Arthur C. Clarke
Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur C. Clarke | |
---|---|
Born | Minehead, Somerset, England, UK | 16 December 1917
Died | 19 March 2008 Colombo, Sri Lanka | (aged 90)
Pen name | Charles Willis E. G. O'Brien[1][2] |
Occupation | Writer, inventor |
Nationality | British |
Citizenship | United Kingdom (was offered guest citizenship by government of Sri Lanka) |
Alma mater | King's College, London |
Period | 1946–2008 (professional fiction writer) |
Genre | Hard science fiction Popular science |
Subject | Science |
Notable works | |
Spouse | Marilyn Mayfield (1953–1964) |
Website | |
www |
Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British - Sri Lankan science fiction writer, science writer and futurist,[3] inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time.[4][5] His other science fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, along with a large readership, making him into one of the towering figures of the field. For many years he, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.[6]
Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system[7]—an idea that, in 1963, won him the Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal[8] and other honours.[9] Later he was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946–47 and again in 1951–53.[10]
Clarke was a science writer, who was both an avid populariser of space travel and a futurist of uncanny ability, and wrote over a dozen books and many essays (which appeared in various popular magazines) on these subjects. In 1961 he was awarded a Kalinga Prize, an award which is given by UNESCO for popularizing science. These along with his science fiction writings, eventually earned him the moniker "Prophet of the Space Age".[11]
Clarke emigrated to Sri Lanka in 1956, largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving.[12] That year he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee.
Clarke augmented his fame later on in the 1980s, by being the host of several television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World.
He lived in Sri Lanka until his death.[13] He was knighted in 1998[14][15] and was awarded Sri Lanka's highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005.[16]
Biography
Early years
Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England and grew up in nearby Bishops Lydeard. As a boy, he grew up on a farm enjoying stargazing and reading old American science fiction pulp magazines. He received his secondary education at Huish Grammar school in Taunton. In his teens, he joined the Junior Astronomical Association and contributed to Urania, the society's journal, which was edited in Glasgow by Marion Eadie. At Clarke's request, she added an Astronautics Section, which featured a series of articles by him on spacecraft and space travel. Clarke also contributed pieces to the Debates and Discussions Corner, a counterblast to a Urania article offering the case against space travel, and also his recollections of the Walt Disney film Fantasia. He moved to London in 1936 and joined the Board of Education as a pensions auditor.[17]
World War II
During World War II from 1941 to 1946 he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early warning radar defence system, which contributed to the RAF's success during the Battle of Britain. Clarke spent most of his wartime service working on Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar, as documented in the semi-autobiographical Glide Path, his only non-science-fiction novel. Although GCA did not see much practical use during the war, it proved vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949 after several years of development. Clarke initially served in the ranks, and was a corporal instructor on radar at No. 2 Radio School, RAF Yatesbury in Wiltshire. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer (Technical Branch) on 27 May 1943.[18] He was promoted Flying Officer on 27 November 1943.[19] He was appointed chief training instructor at RAF Honiley in Warwickshire and was demobilised with the rank of flight lieutenant.
Postwar
After the war he attained a first-class degree in mathematics and physics from King's College London.[20] After this he worked as Assistant Editor at Physics Abstracts. Clarke then served as Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946 to 1947[21] and again from 1951 to 1953.[22]
Although he was not the originator of the concept of geostationary satellites, one of his most important contributions may be his idea that they would be ideal telecommunications relays. He advanced this idea in a paper privately circulated among the core technical members of the BIS in 1945. The concept was published in Wireless World in October of that year.[23][24][25] Clarke also wrote a number of non-fiction books describing the technical details and societal implications of rocketry and space flight. The most notable of these may be Interplanetary Flight (1950), The Exploration of Space (1951) and The Promise of Space (1968). In recognition of these contributions the geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometres (22,000 mi) above the equator is officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union as a Clarke Orbit.[26]
Sexuality
On a trip to Florida in 1953[1] Clarke met and quickly married Marilyn Mayfield, a 22-year-old American divorcee with a young son. They separated permanently after six months, although the divorce was not finalised until 1964.[27] "The marriage was incompatible from the beginning", says Clarke.[27] Clarke never remarried, but was close to a Sri Lankan man, Leslie Ekanayake, whom the author called his "only perfect friend of a lifetime" in his dedication to The Fountains of Paradise.[28] Clarke is buried with Ekanayake, who predeceased him by three decades, in the Colombo central cemetery. In his biography of Stanley Kubrick, John Baxter cites Clarke's homosexuality as a reason why he relocated, due to more tolerant laws with regard to homosexuality in Sri Lanka.[29] Journalists who enquired of Clarke whether he was gay were told, "No, merely mildly cheerful."[30] However, Michael Moorcock has written:
Everyone knew he was gay. In the 1950s I'd go out drinking with his boyfriend. We met his protégés, western and eastern, and their families, people who had only the most generous praise for his kindness. Self-absorbed he might be and a teetotaller, but an impeccable gent through and through.[31]
In an interview in the July 1986 issue of Playboy magazine, when asked if he had had a bisexual experience, Clarke stated "Of course. Who hasn't?".[32] In his obituary, Clarke's friend Kerry O'Quinn wrote: "Yes, Arthur was gay ... As Isaac Asimov once told me, 'I think he simply found he preferred men.' Arthur didn't publicize his sexuality – that wasn't the focus of his life – but if asked, he was open and honest."[33]
Clarke maintained a vast collection of manuscripts and personal memoirs, maintained by his brother Fred Clarke in Taunton, Somerset, England, and referred to as the "Clarkives." Clarke said that some of his private diaries will not be published until 30 years after his death. When asked why they were sealed, he answered "Well, there might be all sorts of embarrassing things in them."[3]
Sri Lanka
Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008, having emigrated there when it was still called Ceylon, first in Unawatuna on the south coast, and then in Colombo.[30] The Sri Lankan government offered Clarke resident guest status in 1975.[34]
In the early 1970s Clarke signed a three-book publishing deal, a record for a science-fiction writer at the time. The first of the three was Rendezvous with Rama in 1973, which won all the main genre awards[35] and spawned sequels that, with the 2001 series, formed the backbone of his later career.
