Arthur Charles Clarke

Born December 16th 1917
Died March 18th 2008

"As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying."

Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England

In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction. During World War II, as a RAF officer, he was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials. His only non-science-fiction novel, Glide Path, is based on this work.

After the war, he returned to London and to the BIS, which he presided in 46-47 and 50-53. In 1945 he published the technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays" laying down the principles of the satellite communication with satellites in geostationary orbits - a speculation realized 25 years later.
His invention has brought him numerous honors, such as the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship and a gold medal of the Franklin Institute. Today, the geostationary orbit at 42,000 kilometers is named The Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union.

The first story Clarke sold professionally was "Rescue Party", written in March 1945 and appearing in Astounding Science in May 1946.
He obtained first class honors in Physics and Mathematics at the King's College, London, in 1948.
He married Marilyn Mayfield, an american, on June 15, 1953. They split in December 1953. As Clarke says, "The marriage was incompatibe from the beginning. It was sufficient proof that I wasn't the marrying type, although I think everybody should marry once".

In 1954 Clarke wrote to Dr Harry Wexler, then chief of the Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau, about satellite applications for weather forecasting. Of these communications, a new branch of meteorology was born and Dr. Wexler became the driving force in using rockets and satellites for meteorological research and operations.

Clarke first visited Colombo, Sri Lanka (at the time called Ceylon) in December 1954. It was in 1954 that Clarke started to give up space for the sea.
About the reasons, he said: "I now realise that it was my interest in astronautics that led me to the ocean. Both involve exploration, of course - but that's not the only reason. When the first skin-diving equipment started to appear in the late 1940s, I suddenly realized that here was a cheap and simple way of imitating one of the most magical aspects of spaceflight - weightessness."

In the book Profiles of the Future (1962) he looks at the probable shape of tomorrow's world. In this book he states his three Laws:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that     something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

In 1964, he started to work with Stanley Kubrick in a SF movie script. After 4 years, he shared an Oscar Academy Award nomination with him for the film version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1985, he published a sequel to 2001, 2010: Odyssey Two. He worked with Peter Hyams in the movie version of 2010. Their work was done using a Kaypro computer and a modem, for Arthur was in Sri Lanka and Peter Hyams in Los Angeles. Their communications turned into the book The Odyssey File - The Making of 2010.

Clarke has lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka since 1956 and has been doing underwater exploration along that coast and the Great Barrier Reef. He is now wheelchair bound due to a post polio syndrome (except when playing table tennis) but can stand for a few seconds.

UFOs - Clarkes view on

Every few years l find myself writing an article: 'Last Words on UFOs'. Well, here we go again.
l have now observed so many UFOs' that the subject bores me to tears and l wouldn't cross the street to see another.
Having said that, l hasten to add that in every single case my UFO eventually turned into an Identified Flying Object. Almost every one would have fooled most laymen, a couple fooled me for a while and l consider that l have some expertise on the subject.

The last specimen l saw is one of the best. It was late afternoon and l was standing in the shadow of my Colombo house, pointing out the planet Venus to one of my friends. (The fact that Venus is easily visible in broad daylight is a great surprise to most people and is itself responsible for a large number of UFO reports.)
l pointed to the tiny dazzling star high in the western sky, about forty degrees above the hidden sun. 'There she is!' l said.
My friend pointed almost a right angle round to the North and said, 'No. there!' The argument lasted for some time, finally, to my utter astonishment, l realised that Venus had an identical twin. At about the same elevation in the northwest was a brilliant, motionless star.
For a few fleeting seconds l had visions of astronomical fame as the discoverer of Supernova Clarke and l wondered what bribe would be sufficient to secure my friends silence. Then l ran for my telescope and the mystery was resolved.
It was the local meteorological balloon, released every afternoon to measure conditions in the upper atmosphere. Hanging becalmed perhaps 10km above the earth, it was catching the last rays of the setting sun. There was no way in which the naked eye could have distinguished it from Venus.

l could give a dozen more examples from my own experience. They all add up to this, even expert, honest witnesses can be completely fooled by unusual objects (or phenomena) in the sky. And the evidence of the inexpert (even when it is not distorted by excitement or prejudice) is utterly worthless.

