Jacques Sadoul (1934 – 18 January 2013)[1] was a French novelist, book editor and non-fiction author.
[2] His Histoire de la science fiction moderne (1973) was a major encouragement for the serious, academic study of SF, particularly among the East European peoples of that time, because the book was seen as very respectable, and, it was European, continental, while almost everything else science-fictional was produced across the Lamanche and across the Atlantic.
He was born at Agen, and worked first with “Editions Opta” and then with “J’ai lu”,[3] where he founded the SF imprint and edited the Les Meilleurs Recits series of anthologies of stories translated from the American pulp magazines.
His Histoire de la science-fiction moderne, 1911-1971 [“History of Modern SF”] (1973; in 2 volumes 1975; revised 1984) is a lengthy and enthusiastic survey of the field, but has been criticized for lacking deep critical analysis and containing too many sweeping generalizations and personal prejudices.
In 1987, he received the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for Trois morts au soleil.