In a 1974 taped interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the interviewer asked Clarke how he believed the computer would change the future for the everyday person, and what life would be like around the year 2001. Clarke accurately predicted many things that became reality, including online banking, online shopping, and other now commonplace things. Responding to a question about how the interviewer's son's life would be different, Clarke responded: "He will have, in his own house, not a computer as big as this, [points to nearby computer], but at least, a console through which he can talk, through his local computer and get all the information he needs, for his everyday life, like his bank statements, his theatre reservations, all the information you need in the course of living in our complex modern society, this will be in a compact form in his own house ... and he will take it as much for granted as we take the telephone."[36]
Television series host
In the 1980s Clarke became well known to many for his television programmes Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe. In 1986 he was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.[37] In 1988 he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, having originally contracted polio in 1962, and needed to use a wheelchair most of the time thereafter.[30] Clarke was for many years a Vice Patron of the British Polio Fellowship.[38]
In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to British cultural interests in Sri Lanka".[39] The same year he became the first Chancellor of the International Space University, serving from 1989 to 2004 and he also served as Chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka from 1979 to 2002.
In 1994, Clarke appeared in a science fiction film; he portrayed himself in the telefilm Without Warning, an American production about an apocalyptic alien first contact scenario presented in the form of a faux newscast. Clarke also became active in promoting the protection of gorillas and became a patron of the Gorilla Organization which fights for the preservation of gorillas.[40] When tantalum mining for cell phone manufacture threatened the gorillas in 2001, he lent his voice to their cause.[41]
Knighthood
On 26 May 2000 he was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to literature" at a ceremony in Colombo.[15][42] The award of a knighthood had been announced in the 1998 New Year Honours,[14][43] but investiture with the award had been delayed, at Clarke's request, because of an accusation, by the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror, of pedophilia.[44][45] The charge was subsequently found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police.[46][47] According to The Daily Telegraph (London), the Mirror subsequently published an apology, and Clarke chose not to sue for defamation.[48][49] Clarke was then duly knighted.
Later years
Although he and his home were unharmed by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami, his "Arthur C. Clarke Diving School" at Hikkaduwa was destroyed. He made humanitarian appeals, and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation worked towards better disaster notification systems.[50] The school has since been rebuilt.
Because of his post-polio deficits, which limited his ability to travel and gave him halting speech, most of Clarke's communications in his last years were in the form of recorded addresses. In July 2007, he provided a video address for the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial in which he closed his comments with a goodbye to his fans. In September 2007, he provided a video greeting for NASA's Cassini probe's flyby of Iapetus (which plays an important role in the book of 2001: A Space Odyssey).[51] In December 2007 on his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a video message to his friends and fans bidding them good-bye.[52]
Clarke died in Sri Lanka on 19 March 2008 after suffering from respiratory failure, according to Rohan de Silva, one of his aides.[30][53][54][55] His aide described the cause as respiratory complications and heart failure stemming from post-polio syndrome.[56]
Just hours before Clarke's death a massive gamma-ray burst (GRB) reached Earth. Known as GRB 080319B, the burst set a new record as the farthest object that could be seen from Earth with the naked eye.[57] It occurred about 7.5 billion years ago (roughly equal to half the time since the Big Bang), taking the light that long to reach Earth.[57] It was suggested by Larry Sessions, a science writer for Sky and Telescope magazine blogging on earthsky.org, that the burst be named “The Clarke Event".[58][59] American Atheist Magazine wrote of the idea, “It would be a fitting tribute to a man who contributed so much, and helped lift our eyes and our minds to a cosmos once thought to be province only of gods.”[60] Astronomer Phil Plait understood Sessions’ sentiment but felt the naming would be unnecessary. “The poetic alignment of the two events is enough for me, to be honest.”[61]
A few days before he died, he had reviewed the manuscript of his final work, The Last Theorem, on which he had collaborated by e-mail with his contemporary Frederik Pohl.[62] The book was published after Clarke's death.[63] Clarke was buried in Colombo in traditional Sri Lankan fashion on 22 March. His younger brother, Fred Clarke, and his Sri Lankan adoptive family were among the thousands in attendance.[64]
Science fiction writer
Beginnings
While Clarke had a few stories published in fanzines, between 1937 and 1945, his first professional sale appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946: "Loophole" was published in April, while "Rescue Party", his first sale, was published in May.[a] Along with his writing Clarke briefly worked as assistant editor of Science Abstracts (1949) before devoting himself in 1951 to full-time writing.
Clarke began carving out his reputation as a "scientific" science fiction writer with his first science fiction novel, Against the Fall of Night, published as a novella in 1948. It was very popular and considered ground-breaking work for some of the concepts it contained. Clarke revised and expanded the novella into a full novel which was published in 1953. Clarke would later rewrite and expand this work a third time to become The City and the Stars in 1956, which rapidly became a definitive must-read in the field. His third science fiction novel, Childhood's End was also published in 1953, cementing his popularity. Clarke capped the first phase of his writing career with his sixth novel A Fall of Moondust in 1961, which is also an acknowledged classic of the time period.
During this time, Clarke corresponded with C. S. Lewis in the 1940s and 1950s and they once met in an Oxford pub, The Eastgate, to discuss science fiction and space travel. Clarke voiced great praise for Lewis upon his death, saying that the Ransom trilogy was one of the few works of science fiction that should be considered literature.[65]
The Sentinel
In 1948 he wrote "The Sentinel" for a BBC competition. Though the story was rejected, it changed the course of Clarke's career. Not only was it the basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but "The Sentinel" also introduced a more cosmic element to Clarke's work. Many of Clarke's later works feature a technologically advanced but still-prejudiced mankind being confronted by a superior alien intelligence. In the cases of The City and the Stars (and its original version, Against the Fall of Night), Childhood's End, and the 2001 series, this encounter produces a conceptual breakthrough that accelerates humanity into the next stage of its evolution. In Clarke's authorised biography, Neil McAleer writes that: "many readers and critics still consider [Childhood's End] Arthur C. Clarke's best novel."[27]
Almost all of his short stories can be found in the book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001).
