Jacques Sadoul (writer)
Jacques Sadoul was a French novelist, book editor and non-fiction author.
Work on science fiction
His Histoire de la science-fiction moderne, 1911-1971 is a lengthy and enthusiastic survey of the field. While having been criticized in western countries for lacking deep critical analysis and containing too many sweeping generalizations and personal prejudices, it has been a major incentive to the serious, academic study of SF, particularly among the East European countries of his days, because the book was considered both authoritative and trustable, and it was a European, continental source, while almost everything science-fictional was published across the Channel or the Atlantic.Sadoul was a well-known SF fan and magazine collector. In Paris, in 1973, he published an album of illustrations from American SF magazines, Hier, l’an 2000.
He was one of the first editors to launch SF successfully in paperback form in France. He was born at Agen, and worked first with “Editions Opta” and then with “J’ai lu”, where he founded the SF imprint and edited the Les Meilleurs Recits series of anthologies of stories translated from the American pulp magazines. He was also a founder of the Prix Apollo award. Hier, l’an 2000: L’illustration de science fiction des annees 30, is a book of SF illustrations which he gathered, mostly black-and-white, a selection of SF nostalgia material, but has no index.
Other work
Sadoul was a prolific novelist. His work includes crime-fiction/spy-fiction novels such as the "Carol Evans cycle", fantasy novels, Le Jardin de la licorne and science fiction novels. In 1987, he received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for Trois morts au soleil.Sadoul has authored works on alchemy, the fantastique and crime fiction. In 2006 he published his memoirs C’est dans la poche !.