When anyone tries to tell me about the bright moving object he once saw in the sky, l beg to be excused. This is not stubborn obscurantism or even laziness. He may have seen the Mother Ship from Proxima Centauri going in to its parking orbit. But as there's simply no way of either proving or disproving this l refuse to waste my time listing the scores of possible explanations.

So-what to do? UFOs are a serious and fascinating problem. Some of the hundreds of varieties may even (though l doubt it) lead to important scientific discoveries. The only thing l'm reasonably sure about UFOs is that they're not spaceships. That explanation is too naive and geocentric.
In my opinion what UFOs need is a decade or so of benign neglect. Lets ignore all the things in the sky and concentrate on the only reports that matter - the 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - which, as everyone knows, are unmistakable face-to-face confrontations with alien vehicles or creatures. Either they occur or they do not and there's a lot of high-powered lying and hysterical self-delusion going on.

UFOs may simply go away, like the witches of the middle ages, when no one believes in them anymore. That would be a pretty convincing proof that they are a purely psychological phenomenon.
Or they may turn out to be caused by some hitherto unknown phenomenon, perhaps like ball lightning, which is still totally unexplained. In any event, only time will tell...perhaps.

"Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets.
No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor - but they have few followers now."

Mysteries

Mysteries come in so many shapes and sizes that it is almost impossible to classify them. One useful way of doing so is to divide them into three categories, based on our current level of understanding.
Borrowing shamelessly, let us call them Mysteries of the First, Second and Third Kind.

A mystery of the First kind is something that was once utterly baffling, but is now completely understood.
Virtually all natural phenomena fall into this category; one of the most familiar and beautiful is the rainbow.
To ancient man this must have been an awe inspiring, even terrifying sight. There was no way that he could explain it, except as the creation of some superior intelligence.

The true explanation of the rainbow had to wait for Sir Isaac Newton's proof that 'white' light is a blend of all possible colours, which may be separated by a prism-or by drops of water in the sky. After the publicaton of Newtons Optics in 1704 there was no further mystery about the rainbow but all its magic and beauty remained. Some foolish people think that science takes the wonder out of the universe, the exact opposite is true. Genuine understanding is not only more useful than superstition or myth; it is almost always much more interesting.

There are countless other Mysteries of the First Kind. Still more awe inspiring than the rainbow is the aurora and only since the dawn of the space age have we learned how that is created by electrified particles blasted out of the sun and trapped in the upper atmosphere by the earths magnetic field. Even now there are still many details to be worked out but there is no doubt about the general principles of the aurora.

Of course as any philosopher will be glad to tell you, no 'explanation' of anything is ever complete; beyond every mystery is a deeper one. The dispersion of light in the spectrum causes the rainbow but what is light itself? and so on, indefinitely. However, most of us are content to accept the common sense or man in the street attitude towards the universe.

Mysteries of the second kind are mysteries which are still mysteries, though in some cases we may have a fairly good idea of the answers. Often the trouble is that there are too many answers, we would be quite satisfied with any one of them, but others appear equally valid. The most spectacular modern example is, of course, the UFO phenomenon, where the range of explanations extends from psychic manifestations through atmospheric effects to visiting spaceships and, to make matters even more complicated, the range of eager explainers runs from complete lunatics to hard headed scientists. Where there are so many answers there is something wrong with the questions.

Another mystery, which doesn't arouse quite so many violent emotions, is the Great Sea Serpent. Most zoologists would be quite willing to admit that large unidentified marine creatures may exist, perhaps, as in the case of the coelacanth, even survivors from primeval times. And, if they are still around, one day we should be able to prove it.

