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128-527: Encyclopedia Galactica first appeared in Isaac Asimov 's short story "Foundation" ( Astounding Science Fiction , May 1942), later republished as "The Encyclopedists" in the short-story collection Foundation (1951). Asimov's Encyclopedia Galactica was a compendium of all knowledge then available in the Galactic Empire , intended to preserve that knowledge in a remote region of the galaxy in

256-455: A Frankenstein plot in which they destroyed their creators. The Robot series has led to film adaptations. With Asimov's collaboration, in about 1977, Harlan Ellison wrote a screenplay of I, Robot that Asimov hoped would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction film ever made". The screenplay has never been filmed and was eventually published in book form in 1994. The 2004 movie I, Robot , starring Will Smith ,

384-495: A New York City Subway station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading. Asimov was afraid of flying , doing so only twice: once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station and once returning home from Oʻahu in 1946. Consequently, he seldom traveled great distances. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as

512-495: A science fiction film ; he portrayed himself in the film 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. When tantalum mining for mobile phone manufacture threatened

640-859: A wheelchair most of the time thereafter. Clarke was for many years a vice-patron of the British Polio Fellowship . 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". The same year, he became the first chancellor of the International Space University , serving from 1989 to 2004. He also served as chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka from 1979 to 2002. In 1994, Clarke appeared in

768-434: A 22-year-old American divorcee with a young son. They separated permanently after six months, although the divorce was not finalised until 1964. "The marriage was incompatible from the beginning", said Clarke. Marilyn never remarried and died in 1991. Clarke also never remarried, but was close to a Sri Lankan man, Leslie Ekanayake (13 July 1947 – 4   July 1977), whom Clarke called his "only perfect friend of

896-487: A Judah Asimov Scholarship Fund at Brandeis University . In 2006, he was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York to the inaugural class of winners of the Great Immigrants Award . In 1977, Asimov had a heart attack . In December 1983, he had triple bypass surgery at NYU Medical Center, during which he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion . His HIV status was kept secret out of concern that

1024-552: A civilian chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 's Naval Air Experimental Station and lived in the Walnut Hill section of West Philadelphia . In September 1945, he was conscripted into the post-war U.S. Army ; if he had not had his birth date corrected while at school, he would have been officially 26 years old and ineligible. In 1946, a bureaucratic error caused his military allotment to be stopped, and he

1152-479: A college-level textbook called Biochemistry and Human Metabolism . Following the brief orbit of the first human-made satellite Sputnik I by the USSR in 1957, he wrote more nonfiction, particularly popular science books, and less science fiction. Over the next quarter-century, he wrote only four science fiction novels, and 120 nonfiction books. Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with

1280-632: A commentator on science and technology, especially at the time of the Apollo space program . On 20 July 1969, Clarke appeared as a commentator for the CBS News broadcast of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008, first in Unawatuna on the south coast, and then in Colombo . Initially, he and his friend Mike Wilson travelled around Sri Lanka, diving in

1408-609: A conversation with Campbell, Asimov wrote " Nightfall ", his 32nd story, in March and April 1941, and Astounding published it in September 1941. In 1968 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story ever written. In Nightfall and Other Stories Asimov wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and

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1536-485: A cosmos once thought to be province only of gods." 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 contemporary Frederik Pohl . The book was published after Clarke's death. 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

1664-538: A father image". Asimov believed his most enduring contributions would be his " Three Laws of Robotics " and the Foundation series . The Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing into the English language the words " robotics ", " positronic " (an entirely fictional technology), and " psychohistory " (which is also used for a different study on historical motivations). Asimov coined

1792-639: A flat in Gray's Inn Road , where he got the nickname "Ego" because of his absorption in subjects that interested him, and later named his office filled with memorabilia as his "ego chamber". During the Second World War 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

