Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke

He has written numerous other books, including the Rama novels and several sequels to 2001, and many short stories. There is an asteroid named in his honor, called (4923) Clarke.

Biography

Arthur Charles Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England. As a boy, Clarke enjoyed stargazing and enthusiastically read old American science fiction magazines (magazines which made their way to England as ballast in ships). After secondary school, he was unable to afford college and consequently acquired a job in the government as an auditor.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a radar specialist and was involved in the early warning radar defense system which contributed to the Royal Air Force's success during the Battle of Britain. After the war, he obtained a degree at King's College, London University.

His most important contribution may be the conception that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. He proposed this concept in a scientific paper titled "Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?", published in Wireless World in October 1945. The geostationary orbit is now known as the Clarke orbit in his honor.

In the early 1940s, while he was in the RAF, Clarke began selling his science fiction stories to magazines. Clarke worked briefly as Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts before devoting himself to writing full-time from 1951. He has been chairman of the British Interplanetary Society and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club.

He has lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, since 1956. This inspired the locale for his novel, The Fountains of Paradise, in which he describes a space elevator. This, he figures, will ultimately be his legacy, more so than geostationary satellites, once space elevators make space shuttles obsolete.

His knighthood was first announced in 1998, but then the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror published serious accusations against him, and the award was delayed pending investigation. By 2000 it was clear that the story had been planted maliciously. Clarke was then awarded the title of Knight Bachelor at a ceremony in Colombo (his health did not allow him to travel to London to receive the honour personally from the Queen).

Bibliography

• Prelude to Space (1951)
• The Sands of Mars (1951)
• Islands in the Sky (1952)
• Against the Fall of Night (1953)
• Childhood's End (1953)
• Expedition to Earth (1953)
• Earthlight (1955)
• Reach for Tomorrow (1956) [short story collection]
• The City and the Stars (1956)
• Tales from the White Hart (1957) [short story collection]
• The Deep Range (1957)
• The Other Side of the Sky (1958)
• Across the Sea of Stars (1959) [short story collection]
• A Fall of Moondust (1961)
• From the Ocean, From the Stars (1962)
• Tales of Ten Worlds (1962)
• Dolphin Island (1963)
• Glide Path (1963)
• An Arthur C. Clarke Omnibus (1965)
• Prelude to Mars (1965) [short story collection]
• The Nine Billion Names of God (1967) [short story collection]
• (1968)
• An Arthur C. Clarke Second Omnibus (1968) [short story collection]
• The Lion of Commare & Against the Fall of Night (1968) [short story collection]
• Of Time and Stars (1972)
• The Wind from the Sun (1972)
• Rendezvous with Rama (1973)
• Imperial Earth (1975)
• Four Great SF Novels (1978)
• The Fountains of Paradise (1979)
  • Review by Rich Horton of SF Site
  • Review by T.M. Wagner at SF Reviews.Net
  • Review by Nicholas Whyte
• (1982)
• The Sentinel (1983) [short story collection]
• The Songs of Distant Earth (1986)
• (1988)
• A Meeting With Medusa (1988)
• Cradle (1988) (co-authored with Gentry Lee)
• Rama II (1989) (co-authored with Gentry Lee)
• Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) (co-authored with Gregory Benford)
• Tales From Planet Earth (1990)
• The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1990)
• More Than One Universe (1991)
• The Garden of Rama (1991) (co-authored with Gentry Lee)
• Rama Revealed (1993) (co-authored with Gentry Lee)
• The Hammer of God (1993)
• Richter 10 (1996) (co-authored with Mike McQuay)
• (1997)
• The Trigger (1999) (co-authored with Michael P. Kube-McDowell)
• The Light of Other Days (2000) (co-authored with Stephen Baxter)
• The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2000) [short story collection]
• Time's Eye (2004) (co-authored with Stephen Baxter)

Apart from the fiction, Clarke has written two autobiographies. Ascent to Orbit is what he calls his scientific autobiography and Astounding Days his science fictional autobiography. Since Clarke has led a very full and interesting life, both books contain much of interest.

Clarke's email correspondence with Peter Hyams, director of the film , was published in 1984. Entitled The Odyssey Files: The Making of 2010, it illustrates his fascination with the then pioneering medium and its use to communicate with Hyams on an almost daily basis at the time of planning and production of the film. The book also includes Clarke's list of the top science fiction films ever made.

Most of his essays (between 1934 to 1998) can be found in the book Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (2000). Most of his short stories can be found in the book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001). They make a good collection of Clarke's non-fiction and fiction works, even for those who already have most of his books.

See also

• Clarke's Three Laws
• science fiction: authors - novels - short stories - television shows

External Links

Interviews

• The Onion A.V. Club

Referenced By