John Clute was born in Toronto in 1940, and is therefore a member of the "Noble Club of Pearls Before Boomers". In 1963 Clute graduated from New York University. He and Judith Clute moved to England in 1968, where he has lived since, with a few diversions elsewhere. He does not remember what he thought about science fiction when he begin to review SF books seriously about 1964/65. He finished his second novel in 1975, The Disinheriting Party (Alison and Busby 1997), which was his first published book. With Peter Nicholls, he helped edit the Hugo-winning Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Doubleday 1979). He and Nicholls re-edited the second edition (St. Martin's 1993), which won the British Science Fiction Special Award, Locus Award, Hugo, and the Eaton Grand Master Award. With John Grant, he wrote The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (St. Martin's 1997), for which he won the Locus Award, Hugo, World Fantasy Award, Mythopoeic Society Award, and Eaton Award. With David Pringle and others, he edited five Interzone anthologies and with Candas Jane Dorsey, he co-edited the anthology Tesseracts 8, which appeared in 1999. His collected criticism, Strokes and Look at the Evidence, are highly regarded. He has also written many articles and reviews, taught an SF course at the City Literary Institute in London, and has appeared as a special guest at literary conferences.