1920-767: A full novel of 70,000 words. The book appeared under the Doubleday imprint in January 1950 with the title of Pebble in the Sky . Doubleday published five more original science fiction novels by Asimov in the 1950s, along with the six juvenile Lucky Starr novels , the latter under the pseudonym "Paul French". Doubleday also published collections of Asimov's short stories, beginning with The Martian Way and Other Stories in 1955. The early 1950s also saw Gnome Press publish one collection of Asimov's positronic robot stories as I, Robot and his Foundation stories and novelettes as

2048-419: A full-time writer. He later said that unlike other Golden Age writers Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt —also first published in 1939, and whose talent and stardom were immediately obvious—Asimov "(this is not false modesty) came up only gradually". Through July 29, 1940, Asimov wrote 22 stories in 25 months, of which 13 were published; he wrote in 1972 that from that date he never wrote a science fiction story that

2176-425: A historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. Examples include Guide to Science , the three-volume Understanding Physics , and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery . He wrote on numerous other scientific and non-scientific topics, such as chemistry , astronomy , mathematics , history , biblical exegesis , and literary criticism . He

2304-408: A lifetime" in the dedication to his novel The Fountains of Paradise . Clarke is buried with Ekanayake, who predeceased him by three decades, in Colombo's 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 . Journalists who enquired of Clarke whether he

2432-468: 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 later rewrote and expanded 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 ,

2560-484: A paper to DARPA titled "On Creativity" containing ideas on how government-based science projects could encourage team members to think more creatively. Asimov met his first wife, Gertrude Blugerman (May 16, 1917, Toronto , Canada  – October 17, 1990, Boston , U.S. ), on a blind date on February 14, 1942, and married her on July 26. The couple lived in an apartment in West Philadelphia while Asimov

2688-412: A pseudonym. When it nevertheless appeared under his own name, Asimov grew concerned that his doctoral examiners might think he wasn't taking science seriously. At the end of the examination, one evaluator turned to him, smiling, and said, "What can you tell us, Mr. Asimov, about the thermodynamic properties of the compound known as thiotimoline". Laughing hysterically with relief, Asimov had to be led out of

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2816-529: A series of articles written by him on spacecraft and space travel. Clarke also contributed pieces to the "Debates and Discussions Corner", a counterpoint 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. He and some fellow science fiction writers shared

2944-469: A simple dive shop near Trincomalee. He dived often at Hikkaduwa , Trincomalee, and Nilaveli . The Sri Lankan government offered Clarke resident guest status in 1975. He was held in such high esteem that when fellow science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein came to visit, the Sri Lanka Air Force provided a helicopter to take them around the country. In the early 1970s, Clarke signed

3072-516: A strong formative influence on Asimov and became a personal friend. By the end of the month, Asimov completed a second story, " Stowaway ". Campbell rejected it on July 22 but—in "the nicest possible letter you could imagine"—encouraged him to continue writing, promising that Asimov might sell his work after another year and a dozen stories of practice. On October 21, 1938, he sold the third story he finished, " Marooned Off Vesta ", to Amazing Stories , edited by Raymond A. Palmer , and it appeared in

3200-785: A superior alien intelligence. In the cases of Childhood's End , and the 2001 series, this encounter produces a conceptual breakthrough that accelerates humanity into the next stage of its evolution. This also applies in the far-distant past (but our future) in The City and the Stars (and its original version, Against the Fall of Night ). In Clarke's authorised biography, Neil McAleer writes: "many readers and critics still consider Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke's best novel." But Clarke did not use ESP in any of his later stories, saying, "I've always been interested in ESP, and of course, Childhood's End

3328-534: A teenager, he joined the BIS, British Interplanetary Society . In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system using geostationary orbits . He was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946 to 1947 and again in 1951–1953. Clarke emigrated to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1956, to pursue his interest in scuba diving . That year, he discovered the underwater ruins of

