British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
He came to fame in 1968 when a short story called The Sentinel was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick.
Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.
A farmer's son, he was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.
During World War II, Clarke volunteered for the Royal Air Force, where he worked in the, then highly-secretive, development of radar.
I read his stuff quite a bit growing up, starting in 1959. At that time a lot of his stuff, especially short stories, appeared in magazines. He was one of the better writers for "hard" science fiction. Years later (1968, as a matter of fact)I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when it first came out, and it was quite a show back then; I caught it in HD about a week ago, and it still hasn't lost any of it's magic.
When I started college in 1969, I was lucky enough to catch a lecture by him at the University of Utah; he was quite an interesting speaker, and talked about a lot of stuff that was sci-fi then, and reality now. I'll have to dig into some of my old paperbacks and reread some of them, I guess. I might even have the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey around here somewhere to crank up.
5 comments:
well, you've peeked my interest.
I have a shelf full, starting back to books written before I was born. All excellent. Didn't matter that he lived to be 90, that life was MUCH too short.
Godspeed star-man! Sri Lanka is a nice place from which to set forth on the final journey...
Interesting what turns an unaasuming man into a science fiction writer. :)
I still don't get the film 2001. I must have seen it a dozen times!!
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