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Search - List of Books by Baird Searles

William Baird Searles (1934-1993) was a science fiction author and critic. He was best known for his long running review columns for the magazines Asimov's (reviewing books), Amazing, and Fantasy & Science Fiction (reviewing movies). He also did occasional reviews for other publications, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The Village Voice. He wrote several non-fiction works on the science fiction genre. Searles managed a science fiction and fantasy bookstore in New York City's Greenwich Village, the Science Fiction Bookshop, which is no longer in business.

From about 1963 through 1971, Baird Searles was the Drama and Literature director at WBAI, a listener-sponsored Pacifica Foundation radio station in New York City. He had a beautiful and mellifluous voice for reading and narrating stories, and was an innovative producer and host. On one of his programs, "The New Symposium" broadcast in 1968, he discussed issues 'for and by the homosexual community', being very possibly the first person to bring gay issues in a positive light to broadcast media on a regular basis.

At a time when radio drama had waned to a trickle of obscurity, Searles kept the art alive with collaborators from the science fiction/fantasy community working directly with such writers as Joanna Russ, Roger Zelazny, Theodore Sturgeon and Samuel R. Delany. Seales' two-hour adaptation of Delany's "The Star Pit" was narrated by the author and won critical acclaim. He produced and narrated a complete serialized dramatic reading of Olaf Stapledon's epic novel, "Last and First Men". His weekly series, "Of Unicorns and Universes," was the only program of critical commentary on science fiction and fantasy in its day.

After Searles left WBAI to concentrate on writing, editing, and running his bookstore, he returned to WBAI to narrate "The Council of Elrond" from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Searles and producers Jim Freund, Margot Adler and David Marx authenticated the pronunciations of the characters and the languages by speaking on the phone with Professor Tolkien. This 100-minute reading is still broadcast every year in late December on Jim Freund's "Hour of the Wolf".

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This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Baird Searles", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
Total Books: 12
1992 - Epic (Hardcover)
Halflings Hobbits Warrows  Weefolk
1991 - Halflings Hobbits Warrows Weefolk (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780446392815
ISBN-10: 0446392812
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 2

Films ScienceFiction/Fantasy
1990 - Films Sciencefiction/fantasy (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780517037270
ISBN-10: 0517037270
  ?

A Reader's Guide to Fantasy
1982 - A Reader's Guide to Fantasy (Hardcover)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780871967725
ISBN-10: 0871967723
Genre: Reference
  ?

Reader's Guide to Fantasy
1982 - Reader's Guide to Fantasy (Paperback)Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780380803330
ISBN-10: 038080333X
Genre: Reference
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 1

A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction
1980 - A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction (Hardcover)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780871964731
ISBN-10: 0871964732
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Reference
  ?

A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction
1979 - A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction (Paperback)Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780380461288
ISBN-10: 0380461285
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 5

A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction
1979 - A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction (Paperback)Paperback, Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780380894833
ISBN-10: 0380894831
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 1

The Science Fiction Quizbook
1977 - The Science Fiction Quizbook (Paperback)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780451076595
ISBN-10: 0451076591
Genres: Reference, Science Fiction & Fantasy
  ?

The Science Fiction Quizbook
1976 - The Science Fiction Quizbook (Paperback)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780847311583
ISBN-10: 0847311589
Genres: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Crafts, Hobbies & Home
  ?

Films of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Epic History on the Big Screen
Epic History on the Big Screen (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780810934023
ISBN-10: 0810934027
  ?