most films covered getting maybe one or two paragraphs, and more important works getting maybe five or six.
Having said that, however, I have noticed some similarities between Overlook and the book that I'm trying to recall, in style, organization, and in that both books use a lot of the same stills and photos, so it's possible that the book I'm hunting down is an earlier edition (I have the 1991 second edition of Overlook), or a different work by the editor. I do strongly remember a couple things that aren't in Overlook, however, such as a description of some scenes deleted from Alien,, and I remember this particular book making mention of a couple of films that aren't mentioned in Overlook, such as Eraserhead.
I know that this isn't much to go on, and is probably frustratingly vague; nevertheless, I'll appreciate any help that I can get with this, as it's been bugging me for a few weeks now.
I haven't touched nor seen this book in at least ten years, so my recollections may be hazy. I remember it being hardcover, thick (something like 400 pages), possibly with a white/silver cover.
The content of the book was an extended history of science fiction film, covering at least until 1980. I'm reasonably sure that it isn't The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction, as I have a copy of that sitting next to me. I recall that the format of the book wasn't like the stand-alone film entries in Overlook, but rather longer, multi-paragraph, prose-ish passages that led into one another, with most films covered getting maybe one or two paragraphs, and more important works getting maybe five or six.
Having said that, however, I have noticed some similarities between Overlook and the book that I'm trying to recall, in style, organization, and in that both books use a lot of the same stills and photos, so it's possible that the book I'm hunting down is an earlier edition (I have the 1991 second edition of Overlook), or a different work by the editor. I do strongly remember a couple things that aren't in Overlook, however, such as a description of some scenes deleted from Alien,, and I remember this particular book making mention of a couple of films that aren't mentioned in Overlook, such as Eraserhead.
I know that this isn't much to go on, and is probably frustratingly vague; nevertheless, I'll appreciate any help that I can get with this, as it's been bugging me for a few weeks now.
Response by poster: I'm pretty sure that this book only covered film, but I'll give the Clute book a look nonetheless.
posted by Cassilda at 7:30 AM on February 8, 2011
posted by Cassilda at 7:30 AM on February 8, 2011
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posted by drdanger at 9:19 PM on February 7, 2011