Each individual work has its own page. I've tried to make the layout of information on each page as intuitive and self-explanatory as possible, but this guide offers a detailed description to clear up any confusion. Reading this page is not required!
At the top of each entry's page is a section with a black background giving basic information about that specific work:
- Title
- Type (short fiction, novel, collection, etc.)
- Year of first appearance
- Length — Counts which are a multiple of 100 (such as "36,400 words") are rounded estimates. Many of these are taken from van Vogt's own bibliography from his autobiography Reflections of A.E. van Vogt. Precise counts (such as "23,423 words") are taken from a digital text of the work in question. For some entries this field is left blank until I can provide a truly accurate count or estimate.
Below this is a navigation menu showing the previous and next items in the alphabetical list, and a link to the title index to make it easier to quickly jump to another entry. This navigation bar is also repeated at the very bottom of the page to make the bibliography even easier to use.
Then, in an area with a cream-colored background, various notes are given (not all of these types of notes are included for every entry):
- Links to other related pages (such as reviews and plot summaries)
- A brief description (for fiction items this is a short, spoilers-free, blurb-style teaser)
- Alternate titles list
- Background notes
- Series list
- Revisions list
- Translations list
- Contents list (for collections and omnibuses)
- Source material list (for fix-up novels based on previously-published short stories)
- A list of other van Vogt's books which contain the entry (such as his collections which reprint that story)
- Other notes
Then, in an area with a dark brown background, is an illustrated list of that work's appearances.
- This section is grouped by language. Since van Vogt was an English-language author, English is always listed first. After English, other languages are listed in alphabetial order.
- Within each language, printings are listed in chronological order.
Each printing's type is clearly labeled as magazine, anthology, omnibus, etc. Full details, where known, are given for each printing, along with a cover scan and internal illustrations where applicable and/or available, as well as various notes and comments. The source for all images is given.
For entries such a short stories, books by van Vogt that contain that story are listed alongside other printings such as anthologies and magazines where the story also appeared. But instead of listing all of that book's printings right there, the title is instead a link to that book's entry. (For example, his short story "Defense" was included in the collection Destination: Universe! Rather than listing each and every printing of Destination: Universe! in the entry for "Defense," a link to Destination: Universe!'s entry is given instead. If you then visit the page for Destination: Universe!, you can see a full list of that book's printings. However, for the sake of being thorough, I go ahead and list collections' alternate titles under the year they appeared, although again these are all links to that collection's main entry. Likewise, when multiple editions of an anthology appeared I do not list each edition, but merely give title, editor, and the year the anthology was first released followed by "etc." to show that there were multiple editions. Notes are given for editions of that anthology with differing contents and/or titles.)
The bottom row of each printing has the following features:
-
Link Icon — When you move your cursor over this icon, the URL is shown which links to that specific printing on the page. This handy feature will make it easier for you to bookmark or link to a specific printing of one of van Vogt's works. (Here's an example: linking to the March 1974 Berkley Medallion edition of The World of Null-A.) -
Country — A flag icon showing which country that specific printing appeared in. If you don't recognize the flag, don't worry — if you hover your cursor over the flag, a little pop-up will appear saying which country it is. - Scan Credit — The source of a printing's cover and other scanned images, with a link to that website where applicable.
- Data Credit — Primary data source for that specific printing, with a link to that website or resource. Credit for additional information gleaned from other sources is given in the Notes column (such as "Month from Master of Null-A" if the month of publication is not given in the primary data source but was available from this other source).
