Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke used science fiction as a vehicle for exploring his philosophical ideas from a very young age. As a young man in London, Clarke began to write science fiction around the time he began studying space science and joined the British Interplanetary Society. One of the first topics he explored was mankind’s possible future evolution should strangers from another planet arrive on Earth. During World War II, he enlisted and was put in charge of very sophisticated radar, an experience he recalled in his non-fiction book, Glide Path.

In 1945, he published a science fiction story that lay the foundations for satellite communications by presenting the possibility of stations orbiting in space. Thanks to his imagination, these stations were created 25 years later. Queen Elizabeth II made him a Knight of the British Empire in 1998 and a satellite station, 36,000km from Ecuador, bears his name. Despite all this, his fans will always remember him as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, his masterpiece, skillfully made into a film by Stanley Kubrick. Clarke and Kubrick were both nominated for an Oscar for the 1968 film.

Clarke also participated in the CBS television transmissions of the Apollo 11, 12 and 15 space missions. In 1985, the author published the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, entitled 2010: Odyssey Two, which was also made into a film. In 1998, he published 3001: The Final Odyssey. Clarke’s works include over seventy books, split between science fiction and non-fiction works.