Most Mysteries of the Second Kind are eventually solved and graduate to those of the First Kind. In witnessing this process our generation is the most fortunate one that has ever lived. We have discovered answers to questions that have haunted all earlier ages and which, once, seemed beyond all possible solution. Yet there are some Mysteries that may remain forever of the Second Kind. This is particularly true where historical events are concerned, because once the evidence has been lost or destroyed, there is no way in which it can be recovered. One can conjecture endlessly about such famous enigmas as the true identities of Kaspar Hauser or the dark lady of the sonnets. But, unless someone invents a method of looking into the past, extremely unlikely yet not quite impossible, we may never know.

Scientists are more fortunate than historians for nature does not destroy evidence, all the questions they ask are ultimately answered though in the process they invariably uncover new and more difficult ones.

Mysteries of the Third Kind are the rarest of all, and there is very little that can be said about them; some sceptics argue that they do not even exist. They are phenomena or events for which there appears to be no rational explanation, in the cases where there are theories to account for them, these are even more fantastic than the 'facts'.

Perhaps the quintessential M3K is the extraordinary phenomenon known as Spontaneous Human Combustion. There have been many recorded cases, supported by what seems to be indisputable medical evidence, of human bodies being consumed in a very short period of time by an intense heat which has often left the surroundings and even the victims clothing virtually untouched.

The human body is not normally a fire hazard; indeed it takes a considerable amount of fuel to arrange a cremation. There seems no way in which this particular mystery can ever be solved, without a great deal more evidence, and who would wish for that?.

A less appalling, though sometimes very frightening, Mystery of the Third Kind is the Poltergeist.
Although a healthy scepticism is required when dealing with all paranormal phenomena, because extraordinary happenings require extraordinarily high standards of verification, there is impressive evidence that small objects an be thrown around, or even materialised, with no apparent physical cause.
Usually there is a disturbed adolescent in the background, and although adolescents are quite capable of raising hell by non paranormal means, this persistent pattern over so many cultures and such a long period of time suggests that something strange is going on. If so it is a complete mystery, and labels such as 'psychokinesis' are only fig leaves to conceal our ignorance.

The problem with M3K's is that in the first place there is no general agreement that they even exist, so discussions of their reality are inconclusive and unsatisfying. At best, the parties concerned agree to disagree; at worst, confrontations end up as slanging matches with charges of fraud or narrow mindedness winging across the battle lines. This can be amusing for a while, but soon gets boring.

Secondly, such evidence as does exist is almost all in the form of eyewitness accounts. Finally, even if the existence of a particular M3K is established, where does one go from there?. Nothing could be more important than the conclusive demonstration of some anomalous event outside the frontiers of accepted science, it is by such discoveries that science advances. However, until there is some plausible theory or working hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, there is little that one can say intelligently about it. Few things are more frustrating than isolated enigmas that seem to admit of no rational explanation. With the Mysteries of the Second Kind, we have at least something to get our teeth into.

If they are real, M3K's quickly graduate to M2K's, and eventually to M1K's. A perfect example is the discovery of radioactivity at the end of the nineteenth century. The late Victorian scientists were amazed to find that certain uranium compounds continually emitted energy, the discovery was not only totally unexpected, but defied all that was then known about physics. However, the facts were swiftly established beyond controversy and led in a very short time to the first real understanding of atomic structure.

The fact that this process has not happened in the case of paranormal phenomena is one of the strongest arguments against their real existence. After more than a hundred years of effort, the advocates of the paranormal have still to convince the majority of their scientific peers that there is anything in it. Indeed, the tide now appears to be turning against them with recent revelations of fraud and incredibly sloppy techniques in what once seemed to be well established results.

But the verdict is not yet handed down, nor will it be in our time. Those who think that science has accounted for everything are just as stupid, and that is not to strong a word, as those who accept the most fantastic stories on the flimsiest of evidence.