A collection of early essays was published in The View from Serendip (1977), which also included one short piece of fiction, "When the Twerms Came". Clarke also wrote short stories under the pseudonyms of E. G. O'Brien and Charles Willis.[66]
The "Big Three"
For much of the later 20th century, Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein were informally known as the "Big Three" of science fiction writers.[6] Clarke and Heinlein began writing to each other after The Exploration of Space was published in 1951, and first met in person the following year. They remained on cordial terms for many years, including visits in the United States and Sri Lanka. In 1984, Clarke testified before Congress against the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).[67] Later, at the home of Larry Niven in California, a concerned Heinlein attacked Clarke's views on United States foreign and space policy (especially the SDI), vigorously advocating a strong defence posture. Although the two later reconciled formally, they remained distant until Heinlein's death in 1988.[27]
Clarke and Asimov first met in New York City in 1953, and they traded friendly insults and gibes for decades. They established a verbal agreement, the "Clarke–Asimov Treaty", that when asked who was best, the two would say Clarke was the best science fiction writer and Asimov was the best science writer. In 1972, Clarke put the "treaty" on paper in his dedication to Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations.[27][68]
2001 series of novels
2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke's most famous work, was extended well beyond the 1968 movie as the Space Odyssey series. In 1982, Clarke wrote a sequel to 2001 titled 2010: Odyssey Two, which was made into a film in 1984. Clarke wrote two further sequels that have not been adapted into motion pictures: 2061: Odyssey Three (published in 1987) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (published in 1997).
2061: Odyssey Three involves a visit to Halley's Comet on its next plunge through the Inner Solar System and a spaceship crash on the Jovian moon Europa. The whereabouts of astronaut Dave Bowman (the "Star Child"), the artificial intelligence HAL 9000, and the development of native life on Europa, protected by the alien Monolith, are revealed.
Finally, in 3001: The Final Odyssey, astronaut Frank Poole's freeze-dried body, found by a spaceship beyond the orbit of Neptune, is revived by advanced medical science. The novel details the threat posed to humanity by the alien monoliths, whose actions are not always as their builders had intended.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke's first venture into film was the Stanley Kubrick directed 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick and Clarke had met in New York City in 1964 to discuss the possibility of a collaborative film project. As the idea developed, they decided to loosely base the story on Clarke's short story, The Sentinel, written in 1948 as an entry in a BBC short story competition. Originally, Clarke was going to write the screenplay for the film, but Kubrick suggested during one of their brainstorming meetings that before beginning on the actual script, they should let their imaginations soar free by writing a novel first, on which they would base the film. "This is more or less the way it worked out, though toward the end, novel and screenplay were being written simultaneously, with feedback in both directions. Thus I rewrote some sections after seeing the movie rushes—a rather expensive method of literary creation, which few other authors can have enjoyed."[69] The novel ended up being published a few months after the release of the movie.
Due to the hectic schedule of the film's production, Kubrick and Clarke had difficulty collaborating on the book. Clarke completed a draft of the novel at the end of 1964 with the plan to publish in 1965 in advance of the film's release in 1966. After many delays the film was released in the spring of 1968, before the book was completed. The book was credited to Clarke alone. Clarke later complained that this had the effect of making the book into a novelisation, that Kubrick had manipulated circumstances to downplay Clarke's authorship. For these and other reasons, the details of the story differ slightly from the book to the movie. The film contains little explanation for the events taking place. Clarke, on the other hand, wrote thorough explanations of "cause and effect" for the events in the novel. James Randi later recounted that upon seeing the premiere of 2001 for the first time, Clarke left the theatre in tears, at the intermission, after having watched an eleven-minute scene (which did not make it into general release) where an astronaut is doing nothing more than jogging inside the spaceship, which was Kubrick's idea of showing the audience how boring space travels could be.[70]
In 1972, Clarke published The Lost Worlds of 2001, which included his accounts of the production, and alternate versions of key scenes. The "special edition" of the novel A Space Odyssey (released in 1999) contains an introduction by Clarke in which he documents the events leading to the release of the novel and film.
2010: Odyssey Two
In 1982 Clarke continued the 2001 epic with a sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two. This novel was also made into a film, 2010, directed by Peter Hyams for release in 1984. Because of the political environment in America in the 1980s, the film presents a Cold War theme, with the looming tensions of nuclear warfare not featured in the novel. The film was not considered to be as revolutionary or artistic as 2001, but the reviews were still positive.
Clarke's email correspondence with Hyams was published in 1984.[71][72] Titled The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010, and co-authored with Hyams, it illustrates his fascination with the then-pioneering medium of email and its use for them to communicate on an almost daily basis at the time of planning and production of the film while living on opposite sides of the world. The book also included Clarke's personal list of the best science-fiction films ever made.
Clarke appeared in the film, first as the man feeding the pigeons while Dr. Heywood Floyd is engaged in a conversation in front of the White House. Later, in the hospital scene with David Bowman's mother, an image of the cover of Time portrays Clarke as the American President and Kubrick as the Soviet Premier.
Rendezvous with Rama
Clarke's award-winning novel Rendezvous with Rama (1972) was optioned for filmmaking decades ago, but this motion picture is in "development hell" as of 2014. In the early 2000s, the actor Morgan Freeman expressed his desire to produce a movie based on Rendezvous with Rama. After a drawn-out development process – which Freeman attributed to difficulties in getting financing – it appeared that in 2003 this project might be proceeding, but this is very dubious.[73] The film was to be produced by Freeman's production company, Revelations Entertainment, and David Fincher has been touted on Revelations' Rama web page as far back as 2001 as the film's director.[74] After years of no progress, Fincher stated in an interview in late 2007 (in which he also credited the novel as being influential on the films Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture) that he is still attached to helm.[75] Revelations indicated that Stel Pavlou had written the adaptation.
In late 2008, Fincher stated the movie is unlikely to be made. "It looks like it's not going to happen. There's no script and as you know, Morgan Freeman's not in the best of health right now. We've been trying to do it but it's probably not going to happen."[76] However, in 2010 it was announced that the film was still planned for future production and both Freeman and Fincher mentioned it as still needing a worthy script.[77]
Science writer
During his life Clarke published a number of non-fiction books with essays, speeches, addresses, etc. Several of his non-fiction books are composed of chapters that can stand on their own as separate essays.
Space travel
In particular, Clarke was a populariser of the concept of space travel. In 1950 he wrote Interplanetary Flight, a book outlining the basics of space flight for laymen. Later books about space travel included The Exploration of Space (1951), The Challenge of the Spaceship (1959), Voices from the Sky (1965), The Promise of Space (1968, rev. ed. 1970) and Report on Planet Three (1972) among others.
