Career
His Histoire de la science fiction moderne (1973) was a major encouragement for the serious, academic study of San Francisco, 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. Sadoul was a well-known San Francisco fan and magazine collector. In Paris, in 1973, he published an album of illustrations from American San Francisco magazines, Hier, l’an 2000.
He was one of the first editors to launch San Francisco successfully in paperback form in France.
He was born at Agen, and worked first with “Editions Opta” and then with “J’ai lu”, where he founded the San Francisco imprint and edited the Les Meilleurs Recits series of anthologies of stories translated from the American pulp magazines. Hier, l’an 2000: L’illustration de science fiction des annees 30 (1973.
Translated into English and published in the United States in 1975 as: 2000 AD: Illustrations From the Golden Age of Science Fiction Pulps), is a book of San Francisco illustrations which he gathered, mostly black-and-white, a selection of San Francisco nostalgia material, but has no index. His Histoire de la science-fiction moderne, 1911-1971 (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.
Sadoul was a prolific novelist. His work includes crime-fiction/spy-fiction novels such as the "Carol Evans cycle" (consisting of ten novels), fantasy novels (such as the trilogy Louisiana Passion selon Satan (1960), Le Jardin de la licorne (1978), and Les hautes terres du rêve) and science fiction novels.