Which leads me to my final point. I said at the beginning that there were three kinds of Mystery, now let me add a fourth, Mysteries of the Zeroeth Kind....

The only mystery about these is that anyone ever thought they were mysterious. The classic example is the Bermuda triangle, though this has not prevented countless writers, some of whom may even believe the rubbish they are regurgitating, repeating the same nonsense over and over again. The stories of vanishing aircraft and ships in this region, when the original sources are examined, usually turn out to be perfectly explicable and commonplace tragedies. Indeed, it is a considerable tribute to the Florida Coast Guard that there are so few disappearances in this busy area, among the legions of amateur sailors and weekend pilots who venture out across it, often with totally inadequate preparation.

A glance at any display of paperbacks will, alas, disclose a ripe collection of Mysteries of the Zeroeth Kind, the mental junk food of our generation. It is a pity that there is no way of labelling books that rot the mind, WARNING! READING THIS BOOK MAY BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH!, but the practical difficulties are obvious. What a pity it is not possible for some public spirited benefactor to purchase copies of the latest flying saucer guide book, revelation from Atlantis, or pyramidal insanity and then sue the author for incompetence. Even if he was awarded no more than the price of the book, it would be a lot of fun!

Sometimes it doesn't really matter and there may even be occasions when the most rubbishy of books may open up the mind to the wonders of the universe. But there are times when real harm can be done to serious and important studies, or to the elucidation of genuine Mysteries, by the activities of frauds, cranks and hoaxers. Thus the idea that earth may have had visitors from space is a perfectly reasonable one, indeed, I would go so far as to say that it is surprising if it has not done so during the past billions of years of its existence. Unfortunately, books full of faked 'evidence' and imbecile archaeology have scared serious researchers away from the field. So it is with the study of UFO's, which, despite all the nonsense that has been written about them, may yet turn out to be important and interesting.

True wisdom lies in preserving the delicate balance between scepticism and credulity. The universe is such a strange and wonderful place that reality will always outrun the wildest imagination, there will always be things unknown and perhaps unknowable. Which is very lucky for us because it means that, whatever other perils humanity may face in the future that lies ahead, boredom is not among them.

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not.
 In either case the idea is quite staggering."

Bibliography

Series

Space Trilogy
1. Islands in the Sky (1952)
2. Earthlight (1955)
3. Sands of Mars (1951)
    Space Trilogy (omnibus) (2001)

Space Odyssey
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2. 2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
3. 2061: Odyssey Three (1985)
4. 3001: The Final Odyssey (1996)

Rama
1. Rendezvous with Rama (1972)
2. Rama II (1989) (with Gentry Lee)
3. The Garden of Rama (1991) (with Gentry Lee)
4. Rama Revealed (1993) (with Gentry Lee)

Arthur C Clarke's Venus Prime (with Paul Preuss)
1. Breaking Strain (1987)

Time Odyssey (with Stephen Baxter)
1. Time's Eye (2003)
2. Sunstorm (2005)

Novels
Prelude to Space (1951) aka Master of Space
Against the Fall of the Night (1953)
Childhood's End (1953)
The Deep Range (1954)
The City and the Stars (1956)
A Fall of Moondust (1961)
Glide Path: To The Heart of Experimental Technology...In WWII! (1963)
Dolphin Island: A Story of the People of the Sea (1963)
The Space Dreamers (1969)
Imperial Earth (1975)
The View from Serendip (1977)
The Fountains of Paradise (1978)
Cradle (1987) (with Gentry Lee)
Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) (with Gregory Benford)
The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1990)
The Hammer of God (1993)
Richter 10 (1996) (with Mike McQuay)
The Trigger (1999) (with Michael P Kube-McDowell)
The Light of Other Days (2000) (with Stephen Baxter)
The Last Theorem (2006)