3456-484: 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 and spawned sequels that along with the 2001 series formed the backbone of his later career. In 1986, Clarke was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America . In 1988, he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome , having originally contracted polio in 1962, and needed to use

3584-464: A used typewriter at age 16. His first published work was a humorous item on the birth of his brother for Boys High School's literary journal in 1934. In May 1937 he first thought of writing professionally, and began writing his first science fiction story, "Cosmic Corkscrew" (now lost), that year. On May 17, 1938, puzzled by a change in the schedule of Astounding Science Fiction , Asimov visited its publisher Street & Smith Publications . Inspired by

3712-430: A video message to his friends and fans bidding them good-bye. Clarke died in Colombo on 19 March 2008, at the age of 90. His aide described the cause as respiratory complications and heart failure stemming from post-polio syndrome. Just hours before Clarke's death, a major gamma-ray burst (GRB) reached Earth. Known as GRB 080319B , the burst set a new record as the farthest object that can be seen from Earth with

3840-518: A year. He expected to make chemistry his career, and was paid $ 2,600 annually at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, enough to marry his girlfriend; he did not expect to make much more from writing than the $ 1,788.50 he had earned from the 28 stories he had already sold over four years. Asimov left science fiction fandom and no longer read new magazines, and might have left the writing profession had not Heinlein and de Camp been his coworkers at

3968-409: 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." The novel ended up being published a few months after the release of the movie. Due to

Encyclopedia Galactica - Misplaced Pages Continue

4096-520: Is my compulsion to write ... That means that my idea of a pleasant time is to go up to my attic, sit at my electric typewriter (as I am doing right now), and bang away, watching the words take shape like magic before my eyes. Asimov's career can be divided into several periods. His early career, dominated by science fiction, began with short stories in 1939 and novels in 1950. This lasted until about 1958, all but ending after publication of The Naked Sun (1957). He began publishing nonfiction as co-author of

4224-497: 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. Clarke's first venture into film was 2001: A Space Odyssey , directed by Stanley Kubrick . 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

4352-523: Is tasked with creating "the Fundamental Knowledge System which accumulates, sorts, keeps in order and renders available everything that is known". As pointed out by Wein, this Wells book was at its best-known and most influential in the late 1930s – coinciding with "the period of incubation" when the young Asimov became interested in science fiction, reading a lot of it and starting to formulate his own ideas. Patricio Manns analyzed

4480-585: Is the Foundation series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. The Galactic Empire novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. Later, with Foundation and Earth (1986), he linked this distant future to

4608-613: The Battlestar Galactica television series being broadcast at the time. The term has been used in non-fictional contexts as well. One example is its use by Carl Sagan (1934–1996) in his 1980 book Cosmos , and the 12th episode of his documentary of the same name , to refer to a text where hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations could store all of their information and knowledge. Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( / ˈ æ z ɪ m ɒ v / AZ -ih-mov ; c.  January 2, 1920  – April 6, 1992)

4736-527: The Humanist Manifesto . From 1985 until his death in 1992, he served as honorary president of the AHA, and was succeeded by his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut . He was also a close friend of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry , and earned a screen credit as "special science consultant" on Star Trek: The Motion Picture for his advice during production. Asimov was a founding member of

4864-517: The Battle of Britain . Clarke spent most of his wartime service working on ground-controlled approach (GCA) radar, as documented in the semiautobiographical Glide Path , his only non-science fiction novel. Although GCA did not see much practical use during the war, after several years of development it proved vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949. Clarke initially served in the ranks and

4992-508: The Boston University School of Medicine . This was in large part due to his years-long correspondence with William Boyd , a former associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University, who initially contacted Asimov to compliment him on his story Nightfall . Upon receiving a promotion to professor of immunochemistry , Boyd reached out to Asimov, requesting him to be his replacement. The initial offer of professorship

5120-516: The British Interplanetary Society from 1946 to 1947 and again from 1951 to 1953. Although he was not the originator of the concept of geostationary satellites , one of his most important contributions in this field was 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 British Interplanetary Society in 1945. The concept