Futurism
His books on space travel usually included chapters about other aspects of science and technology, such as computers and bioengineering. He predicted telecommunication satellites (albeit serviced by astronauts in space suits, who would replace the satellite's vacuum tubes as they burned out).[78]
His many predictions culminated in 1958 when he began a series of magazine essays that eventually became Profiles of the Future, published in book form in 1962. [79] A timetable[80] up to the year 2100 describes inventions and ideas including such things as a "global library" for 2005. The same work also contained "Clarke's First Law" and text that became Clarke's three laws in later editions.[27]
In a 1959 essay Clarke predicted global satellite TV broadcasts that would cross national boundaries indiscriminately and would bring hundreds of channels available anywhere in the world. He also envisioned a "personal transceiver, so small and compact that every man carries one." He wrote: "the time will come when we will be able to call a person anywhere on Earth merely by dialling a number." Such a device would also, in Clarke's vision, include means for global positioning so that "no one need ever again be lost." Later, in Profiles of the Future, he predicted the advent of such a device taking place in the mid-1980s.[79]
An extensive selection of Clarke's essays and book chapters (from 1934 to 1998; 110 pieces, 63 of them previously uncollected in his books) can be found in the book Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (2000), together with a new introduction and many prefatory notes. Another fine collection of essays, all previously collected, is By Space Possessed (1993). Clarke's technical papers, together with several essays and extensive autobiographical material, are collected in Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography (1984).
The Geostationary communications satellite
Clarke contributed to the popularity of the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. He first described this in a letter to the editor of Wireless World in February 1945[81] and elaborated on this concept in a paper titled Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?, published in Wireless World in October 1945.[82] The geostationary orbit is now sometimes known as the Clarke Orbit or the Clarke Belt in his honour.[83][84]
It is not clear that this article was actually the inspiration for the modern telecommunications satellite. According to John R. Pierce, of Bell Labs, who was involved in the Echo satellite and Telstar projects, he gave a talk upon the subject in 1954 (published in 1955), using ideas that were "in the air", but was not aware of Clarke's article at the time.[85] In an interview given shortly before his death, Clarke was asked whether he had ever suspected that one day communications satellites would become so important; he replied
I'm often asked why I didn't try to patent the idea of communications satellites. My answer is always, "A patent is really a license to be sued."[86]
Though different from Clarke's idea of telecom relay, the idea of communicating with satellites in geostationary orbit itself had been described earlier. For example, the concept of geostationary satellites was described in Hermann Oberth's 1923 book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) and then the idea of radio communication with those satellites in Herman Potočnik's (written under the pseudonym Hermann Noordung) 1928 book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums – der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel — The Rocket Motor), sections: Providing for Long Distance Communications and Safety[b] and (possibly referring to the idea of relaying messages via satellite, but not that 3 would be optimal) Observing and Researching the Earth's Surface published in Berlin.[87][c] Clarke acknowledged the earlier concept in his book Profiles of the Future.[88]
Undersea explorer
Clarke was an avid scuba diver and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club. In addition to writing, Clarke set up several diving-related ventures with his business partner Mike Wilson. In 1956, while scuba diving, Wilson and Clarke uncovered ruined masonry, architecture and idol images of the sunken original Koneswaram temple – including carved columns with flower insignias, and stones in the form of elephant heads – spread on the shallow surrounding seabed.[89][90] Other discoveries included Chola bronzes from the original shrine, and these discoveries were described in Clarke's 1957 book The Reefs of Taprobane.[91] In 1961, while filming off Great Basses Reef, Wilson found a wreck and retrieved silver coins. Plans to dive on the wreck the following year were stopped when Clarke developed paralysis, ultimately diagnosed as polio. A year later, Clarke observed the salvage from the shore and the surface. The ship, ultimately identified as belonging to the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, yielded fused bags of silver rupees, cannons, and other artefacts, carefully documented, became the basis for The Treasure of the Great Reef.[27][92] Living in Sri Lanka and learning its history also inspired the backdrop for his novel The Fountains of Paradise in which he described a space elevator. This, he believed, would make rocket based access to space obsolete and, more than geostationary satellites, would ultimately be his scientific legacy.[93]
Views
On religion
Themes of religion and spirituality appear in much of Clarke's writing. He said: "Any path to knowledge is a path to God—or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use."[94] He described himself as "fascinated by the concept of God". J. B. S. Haldane, near the end of his life, suggested in a personal letter to Clarke that Clarke should receive a prize in theology for being one of the few people to write anything new on the subject, and went on to say that if Clarke's writings did not contain multiple contradictory theological views, he might have been a menace.[95] When he entered the Royal Air Force, Clarke insisted that his dog tags be marked "pantheist" rather than the default, Church of England,[27] and in a 1991 essay entitled "Credo", described himself as a logical positivist from the age of ten.[95] In 2000, Clarke told the Sri Lankan newspaper, The Island, "I don't believe in God or an afterlife,"[96] and he identified himself as an atheist.[97] He was honoured as a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism.[98] He has also described himself as a "crypto-Buddhist", insisting that Buddhism is not a religion.[99] He displayed little interest about religion early in his life, for example, only discovering a few months after marrying that his wife had strong Presbyterian beliefs.
A famous quotation of Clarke's is often cited: "One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion."[99] He was quoted in Popular Science in 2004 as saying of religion: "Most malevolent and persistent of all mind viruses. We should get rid of it as quick as we can."[100] In a three-day "dialogue on man and his world" with Alan Watts, Clarke stated that he was biased against religion and said that he could not forgive religions for what he perceived as their inability to prevent atrocities and wars over time.[101] In a reflection of the dialogue where he more broadly stated "mankind", his introduction to the penultimate episode of Mysterious World entitled "Strange Skies", Clarke said: "I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers." Near the very end of that same episode, the last segment of which covered the Star of Bethlehem, he stated that his favourite theory[102] was that it might be a pulsar. Given that pulsars were discovered in the interval between his writing the short story, "The Star" (1955), and making Mysterious World (1980), and given the more recent discovery of pulsar PSR B1913+16, he said: "How romantic, if even now, we can hear the dying voice of a star, which heralded the Christian era."[102]
Clarke left written instructions for a funeral that stated: "Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral."[103]
Paranormal phenomena
Early in his career, Clarke had a fascination with the paranormal and stated that it was part of the inspiration for his novel Childhood's End. Citing the numerous promising paranormal claims that were shown to be fraudulent, Clarke described his earlier openness to the paranormal having turned to being "an almost total sceptic" by the time of his 1992 biography.[27] During interviews, both in 1993 and 2004–2005, he stated that he did not believe in reincarnation, citing that there was no mechanism to make it possible, though he stated "I'm always paraphrasing J. B. S. Haldane: 'The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine.'"[104][105] He described the idea of reincarnation as fascinating, but favoured a finite existence.[106]
Clarke was well known for his television series investigating paranormal phenomena – Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980), Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1985) and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe (1994) – enough to be parodied in an episode of The Goodies in which his show is cancelled after it is claimed he does not exist.
