Sir Arthur C Clarke

Sir Arthur C Clarke:
Ninety Orbits Around the Sun

Arthur C Clarke (1917 – 2008) is best known as a science fiction writer who blended scientific expertise and poetic imagination.

He also wrote many non-fiction books on space travel, communication technologies, underwater exploration and future studies. Both his fiction and factual books have inspired generations of scientists, innovators and astronauts.

Clarke was versatile as he was creative, pursuing multiple careers as an undersea explorer, science populariser, television commentator and movie collaborator.

From covering Apollo Moon landings to probing mysterious phenomena, he became well known to millions of television viewers around the world. His advice was sought – and respected – by space programme managers in both the US and former Soviet Union.

Writer extraordinaire

In the end, however, he wanted to be remembered most as a writer – “one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well,” as he said in his 90th birthday reflections video in December 2007.

His literary output was formidable. In a career spanning over six decades, he authored 100 books as well as over 200 short stories and numerous essays on a broad range of topics.

Among his best-selling science fiction novels are Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama. In total, he wrote 22 science fiction novels, and won all the major awards in this literary genre at one time or another. In 1986, Science Fiction Writers of America named him a ‘Grand Master’ of science fiction.

A short story titled ‘The Sentinel’ was later expanded to make the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Clarke co-wrote with director Stanley Kubrick. Half a century later, 2001 is still regarded as the most important science fiction film made.

Clarke followed with the literary sequels 2010: Odyssey Two (published in 1982 and adapted into a movie in 1984), 2061: Odyssey Three (1987) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997).

“ 

I’ve had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer – one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well. ”

– Arthur C Clarke,
in 90th birthday reflections (2007)

“ 

I’ve had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer – one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well. ”

– Arthur C. Clarke,
in 90th birthday reflections (2007)

Wide influence

The influence of his writing has been far and wide, and been documented only anecdotally. For example, one of his short stories (‘Dial F for Frankenstein’) inspired British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to invent the World Wide Web.

In another instance revealed decades later, NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun had used Clarke’s 1951 book, The Exploration of Space, to convince US President John F Kennedy that Americans could and should go to the Moon.

Besides inspiring generations of techies and innovators through his popular science writing, Clarke also did some technical papers related to mathematics, astronomy and space.

Best known is “Extra-terrestrial Relays”, a 1945 paper where he was the first to outline the principles of global broadcasting via communication satellites in geostationary orbit. His vision, imagined a dozen years before the Space Age began, became a reality in the 1960s.

Clarke never patented the idea of communication satellites, and derived no financial benefits from the multi-billion dollar satellite industry that soon emerged. The geostationary orbit is now called ‘Clarke Orbit’ in his honour.

Another big idea he kept promoting is the space elevator — a cable anchored to the planet’s surface and extending into space, using which payloads can be launched into orbit costing much less energy than do rockets. Originally conceived by Russians and known to the technical community for decades, it was Clarke’s 1979 novel, The Fountains of Paradise, which popularised the concept to a global audience.

“ 

I’m sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who wrote about this and made people think about it. I’m rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books. ”

– Arthur C Clarke,
in July 1975 address to the U.S. Congress

“ 

I’m sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who wrote about this and made people think about it. I’m rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books. ”

– Arthur C Clarke,
in July 1975 address to the U.S. Congress

Sea and Serendip

Clarke was as much interested in exploring the ocean as he was in travelling to space. He had grown up close to the sea, and later realized that he could find underwater something close to the weightlessness of outer space. He was among the first generation of divers to use the aqua-lung, invented in the mid 1940s, to explore Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and then the Indian Ocean.

In his 1960 book The Challenge of the Sea and through his association with Wernher von Braun, Clarke showed NASA how weightlessness in space could be simulated underwater. It soon became an integral part of astronaut training.

It was diving in the tropical seas that first led him to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he settled down in 1956. Through his company Underwater Safaris, he pioneered dive training and underwater tourism in his adopted homeland.

Serendipity!

Serendip was one of many ancient names for modern day Sri Lanka – it was used by Arab traders. The English term ‘serendipity’ means a “fortunate happenstance” or “pleasant surprise”. It was coined by English historian Horace Walpole in 1754.

Exactly 200 years later, Arthur C Clarke accidentally discovered the land of Serendib while on his way to Australia. “My life has been dominated by three Ss – Space, Serendip, and the Sea” he wrote in 1978. “Space came first, and indeed led to the others in a roundabout but now apparently inevitable route.”

In fact, Clarke soon became Sri Lanka’s best known foreign resident (while remaining a British citizen). For half a century, he played an active role in the island as a public intellectual and a patron of art, science and higher education.

In 1998 Queen Elizabeth II honoured him with a Knighthood ‘for services to literature’. The Sri Lankan government presented him the country’s highest civilian honour in 2005. Additionally, Clarke received many honorary doctorates, awards and fellowships from literary, scientific and academic bodies worldwide.

More uncommon honours also came his way. In 1996, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid No 4923 in his honour. Palaeontologists at the University of Monash, Australia, named a newly discovered dinosaur species as Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei in 2003.

Early years

Born in Minehead, Somerset, England, on 16 December 1917, Arthur C (Charles) Clarke was the eldest in a family of four children who grew up on a small farm. Their father died when Arthur was 13.

The young Arthur experimented with discarded telephone and telegraph equipment, built his own telescope, and became an avid reader of science fiction pulp magazines. At 15, he joined the British Interplanetary Society set up in 1933 to promote space exploration, then merely a fantastic idea.

Educated at Huish’s Grammar School, Taunton, he worked briefly in the British civil service and served as a radio instructor in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Afterwards, he earned a first class degree in physics and mathematics from King’s College, London, and became a full time writer in 1950.

Young Arthur, around two years of age

Clarke with the Ekanayakes, his adopted Lankan family: clockwise Hector, Tamara, Cherene, Valerie and Melinda.

Personal life

Clarke with wife Marilyn Mayfield, circa 1954

Clarke married Marilyn Mayfield, an American, in 1953 and divorced in 1964. He had no children. He later adopted the Sri Lankan–Australian family of his business partner Hector Ekanayake.

He was affected by Post-Polio Syndrome during the last decade of his life which confined him to a wheelchair. However, he remained creative and engaged with the world to the end.

He also continued to dive even with reduced mobility, saying he felt “perfectly operational underwater”. His last dive was at age 75, but he continued to play table tennis past 80.

Clarke died on 19 March 2008, aged 90, and was buried at the Colombo general cemetery in a secular funeral. His epitaph, chosen years earlier, now adorns his tombstone: “He never grew up, but he never stopped growing.”

The Arthur C Clarke Trust, set up in 2001, now manages his diving company and preserves his Colombo home.

Clarke was an avid table tennis player

The Clarke siblings, L to R: Fred, Mary, Arthur and Michael

Sri Lankans Remembering Arthur C Clarke