5248-640: The Columbia University School of General Studies ) in 1939. After two rounds of rejections by medical schools, Asimov applied to the graduate program in chemistry at Columbia in 1939; initially he was rejected and then only accepted on a probationary basis. He completed his Master of Arts degree in chemistry in 1941 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry in 1948. During his chemistry studies, he also learned French and German. From 1942 to 1945 during World War II , between his masters and doctoral studies, Asimov worked as

Encyclopedia Galactica - Misplaced Pages Continue

5376-750: The Encyclopedia Galactica as a literary device throughout his Foundation series , beginning many of the book sections or chapters with a short extract from the Encyclopedia as epigraphs , discussing a key character or event in the story. This provides the reader with a hazy idea of what is to come. Theodore Wein considers the Encyclopedia Galactica as possibly inspired by a reference in H. G. Wells 's The Shape of Things to Come (1933). The future world envisioned by Wells includes an "Encyclopaedic organization which centres upon Barcelona, with seventeen million active workers" and which

5504-410: The Encyclopedia Galactica as a paratextual element of Asimov's work, intended to contextualize the action, to bring the trilogy closer to the historical novel and to inform the reader about a possible palimpsestic reading. Various authors have invoked the Encyclopedia Galactica in both science and science fiction . The first may have been author Frank Holby's short story "The Strange Case of

5632-532: 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 ,

5760-542: The Latin alphabet , Asimov's father spelled it with an S, believing this letter to be pronounced like Z (as in German), and so it became Asimov. This later inspired one of Asimov's short stories, " Spell My Name with an S ". Asimov refused early suggestions of using a more common name as a pseudonym, believing that its recognizability helped his career. After becoming famous, he often met readers who believed that "Isaac Asimov"

5888-547: The Mirror subsequently published an apology, and Clarke chose not to sue for defamation . The Independent reported that a similar story was not published, allegedly because Clarke was a friend of newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch . Clarke himself said, "I take an extremely dim view of people mucking about with boys", and Rupert Murdoch promised him the reporters responsible would never work in Fleet Street again. Clarke

6016-580: The Robot series, creating a unified " future history " for his works. He also wrote more than 380 short stories , including the social science fiction novelette " Nightfall ", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America . Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French. Most of his popular science books explain concepts in

6144-608: The SS ; France for a trip mostly devoted to lectures in London and Birmingham, though he also found time to visit Stonehenge and Shakespeare's birthplace. Asimov was a teetotaler . He was an able public speaker and was regularly invited to give talks about science in his distinct New York accent . He participated in many science fiction conventions , where he was friendly and approachable. He patiently answered tens of thousands of questions and other mail with postcards and

6272-595: The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). 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. 2001: A Space Odyssey , Clarke's most famous work,

6400-841: The Trap Door Spiders , which served as the basis of his fictional group of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers . He later used his essay on Moriarty's work as the basis for a Black Widowers story, " The Ultimate Crime ", which appeared in More Tales of the Black Widowers . In 1984, the American Humanist Association (AHA) named him the Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of

6528-470: The Upper West Side of Manhattan where he lived for the rest of his life. He began seeing Janet O. Jeppson , a psychiatrist and science-fiction writer, and married her on November 30, 1973, two weeks after his divorce from Gertrude. Asimov was a claustrophile : he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces. In the third volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in

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6656-584: The Wendell Urth mystery stories and the Robot novels featuring Elijah Baley . In his later years, Asimov found enjoyment traveling on cruise ships , beginning in 1972 when he viewed the Apollo 17 launch from a cruise ship . On several cruises, he was part of the entertainment program, giving science-themed talks aboard ships such as the Queen Elizabeth 2 . He sailed to England in June 1974 on