Themes, style, and influences
Clarke's work is marked by an optimistic view of science empowering mankind's exploration of the Solar System and the world's oceans. His images of the future often feature a Utopian setting with highly developed technology, ecology, and society, based on the author's ideals.[107] His early published stories usually featured the extrapolation of a technological innovation or scientific breakthrough into the underlying decadence of his own society.
A recurring theme in Clarke's works is the notion that the evolution of an intelligent species would eventually make them something close to gods. This was explored in his 1953 novel Childhood's End and briefly touched upon in his novel Imperial Earth. This idea of transcendence through evolution seems to have been influenced by Olaf Stapledon, who wrote a number of books dealing with this theme. Clarke has said of Stapledon's 1930 book Last and First Men that "No other book had a greater influence on my life ... [It] and its successor Star Maker (1937) are the twin summits of [Stapledon's] literary career".[108]
Awards, honours and other recognition
Clarke won more than a dozen annual literary awards for particular works of science fiction.[35]
- In 1956, Clarke won a Hugo award for his short story, "The Star".[109]
- Clarke won the UNESCO–Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science in 1961.[110]
- He won the Stuart Ballantine Medal in 1963.[111]
- Following the 1968 release of 2001, Clarke became much in demand as a commentator on science and technology, especially at the time of the Apollo space program. The fame of 2001 was enough to get the Command Module of the Apollo 13 craft named "Odyssey".[112]
- Shared a 1969 Academy Award nomination with Stanley Kubrick in the category Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen for 2001: A Space Odyssey.[113]
- In 1985 the Science Fiction Writers of America named him its 7th SFWA Grand Master.[114]
- In 1988, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) by the University of Bath.[115]
- Readers of the British monthly Interzone voted him the all-time second best science fiction author in 1988–1989.[35]
- He received a CBE in 1989,[39] and was knighted in 2000.[14][42][43] Clarke's health did not allow him to travel to London to receive the latter honour personally from the Queen, so the United Kingdom's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka invested him as a Knight Bachelor at a ceremony in Colombo.[15]
- In 1994, Clarke was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by law professor Glenn Reynolds.[116]
- The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Clarke in 1997, its second class of two deceased and two living persons. Among the living, Clarke and Andre Norton followed A. E. van Vogt and Jack Williamson.[117]
- In 2000, he was named a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.[118]
- The 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter is named in honour of Clarke's works.
- In 2003, Clarke was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology, where he appeared on stage via a 3-D hologram with a group of old friends that included Jill Tarter, Neil Armstrong, Lewis Branscomb, Charles Townes, Freeman Dyson, Bruce Murray, and Scott Brown.
- In 2004, Clarke won the Heinlein Award for outstanding achievement in hard or science-oriented science fiction.[119]
- On 14 November 2005 Sri Lanka awarded Clarke its highest civilian award, the Sri Lankabhimanya (The Pride of Sri Lanka), for his contributions to science and technology and his commitment to his adopted country.[16]
- Clarke was the Honorary Board Chair of the Institute for Cooperation in Space, founded by Carol Rosin, and served on the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, a space advocacy organisation originally founded by Wernher von Braun.
Named after Clarke
Awards
- Arthur C. Clarke Awards for science fiction writing, awarded annually in the United Kingdom.
In 1986, Clarke provided a grant to fund the prize money (initially £1,000) for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the best science fiction novel published in the United Kingdom in the previous year. In 2001 the prize was increased to £2001, and its value now matches the year (e.g., £2005 in 2005).
- Sir Arthur Clarke Award, for achievements in space, awarded annually in the United Kingdom.
In 2005 he lent his name to the inaugural Sir Arthur Clarke Awards—dubbed the "Space Oscars". His brother attended the awards ceremony, and presented an award specially chosen by Arthur (and not by the panel of judges who chose the other awards) to the British Interplanetary Society.
- Arthur C. Clarke Foundation awards: "Arthur C. Clarke Innovator's Award" and "Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award"[120]
- The Sir Arthur C. Clarke Memorial Trophy Inter School Astronomy Quiz Competition, held in Sri Lanka every year and organised by the Astronomical Association of Ananda College, Colombo. The competition first started in 2001 as "The Sir Arthur C. Clarke Trophy Inter School Astronomy Quiz Competition" and was later renamed after his death.[121][122]
Other
- An asteroid was named in Clarke's honour, 4923 Clarke (the number was assigned prior to, and independently of, the name – 2001, however appropriate, was unavailable, having previously been assigned to Albert Einstein).
- A species of ceratopsian dinosaur, discovered in Inverloch in Australia, was named after Clarke, Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei.
- The Learning Resource Centre at Richard Huish College, Taunton, which Clarke attended when it was Huish Grammar School, is named after him.
- Clarke was a distinguished vice-president of the H. G. Wells Society, being strongly influenced by Wells as a science-fiction writer.
- Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, one of the major research institutes in Sri Lanka is named after him.
- The main protagonist of the Dead Space series of video games, Isaac Clarke, takes his surname from Arthur C. Clarke, and his given name from Clarke's friendly rival and associate, Isaac Asimov.
- A proposed outer-circular orbital beltway in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is to be named 'Arthur C. Clarke Expressway' in honour of Clarke.[123][124]
- 'The Clarke Event' is a proposed name for GRB 080319B, a gamma-ray burst detected just hours before Clarke's death that set a new record for the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe. The name would honor Clarke and his award-winning short story "The Star".
