title: Joseph Altairac
text: # Joseph Altairac
  
  Joseph Altairac (25 March 1957 – 9 November 2020) was a French literary critic and essayist.
  
  ## Career
  
  He specialized in science fiction literature and served as secretary of the Prix Rosny-Aîné. His articles and works were largely dedicated to A. E. van Vogt, H. P. Lovecraft, and H. G. Wells. He also studied subterranean fiction and the history of science fiction in France.
  
  During the 1990s, Altairac published the journal Études lovecraftiennes, a French language equivalent of the American Lovecraft Studies, which led him to direct the "Cahiers d'études lovecraftiennes" at Éditions Encrage.
  
  ## Publications
  
  * "Cahiers d'études lovecraftiennes" (series)
  * Herbert George Wells : parcours d'une œuvre (1998)
  * Alfred E. Van Vogt : parcours d'une œuvre (2000)
  * Les Terres creuses : bibliographie commentée des mondes souterrains imaginaires (2006)
  * Rétrofictions : encyclopédie de la conjecture romanesque rationnelle francophone, de Rabelais à Barjavel, 1532-1951 (2018)
  