6784-592: The anti-AIDS prejudice might extend to his family members. He died in Manhattan on April 6, 1992, and was cremated. The cause of death was reported as heart and kidney failure . Ten years following Asimov's death, Janet and Robyn Asimov agreed that the HIV story should be made public; Janet revealed it in her edition of his autobiography, It's Been a Good Life . [T]he only thing about myself that I consider to be severe enough to warrant psychoanalytic treatment

6912-437: The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan . Many of his short stories mention or quote Gilbert and Sullivan. He was a prominent member of The Baker Street Irregulars , the leading Sherlock Holmes society, for whom he wrote an essay arguing that Professor Moriarty's work "The Dynamics of An Asteroid" involved the willful destruction of an ancient, civilized planet. He was also a member of the male-only literary banqueting club

7040-616: The geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometres (22,000 mi) above the equator is officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union as the Clarke Orbit . His 1951 book, The Exploration of Space , was used by the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun to convince President John F. Kennedy that it was possible to go to the Moon. Following the 1968 release of 2001 , Clarke became much in demand as

7168-467: The moniker "Prophet of the Space Age". His science fiction writings in particular earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which along with a large readership, made him one of the towering figures of the genre. For many years Clarke, Robert Heinlein , and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction. Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel . In 1934, while still

7296-413: The naked eye . It occurred about 7.5 billion years ago, the light taking that long to reach Earth. Larry Sessions, a science writer for Sky and Telescope magazine blogging on earthsky.org, suggested that the burst be named the "Clarke Event". 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

7424-575: The pulp magazines sold in his family's candy store. At first his father forbade reading pulps until Asimov persuaded him that because the science fiction magazines had "Science" in the title, they must be educational. At age 18 he joined the Futurians science fiction fan club , where he made friends who went on to become science fiction writers or editors. Asimov began writing at the age of 11, imitating The Rover Boys with eight chapters of The Greenville Chums at College . His father bought him

7552-411: The second grade ). His mother got him into first grade a year early by claiming he was born on September 7, 1919. In third grade he learned about the "error" and insisted on an official correction of the date to January 2. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1928 at the age of eight. After becoming established in the U.S., his parents owned a succession of candy stores in which everyone in

7680-418: The 100s category, but none of his own books were classified in that category. According to UNESCO 's Index Translationum database , Asimov is the world's 24th-most-translated author. No matter how various the subject matter I write on, I was a science-fiction writer first and it is as a science-fiction writer that I want to be identified. Asimov became a science fiction fan in 1929, when he began reading

7808-711: The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ) and is listed in its Pantheon of Skeptics. In a discussion with James Randi at CSICon 2016 regarding the founding of CSICOP, Kendrick Frazier said that Asimov was "a key figure in the Skeptical movement who is less well known and appreciated today, but was very much in

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7936-627: The Encyclopaedia and focusing on a specific aspect of the Orion's Arm universe. There was a series of five video documentaries in 1993, collectively called Encyclopædia Galactica , with the episode titles “The Inner Solar System”, “The Outer Solar System”, “Star Trekking”, “Discovery”, and “Astronomy and the Stars”. The videos were produced by York Films of England and distributed by Encyclopædia Britannica (Australia). Other entities associated with

8064-467: The July 1986 issue of Playboy magazine, when asked if he had had a bisexual experience, Clarke stated, "Of course. Who hasn't?" 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 publicise his sexuality – that wasn't the focus of his life – but if asked, he

8192-755: The March 1939 issue. Asimov was paid $ 64 (equivalent to $ 1,385 in 2023), or one cent a word. Two more stories appeared that year, " The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use " in the May Amazing and " Trends " in the July Astounding , the issue fans later selected as the start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction . For 1940, ISFDB catalogs seven stories in four different pulp magazines, including one in Astounding . His earnings became enough to pay for his education, but not yet enough for him to become