Omnibus
From the Ocean, From the Stars (1962)
Prelude to Mars (1965)
An Arthur C. Clarke second omnibus (1968)
The City and the Stars / The Sands of Mars (2001)
The Dark Blue Depths: Adventures from Inner to Outer Space (2005)
Clarke's Universe: Lion of Comarre / Fall of Moondust (2006)

Collections
Tales from the White Hart (1940)
Expedition to Earth (1953)
Reach for Tomorrow (1956)
The Other Side of the Sky (1958)
Across the Sea of Stars (1959)
Tales of Ten Worlds (1962) aka Tales From the Ten Worlds
The Nine Billion Names of God (1967)
The Lion of Comarre: And Other Stories (1968)
Earthlight And Other Stories (1971)
Of Time and Stars (1972)
The Wind from the Sun (1972)
The Best of Arthur C Clarke 1932-1955 (1973)
Best of Arthur C. Clarke: 1956-1972 (1977)
Four Great SF Novels (1978)
Possessed: And Other Stories (1978)
Arthur C. Clarke: 2001, A Space Odyssey; The City and the Stars; The Deep Range, A Fall of Moondust; Rendezvous With Rama (1980)
Lion of Comarre / Against the Fall of Night (1982)
The Sentinel (1982)
The Songs of Distant Earth: And Other Stories (1986)
The Best Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (1988)
Tales from Planet Earth (1989)
A Meeting with Medusa: And Other Stories (1990)
The Arthur C. Clarke Collection: 2001 a Space Odyssey/Transit of Earth/Fountains of Paradise/Childhood's End [ABRIDGED] (1995)
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)
The Ghost from the Grand Banks and the Deep Range (2001)
The Shining Ones: And Other Stories (2001)

Anthologies edited
Time Probe: The Sciences in Science Fiction (1967)
Three for Tomorrow (1970)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume Four (1981) (with George W Proctor)
Project Solar Sail (1986) (with David Brin)
Hal's Legacy (1996) (with David G Stork)
The Best of Sci-Fi and Fantasy (1999) (with Orson Scott Card)

Non fiction series
Blue Planet
1. The Coast of Coral (1956)
2. Reefs of Taprobane (1957)
3. The Treasure of the Great Reef (1964)

Non fiction
Interplanetary Flight (1950)
The Exploration of Space (1951)
The Exploration of the Moon (1954)
The Young Traveller in Space (1954) aka Going Into Space
The Making of a Moon (1957)
The Challenge of the Spaceship (1958)
Boy Beneath the Sea (1958)
Voice Across the Sea (1958)
The Challenge of the Sea (1960)
The First Five Fathoms (1960)
Indian Ocean Adventure (1961)
Profiles of the Future (1962)
Indian Ocean Treasure (1964) (with Mike Wilson)
Voices from the Sky (1965)
Man and Space: Life Science Library (1967)
The Coming of the Space Age (1967)
The Promise of Space (1968)
2001: Filming the Future (1968) (with Piers Bizony)
First on the Moon (1970)
Into Space (1971) (with Robert Silverberg)
The Lost Worlds of 2001 (1972)
Report on Planet Three: And Other Speculations (1972)
Beyond Jupiter (1972) (with Chesley Bonestell)
2001 and Beyond (1975)
Technology and the Frontiers of Knowledge (1975)
Mysterious Worlds (1980)
Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1981) (with John Fairley)
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1981) (with John Fairley and Simon Welfare)
1984 Spring: A Choice of Futures (1984)
Ascent to Orbit: Scientific Autobiography - Technical Writings of Arthur C.Clarke (1984)
The Odyssey File (1984) (with Peter Hyams)
More Than One Universe (1985)
Frontline of Discovery: Science on the Brink of Tomorrow (1985)
Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019: Life in the 21st Century (1986)
Arthur C. Clarke's chronicles of the strange and mysterious (1987) (with John Fairley)
Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography (1988)
How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village (1988)
The Worlds of Galileo (1988)
An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural: James Randi's Decidedly Skeptical Definitions of Alternate Realities (1992) (with James Randi)
The Fantastic Muse (1992)
By Space Possessed (1993)
The Snows of Olympus: A Garden on Mars (1994)
Arthur C. Clarke's A-Z of Mysteries (1994)
The Colours of Infinity (1994)
The Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1994)
The Supernatural A-Z (1995) (with James Randi)
Macroshift: Navigating the Transformation to a Sustainable World (1997)
Arthur C. Clarke and Lord Dunsany: A Correspondence (1998) (with Lord Dunsany)
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysteries (1998) (with John Fairley and Simon Welfare)
Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (1999)
Welcome to the Wired World: The New Networked Economy (1999)
Sri Lanka: The Emerald Island (2000)
Arthur C. Clarke and C. S. Lewis: A Correspondence (2001) (with C S Lewis)
Moonwatcher's Memoir: A Diary of 2001, a Space Odyssey (2002) (with Dan Richter)
From Narnia to a Space Odyssey: The War of Letters Between Arthur C. Clarke and C.S. Lewis (2003) (with C S Lewis)