Selected works
Novels
- Against the Fall of Night (1948, 1953) original version of The City and the Stars
- The Sands of Mars (1951)
- Childhood's End (1953)
- The City and the Stars (1956)
- The Deep Range (1957)
- A Fall of Moondust (1961)
- Glide Path (1963)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (film with Stanley Kubrick) (1968)
- Rendezvous with Rama (1972) (Nebula Award winner, 1973;[125] Hugo Award winner, 1974[126])
- Imperial Earth (1976)
- The Fountains of Paradise (1979) (Hugo Award winner, 1979;[127] and Nebula Award winner, 1980[128])
- 2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
- The Songs of Distant Earth (1986)
- 2061: Odyssey Three (1987)
- The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1990)
- The Hammer of God (1993)
- 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)
- A Time Odyssey (2003, 2005, 2007) a series of three novels
Short story collections
- Expedition to Earth (1953)
- Reach for Tomorrow (1956)
- Tales from the White Hart (1957)
- The Other Side of the Sky (1958)
- Tales of Ten Worlds (1962)
- The Nine Billion Names of God (1967)
- The Wind from the Sun (1972)
- The Best Of Arthur C. Clarke 1937-1955 (1982)
- The Sentinel (1983)
- Tales From Planet Earth (2001)
- The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)
Non-fiction
- Interplanetary Flight: an introduction to astronautics. London: Temple Press, ISBN 0-425-06448-4, 1950
- The Exploration of Space, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951
- The Exploration of the Moon, with R. A. Smith, New York: Harper Brothers, 1954
- The Coast of Coral (1955)
- Boy Beneath the Sea (1958) ISBN 0060212667
- Voice Across the Sea. New York: Harper, 1958
- Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible (1962)
- The Treasure of the Great Reef, with Mike Wilson. New York: Harper & Row, 1964
- Voices from the Sky: Previews of the Coming Space Age. New York: Harper & Row, 1965
- The Promise of Space (1968)
- The View From Serendip, Random House, ISBN 0-394-41796-8, 1977
- Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography. London: Gollancz, 1989
- How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village, Bantam. ISBN 0-553-07440-7. 1992
- Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Essays, 1934–1998. New York: St. Martin's Press, and London: Voyager, 1999
Documentaries
See also
Notes
- ^ ISFDB catalogues one "Letter" to Amazing Stories published in 1935, ten more nonfiction items ("Essays") published 1938 to 1945, and five "Shortfiction" published 1937 to 1942.[2]
- ^ Full text: "Providing for Long Distance Communications and Safety". Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Full text: "Observing and Researching the Earth's Surface". Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help)
References
- ^ a b Liukkonen, Petri. "Arthur C. Clarke". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|website=
(help); Unknown parameter|dead-url=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ a b "Arthur C. Clarke – Summary Bibliography". (ISFDB). Retrieved 2 April 2013. Select a title to see its linked publication history and general information. Select a particular edition (title) for more data at that level, such as a front cover image or linked contents.
- ^ a b Adams, Tim (12 September 1999). "Man on the moon". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- ^ Ranked #15 by the American Film Institute. "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition". Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ Ranked #6 by the British Film Institute. Christie, Ian, ed. (1 August 2012). "The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time". Sight & Sound (September 2012). Retrieved 20 September 2014.
- ^ a b "The Big Three and the Clarke–Asimov Treaty". wireclub.com. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
- ^ Clarke, Arthur C. (October 1945). "Extra-Terrestrial Relays". Wireless World. 51 (10). Iliffe and sons, Ltd.: 305–308.
- ^ "Arthur C. Clarke". The Franklin Institute. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
- ^ "Arthur C Clarke nominated for Nobel". Moon Miners' Manifesto (#92). Artemis Society International. February 1996.
- ^ Benford, G. (2008). "Obituary: Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008)". Nature. 452 (7187): 546–546. Bibcode:2008Natur.452..546B. doi:10.1038/452546a. PMID 18385726.
- ^ Reddy, John (April 1969). "Arthur Clarke: Prophet of the Space Age". Reader's Digest. 9 (564).
- ^ "Remembering Arthur C. Clarke". Retrieved 27 March 2008.
- ^ Mintowt-Czyz, Lech and Bird, Steve (18 March 2008) Archived 2009-05-14 at the Wayback Machine The Times Online.
- ^ a b c "The new knight of science fiction". BBC News. BBC. 1 January 1998. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
- ^ a b c "Arthur C Clarke knighted". BBC News. BBC. 26 May 2000. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
- ^ a b Archived 2010-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, November 2005. Retrieved 20 October 2008
- ^ "No. 34321". The London Gazette. 8 September 1936.
- ^ "No. 36089". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 9 July 1943. - ^ "No. 36271". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 30 November c1943.{{cite magazine}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ "Sir Arthur C Clarke 1917–2008". News archive 2008. Kings College London. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ Journal of the British Interplanetary Society Vol 6 (1946)
- ^ Parkinson, B. (2008) (Ed.)'Interplanetary – A History of the British Interplanetary Society', p.93
- ^ "Arthur C. Clarke Extra Terrestrial Relays". Archived from the original on 5 February 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
- ^ "Peacetime Uses for V2". Wireless World. February 1945. Archived from the original (JPG) on 15 March 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Extra-Terrestrial Relays Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?". Wireless World. October 1945. Archived from the original on 7 November 2006. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
- ^ "Clarke Foundation Biography". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i McAleer, Neil. "Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography", Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1992. ISBN 0-8092-3720-2
- ^ Full dedication reads: "To the still unfading memory of LESLIE EKANAYAKE (13 JuIy 1947 – 4 July 1977) only perfect friend of a lifetime, in whom were uniquely combined Loyalty, Intelligence and Compassion. When your radiant and loving spirit vanished from this world, the light went out of many lives."
- ^
Baxter, John (1997). Stanley Kubrick: A Biography. New York: Carroll & Graff. p. 203. ISBN 0-7867-0485-3.
But Clarke and Kubrick made a match. ... Both had a streak of homoeroticism ...
- ^ a b c d Jonas, Gerald (18 March 2008). "Arthur C. Clarke, Premier Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90". New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 March 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90. He had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome for years.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Michael Moorcock (22 March 2008). "Brave New Worlds". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
- ^ Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "In honor of Sir Arthur C. Clarke". Retrieved 18 March 2008.
