Encyclopedia Galactica n.

any of various reference works that aim to include all knowledge in a galaxy

Frequently in reference to such a work having a major role in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.

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  • [1942 I. Asimov Foundation in Astounding Science-Fiction May 38/2 page image Isaac Asimov bibliography

    Fifty years to establish themselves and set up Encyclopedia Foundation Number One into a smoothly working unit…. Five more years would see the publication of the first volume of the most monumental work the Galaxy had ever conceived…. And with them there would be supplements; special articles on events of current interest, [etc.].]

  • 1942 F. Holby ‘The Strange Case of the Missing Hero’ in Probability Zero! in Astounding Science-Fiction July 109/1 page image Frank Holby bibliography

    Lucien Hazard, greatest criminologist of the twenty-fifty century, entered the door marked: Sebastian Lelong [/] Editor ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA.

  • 1949 E. McDowell Sword of Fire in Planet Stories Winter 82/1 page image Emmett McDowell bibliography

    It was as if a volume of the Encyclopedia Galactica had been up-ended and all the information therein had been poured into his brain helter-skelter with the utmost confusion.

  • 1950 M. Reynolds The Man in the Moon in Amazing Stories July 42/1 page image Mack Reynolds bibliography

    ‘The first base on Luna was established by the United States, a capitalistic nation which existed on the North American continent during the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.’ — from the Encyclopedia Galactica, published 2355 A.D.

  • 1951 I. Asimov The Psychohistorians in Foundation in The Foundation Trilogy 29 page image Isaac Asimov bibliography

    All my project; my thirty thousand men with their wives and children, are devoting themselves to the preparation of an ‘Encyclopedia Galactica’. They will not complete it in their lifetimes.

  • 1964 E. E. Smith The Imperial Stars in Worlds of If May 6/1 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    Prin ctrib gal: Circus o/t Gal, heav met, prec stones. (Encyclopedia Galactica, Vol. 9, p2937)

  • 1979 D. Adams Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 7 page image Douglas Adams bibliography

    In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

  • 1980 C. Sagan Cosmos xii. 291 (chapter heading) page image Carl Sagan bibliography

    Encyclopaedia Galactica.

  • 1989 O. S. Card The Originist in M. H. Greenberg Foundation’s Friends 335 page image Orson Scott Card bibliography

    All he wanted to do was create the Encyclopedia Galactica, the repository of all the wisdom of the Empire.

  • 1997 Contact (transcription of film)

    ‘What does it mean, doctor?’ ‘Well, we have no idea. It could be anything. It could be the first volume of an Encyclopedia Galactica.’

  • 2019 J. Oltion E.T. Shmee-T in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Mar.–Apr. 201/2 (heading) Jerry Oltion bibliography

    Encyclopedia Galactica….What if the aliens send us everything they know? The radio spectrum suddenly fills with information on everything from energy sources to social engineering to wacky religions, and everyone on earth with a radio telescope can listen in.

Research requirements

antedating 1942
Earliest cite

Frank Holby, in Astounding
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a cite from Frank Holby in Astounding.
Fred Galvin submitted several cites, and re-suggested that this entry be published.

Last modified 2025-10-16 14:34:54
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.