Peter Douglas Nicholls (8 March 1939 – 6 March 2018)^[2] was an Australian literary scholar and critic. He was the creator and a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction with John Clute.^[3]

Born in Australia's state of Victoria in Melbourne, he spent two decades from 1968 to 1988 as an expatriate, first in the USA, and then the UK.^[4]

Nicholls' early career was as a literary academic, originally with the University of Melbourne. He first travelled to the USA in 1968 with a Harkness Fellowship in movie making, and has scripted television documentaries.^[3] His significant contributions to science fiction scholarship and criticism began during 1971, when he became the first Administrator of the Science Fiction Foundation (UK), a title he had until 1977.^[4] He was editor of its journal, Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, from 1974 to 1978.^[4]

During 1979, Nicholls edited The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (published in the USA as The Science Fiction Encyclopedia), with John Clute as associate editor.^{[5][clarification needed]}

Most of its 730,000 words were written by Nicholls, Clute and two contributing editors.^{[citation needed]} It won the 1980 Hugo Award for the Nonfiction Book category.^[6]

A completely revised, updated, and greatly expanded version of the Encyclopedia, co-edited with Clute, was published in 1993, and won the 1994 Hugo for the same category.^[4] A further updating of the work, with revisions and corrections, was later issued in CD-ROM format.^[4] The third edition, with Clute and David Langford, was released online as a beta text in October 2011.^[4]

Nicholls' other major publications include: Science Fiction At Large (1976; reprinted 1978 with the title Explorations of the Marvellous), a collection of essays edited by Nicholls from a 1975 symposium; The Science in Science Fiction (1983) edited by Nicholls and written by him with David Langford and Brian Stableford; and Fantastic Cinema (1984; published in the USA as The World of Fantastic Films).^[4] Genre Fiction: The Roaring Years (2022) is a posthumous collection of his reviews and essays which he had planned, titled and written an introduction for circa 2012 but was unable to complete.^[7]

He won several awards for his scholarship, including the Science Fiction Research Association's Pilgrim Award (1980), an Eaton Award (1995) and a Peter McNamara Award (2006).^[4] He broadcast movie and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and worked as a publisher's editor 1982–1983.^[3]

Nicholls was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease during 2000, which gradually curtailed his activities.^[3] A movie about his interest and work in science fiction, titled The What-If Man, was completed in 2004.^[8]

Nicholls was the father of five children. His daughter is author and editor Sophie Cunningham.^[1] He lived in Melbourne with his wife, Clare Coney, where he died on 6 March 2018 at the age of 78.^[4]