- ^ "Sir Arthur Clarke dies at age 90". Arthur Clark Foundation. 19 March 2012. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
- ^ a b c "Clarke, Arthur C." The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees. Locus Publications. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Internet & PC on YouTube
- ^ Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ British Polio Fellowship – Home
- ^ a b "No. 51772". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 16 June 1989. - ^ "Gorilla Organization mourns loss of patron Sir Arthur C Clarke – a true champion for gorillas". London: Gorilla Organization. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
- ^ Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Letters Patent were issued by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on 16 March 2000 to authorise this. (see "No. 55796". The London Gazette. 21 March 2000.)
- ^ a b "No. 54993". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 30 December 1997. - ^ It doesn't do any harm ... most of the damage comes from fuss made. Sunday Mirror, 1 February 1998 Retrieved 24 March 2008
- ^ Smirk of a pervert and a liar., Sunday Mirror, 8 February 1998 Retrieved 24 March 2008
- ^ "Sci-fi novelist cleared of sex charges". BBC News. 6 April 1998. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
- ^ "Child sex file could close on sci-fi writer". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2007.
- ^ "Sir Arthur C Clarke". The Daily Telegraph. London. 20 March 2008. Archived from the original on 26 March 2008. Retrieved 27 March 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Timesonline.co.uk
- ^ Sir Arthur C. Clarke (February 2005). "Letter from Sri Lanka". Wired. Vol. 13.02. San Francisco: Condé Nast. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
- ^ Video greeting to NASA JPL by Arthur C. Clarke. Retrieved 24 September 2007
- ^ "Sir Arthur C Clarke 90th Birthday reflections". 10 December 2007. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
- ^ Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90, BBC News, 18 March 2008
- ^ Sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90, MSNBC, 18 March 2008
- ^ "Arthur C. Clarke: The Wired Words". Wired Blog Network. 18 March 2008. Archived from the original on 20 March 2008. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Gardner, Simon (19 March 2008). "Sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90". Reuters India. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
- ^ a b "NASA Satellite Detects Naked-Eye Explosion Halfway Across Universe". NASA. 21 March 2008. Retrieved 21 March 2008.
- ^ "Why not the Clarke Event?". EarthSky Blogs. 21 March 2008. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ The Arthur C. Clarke Gamma Ray Burst, K. Dawson, 25 March 2008
- ^ American Atheist Magazine, May / June 2008, p21
- ^ Arthur C Clarke and the GRB, Phil Plait, March 26 2008
- ^ Pohl, Frederik (5 January 2009). "Sir Arthur and I". The Way the Future Blogs. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Last odyssey for sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke". Agence France-Presse. 18 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
Just a few days before he died, Clarke reviewed the final manuscript of his latest novel, "The Last Theorem" co-written with American author Frederik Pohl, which is to be published later this year.
- ^ "Sci-fi writer Clarke laid to rest". BBC. 22 March 2008. Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke". Shawn Small Stories. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
- ^ http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/clarke_arthur_c
- ^ The Hard SF Renaissance David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer 2002 novel text/html ISBN 0-312-71129-8 PDF en None None Copyright 2002 by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
- ^ Edward Seiler and John H. Jenkins (1994–2009). "Isaac Asimov FAQ". Isaac Asimov Home Page. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
- ^ McLellan, Dennis (19 March 2008). "Arthur C. Clarke, 90; scientific visionary, acclaimed writer of '2001: A Space Odyssey'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011.
- ^ "Randi shares some stories regarding his friend Arthur C. Clarke and compares Stanley Kubrick to Steve Jobs". Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Arthur C. Clarke and Peter Hyams. The Odyssey File. Ballantine Books, 1984.
- ^ Excerpt from The Odyssey File.
- ^ "Freeman Still Pushes Rama". Sci Fi Wire – The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel. 14 March 2003. Archived from the original on 10 December 2003. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
- ^ "Rendezvous with Rama". Revelations Entertainment Web site. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
- ^ "David Fincher and Quint talk about everything from A(lien3) to Z(odiac)!!!". AICN. Archived from the original on 19 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Alex Billington (13 October 2008). "David Fincher's Rendezvous with Rama Officially Dead". firstshowing.net. Archived from the original on 1 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
{{cite web}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help); Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Weintraub, Steve 'Frosty' (30 December 2010). "David Fincher Exclusive Interview! Talks SOCIAL NETWORK, DRAGON TATTOO, 20,000 LEAGUES, Editing, How He Makes Movies, More". Retrieved 5 January 2011.
- ^ Darrin, Ann; O'Leary, Beth L., ed. (26 June 2009). Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage. CRC Press. p. 604.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - ^ a b Profiles of the Future (1962, rev. eds. 1973, 1983, and 1999, Millennium edition with a new preface)
- ^ "Chart of the Future". Archived from the original on 24 February 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ 'Clarke, A. C. (1945) V2 for Ionosphere Research? Wireless World, (February), p. 45
- ^ "Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" (PDF). Arthur C. Clarke. October 1945. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Basics of Space Flight Section 1 Part 5, Geostationary Orbits". NASA. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ Earl, Michael A. (9 January 2006). "A sea of satellite dishes". The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ Pierce, John R. (December 1990). "ECHO – America's First Communications Satellite". Reprinted from SMEC Vintage Electrics Volume 2 No. 1. Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ "Final Thoughts from Sir Arthur C. Clarke". March 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
- ^ Kelso, Dr. T. S. (1 May 1998). "Basics of the Geostationary Orbit". Satellite Times. Archived from the original on 3 February 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Clarke, Arthur C. (1984). Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Wilson. pp. 205n. ISBN 0-03-069783-2. "INTELSAT, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation which operates the global system, has started calling it the Clarke orbit. Flattered though I am, honesty compels me to point out that the concept of such an orbit predates my 1945 paper 'Extra Terrestrial Relays' by at least twenty years. I didn't invent it, but only annexed it."
- ^ E Greig, Doreen (1987). "The reluctant colonists: Netherlanders abroad in the 17th and 18th centuries". USA: Assen, The Netherlands ; Wolfeboro, NH, USA: 227. OCLC 14069213.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Expedition in the waters of Ceylon". Science Digest. 57. Chicago: 142. 1965. ISSN 0036-8296. OCLC 1624458.
One of the major achievements in Ceylon was the discovery of the ruins of the sunken Konesar Temple, which as located with the wrecked treasure ship ...