Anthologies containing stories by Arthur C Clarke
New Worlds for Old (1953)
No Place Like Earth (1954)
Stories for Tomorrow (1954)
Time to Come (1954)
The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 5th Series (1956)
Best SF 2 (1956)
The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 7th Series (1958)
A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume 2 (1959)
13 Great Stories of Science Fiction (1960)
The Fantastic Universe Omnibus (1960)
Out of This World 3 (1962)
Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales (1963)
Novelets of Science Fiction (1963)
Spectrum 3 (1963)
The Best Science Fiction Stories 3 (1964)
Tales of Science Fiction (1964)
An ABC of Science Fiction (1966)
The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1966)
Science Fiction for People Who Hate Science Fiction (1966)
The Future Makers (1968)
One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (1968)
The Stars and Under (1968)
Voyager 5: Collector's Edition (1969)
A Wilderness of Stars (1970)
3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1972)
The Best Science Fiction of the Year (1972)
Nebula Award Stories 8 (1973)
New Writings in SF 22 (1973)
The Nightmare Reader Volume 2 (1973)
The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus (1973)
Modern Science Fiction (1974)
Tales of Terror From Outer Space (1975)
The Best Science Fiction Stories (1977)
The Infinite Arena (1977)
To Follow a Star (1977)
The Science Fictional Solar System (1979)
A Century of Science Fiction 1950-1959 (1981)
The Golden Age of Science Fiction (1981)
The Great SF Stories 8: 1946 (1982)
The Great SF Stories 9: 1947 (1983)
Election Day 2084: Science Fiction Stories About the Future of Politics (1984)
Random Access Messages of the Computer Age (1984)
Top Science Fiction (1984)
The Great SF Stories 13: 1951 (1985)
Nebula Awards 21 (1986)
Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century (1987)
Space Wars (1988)
Curses (1989)
Between Time and Terror (1990)
The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories (1992)
The Ascent of Wonder (1994)
Nebula Award-Winning Novellas (1994)
Reel Future (1994)
Dinosaurs (1995)
Science Fiction, Science Fact, and You (1995)
Space Movies: Classic Science Fiction Films (1995)
The Ultimate Alien (1995)
The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 2 (1996)
Space Stories (1996)
The Wizards of Odd: Comic Tales of Fantasy (1996)
Cyber-Killers (1997)
The Flying Sorcerers (1997)
Don't Open This Book! (1998)
The Playboy Book of Science Fiction (1998)
The Road to Science Fiction 5: The British Way (1998)
The Young Oxford Book of Aliens (1998)
Bangs And Whimpers: Stories About the End of the World (1999)
Vintage Science Fiction (1999)
Bruce Coville's Strange Worlds (2000)
Explorers: SF Adventures to Far Horizons (2000)