- ^ Clarke, Arthur C. (1957). The Reefs of Taprobane; Underwater Adventures around Ceylon. New York: Harper. ISBN 0-7434-4502-3.
- ^ Throckmorton, Peter (1964). "The Great Basses Wreck" (PDF). Expedition. 6 (3, Spring): 21–31. ISSN 0014-4738. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
- ^ Personal e-mail from Sir Arthur Clarke to Jerry Stone, Director of the Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, 1 November 2006
- ^ Mintowt-Czyz, Lech (19 March 2008). "Sir Arthur C. Clarke: The Times obituary". The Times. London. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
- ^ a b Clarke, Arthur C. (1999) [1991]. "Credo". Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!. First appearing in Living Philosophies, Clifton Fadiman, ed. (Doubleday). New York: St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 358–363. ISBN 978-0-312-26745-2. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
- ^ Midwee01
- ^ "... Stanley [Kubrick] is a Jew and I'm an atheist". Clarke quoted in Jeromy Agel (Ed.) (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001: p.306
- ^ The International Academy Of Humanism at the web site of the Council for Secular Humanism. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
- ^ a b Cherry, Matt (1999). "God, Science, and Delusion: A Chat With Arthur C. Clarke". Free Inquiry. Vol. 19, no. 2. Amherst, New York: Council for Secular Humanism. ISSN 0272-0701. Archived from the original on 3 April 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Matthew, Teague (1 August 2004). "Childhood's End: A too-brief encounter with Arthur C. Clarke, the grand old man of science-fiction visionaries". Popular Science. ISSN 0161-7370. Archived from the original on 1 August 2004. Retrieved 29 December 2010Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Clarke, Arthur C.; Watts, Alan (January 1972). At the Interface: Technology and Mysticism. Vol. 19. Chicago, Ill.: HMH Publishing. p. 94. ISSN 0032-1478. OCLC 3534353.
{{cite book}}
:|periodical=
ignored (help) - ^ a b "Mysterious world strange skies 3 of 3". YouTube. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
- ^ "TIME Quotes of the Day". Time. 19 March 2008. Archived from the original on 24 March 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Jeff Greenwald (July–August 1993). "Arthur C. Clarke on Life". Wired. Vol. 1.03. San Francisco: Condé Nast. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
- ^ José Cordeiro (July–August 2008). "The Futurist Interviews Sir. Arthur C. Clarke". 42 (4). Bethesda, Maryland: World Future Society. ISSN 0016-3317. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Andrew Robinson (10 October 1997). "The cosmic godfather". Times Higher Education. London: TSL Education Ltd. ISSN 0049-3929. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
- ^ Guy Riddihough, Review of The City and the Stars in Science , (4 July 2008) Vol. 321. no. 5885, pp. 42 – 43 doi:10.1126/science.1161705: What marks the book out are Clarke's sweeping vistas, grand ideas, and ultimately optimistic view of humankind's future in the cosmos.
- ^ "Arthur C. Clarke Quotes". Archived from the original on 23 January 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2007.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ 1956 Hugo Awards
- ^ Summary List of UNESCO Prizes: List of Prizewinners, p. 12
- ^ "Franklin Laureate Database". Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Peebles, Curtis. "Names of US manned spacecraft". Spaceflight, Vol. 20, 2, Fev. 1978. Spaceflight. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
- ^ Awards for Arthur C. Clarke at IMDb
- ^ "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master". Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ Honorary Graduates 1966 to 1988, University of Bath
- ^ Burns, John F. "Colombo Journal; A Nonfiction Journey to a More Peaceful World" New York Times, 28 November 1994
- ^ "Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame". Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc. Retrieved 24 March 2013. This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004.
- ^ Iain Thomson (19 March 2008). "Sir Arthur C Clarke dies". Information World Reviews. Oxford: VNU Business Publications. OCLC 61313783. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Sir Arthur Clarke Named Recipient of 2004 Heinlein Award" (Press release). 22 May 2004. Archived from the original on 22 June 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
{{cite press release}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Awards | The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation". Clarkefoundation.org. 12 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^ "Arthur C. Clarke Memorial Trophy Interschool Astronomy Quiz Competition Article copied from: http://www.skylk.com/index.php?option=com_eventlist&view=details&id=12:arthur-c-clarke-memorial-trophy-interschool-astronomy-quiz-competition#ixzz1PdKwOVlj Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives This and more astronomy related articles on SkyLk.com". SKYLk. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|title=
- ^ Sir Arthur C Clarke Quiz Competition 2011, link retrieved 21 June 2011.
- ^ A Speedy and safe journey to Galle
- ^ First phase opens in August
- ^ "1973 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
- ^ "1974 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
- ^ "1979 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
- ^ "1980 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
External links
- Biography and criticism
- "Sir Arthur C. Clarke biography". Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
- Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) International Astronautical Federation
- Bibliography and works
- Arthur C. Clarke at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Template:Goodreads author
- Arthur C. Clarke at the Internet Book List
- Arthur C. Clarke at IMDb
- Sir Arthur C Clarke: 90th Birthday Reflections on YouTube
- Arthur C. Clarke 31 word short story on Letters of Note
- Works by or about Arthur C. Clarke at the Internet Archive
- Works by Arthur C. Clarke at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Arthur C. Clarke at Open Library
- Other
- "Sir Arthur C. Clarke". Find a Grave. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
- "Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee". Official transcript, Sci Fi Channel chat. 1 November 1996. Archived from the original on 31 October 2002.
{{cite web}}
:|archive-date=
/|archive-url=
timestamp mismatch; 1 December 2002 suggested (help) - Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine
- Arthur C. Clarke
- 1917 births
- 2008 deaths
- Alumni of King's College London
- British underwater divers
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
- Deaths from respiratory failure
- Early spaceflight scientists
- English agnostics
- English atheists
- English essayists
- English expatriates
- English humanists
- English inventors
- English sceptics
- English science fiction writers
- Fellows of King's College London
- Futurologists
- Hugo Award winning writers
- Kalinga Prize recipients
- Knights Bachelor
- Critics of religions
- Nebula Award winners
- People from Minehead
- Royal Air Force officers
- Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
- Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees
- Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
- SFWA Grand Masters
- Space advocates
- Sri Lankan writers
- Underwater divers
- People with poliomyelitis
- 20th-century English novelists
- 21st-century British novelists
- LGBT writers from England
- Gay writers
- Male essayists