Short stories
Travel By Wire! (1937)
Retreat from Earth (1938)
The Awakening (1942)
Whacky (1942)
Loophole (1946)
Rescue Party (1946)
Technical Error (1946)
Castaway (1947)
The Curse (1947)
The Fires Within (1947) (writing as E G O'Brien)
Inheritance (1948)
Breaking Strain (1949)
The Forgotten Enemy (1949)
Hide and Seek (1949)
History Lesson (1949)
Transience (1949)
The Wall of Darkness (1949)
Guardian Angel (1950)
Nemesis (1950)
The Road to the Sea (1950)
Silence, Please! (1950)
Time's Arrow (1950)
A Walk in the Dark (1950)
Captain Wyxtpthll's Flying Saucer (1951)
'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...' (1951)
Second Dawn (1951)
The Sentinel (1951)
Sentinel of Eternity (1951)
Superiority (1951)
Trouble with the Natives (1951)
All the Time in the World (1952)
The Possessed (1952)
Encounter at Dawn (1953)
Encounter in the Dawn (1953)
Expedition to Earth (1953)
Jupiter V (1953)
The Nine Billion Names of God (1953)
The Parasite (1953)
Armaments Race (1954)
Big Game Hunt (1954)
No Morning After (1954)
Patent Pending (1954)
Refugee (1955)
The Star (1955) Hugo
This Earth of Majesty (1955)
What Goes Up (1955)
All That Glitters (1956)
Green Fingers (1956)
The Next Tenants (1956)
The Pacifist (1956)
Publicity Campaign (1956)
A Question of Residence (1956)
The Reluctant Orchid (1956)
Robin Hood, FRS (1956)
The Starting Line (1956)
The Ultimate Melody (1956)
Venture to the Moon (1956)
Watch This Space (1956)
The Call of the Stars (1957)
Cold War (1957)
Critical Mass (1957)
The Defestration of Ermintrude Inch (1957)
Feathered Friend (1957)
Freedom of Space (1957)
Let There Be Light (1957)
The Man Who Ploughed the Sea (1957)
Moving Spirit (1957)
The Other Side of the Sky (1957)
Passer-By (1957)
Security Check (1957)
Sleeping Beauty (1957)
The Songs of Distant Earth (1957)
Special Delivery (1957)
Take a Deep Breath (1957)
Cosmic Casanova (1958)
The Haunted Spacesuit (1958)
Out of the Sun (1958)
A Slight Case of Sunstroke (1958)
Who's There? (1958)
Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting... (1959)
Crime on Mars (1960)
I Remember Babylon (1960)
Into the Comet (1960)
Summertime on Icarus (1960)
Trouble with Time (1960)
Before Eden (1961)
Death and the Senator (1961)
Hate (1961)
Saturn Rising (1961)
An Ape About the Hoose (1962)
Dog Star (1962)
The Secret (1963)
Sunjammer (1964)
The Wind from the Sun (1964)
Dial "F" for Frankenstein (1965)
The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told (1966)
A Meeting with Medusa (1971) Hugo (nominee) Nebula
Reunion (1971)
Transit of Earth (1971)
Rendezvous with Rama (excerpt) (1973)
The Steam-Powered Word Processor (1986)
The Wire Continuum (1998) (with Stephen Baxter)
Hibernaculum 46 (2000) (with Stephen Baxter)

Awards
Hugo Best Short story winner (1956) : The Star
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1963) : A Fall of Moondust
Hugo Best Novella nominee (1972) : A Meeting with Medusa
Nebula Best Novella winner (1973) : A Meeting with Medusa
John W Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel winner (1974) : Rendezvous with Rama
Nebula Best Novel winner (1974) : Rendezvous with Rama
Hugo Best Novel winner (1974) : Rendezvous with Rama
Nebula Best Novel winner (1980) : The Fountains of Paradise
Hugo Best Novel winner (1980) : The Fountains of Paradise
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1983) : 2010: Odyssey Two

Books about Arthur C Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography (1992) by Neil McAleer

Last updated - July 27th 2006