8320-409: The Missing Hero" in the July 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction which featured Sebastian Lelong, editor of the Encyclopedia . It was also a common fixture in previous incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes comic books, and has appeared in the Star Wars expanded universe and Superman comics set in the future. The "Encyclopedia Galactica" was also mentioned as being a collection of all

8448-460: The Navy Yard and previously sold stories continued to appear. In 1942, Asimov published the first of his Foundation stories—later collected in the Foundation trilogy : Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953). The books describe the fall of a vast interstellar empire and the establishment of its eventual successor. They feature his fictional science of psychohistory , whose theories could predict

8576-399: The November 1928 issue of Amazing Stories in 1929; Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon in 1930; and The Conquest of Space by David Lasser in 1931. 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

8704-404: The Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal , or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has

8832-511: The United States and Sri Lanka. Clarke and Asimov first met in New York City in 1953, and they traded friendly insults and gibes for decades. They established an oral agreement, the "Clarke–Asimov Treaty", that when asked who was better, the two would say Clarke was the better science fiction writer and Asimov was the better science writer. In 1972, Clarke put the "treaty" on paper in his dedication to Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations . In 1984, Clarke testified before Congress against

8960-483: The United States via Liverpool on the RMS Baltic , arriving on February 3, 1923 when he was three years old. His parents spoke Yiddish and English to him; he never learned Russian , his parents using it as a secret language "when they wanted to discuss something privately that my big ears were not to hear". Growing up in Brooklyn , New York , Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five (and later taught his sister to read as well, enabling her to enter school in

9088-487: The academically qualified Jewish and Italian-American students who applied to the more prestigious Columbia College , but exceeded the unwritten ethnic admission quotas which were common at the time. Originally a zoology major, Asimov switched to chemistry after his first semester because he disapproved of "dissecting an alley cat". After Seth Low Junior College closed in 1936, Asimov finished his Bachelor of Science degree at Columbia's Morningside Heights campus (later

9216-460: The ancient original Koneswaram Temple in Trincomalee . Clarke augmented his popularity in the 1980s, as the host of television shows such as Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World . He lived in Sri Lanka until his death. Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989 "for services to British cultural interests in Sri Lanka". He was knighted in 1998 and

9344-445: The blessing of, or at the request of, Asimov's widow, Janet Asimov . In 1948, he also wrote a spoof chemistry article , " The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline ". At the time, Asimov was preparing his own doctoral dissertation , which would include an oral examination. Fearing a prejudicial reaction from his graduate school evaluation board at Columbia University , Asimov asked his editor that it be released under

9472-441: The book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001). For much of the later 20th century, Clarke, Isaac Asimov , and Robert A. Heinlein were informally known as the "Big Three" of science fiction writers. 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 during visits to

9600-487: The coral waters around the coast with the Beachcombers Club. In 1957, during a dive trip off Trincomalee , Clarke discovered the underwater ruins of a temple, which subsequently made the region popular with divers. He described it in his 1957 book The Reefs of Taprobane . This was his second diving book after the 1956 The Coast of Coral . Though Clarke lived mostly in Colombo, he set up a small dive school and

9728-439: The effect of making the book into a novelisation , and that Kubrick had manipulated circumstances to play down 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, though, wrote thorough explanations of "cause and effect" for the events in the novel. James Randi later recounted that upon seeing

9856-480: The event of a foreseen galactic catastrophe. The Encyclopedia is later revealed to be an element in an act of misdirection, with its real purpose being to concentrate a group of knowledgeable scientists on a remote, resource-poor planet named Terminus , with the long-term aim of revitalizing the technologically stagnant and scientifically dormant empire. Originally published in a physical medium, it later becomes computerized and subject to continual change. Asimov used

9984-400: The family was expected to work. The candy stores sold newspapers and magazines, which Asimov credited as a major influence in his lifelong love of the written word, as it presented him as a child with an unending supply of new reading material (including pulp science fiction magazines ) that he could not have otherwise afforded. Asimov began reading science fiction at age nine, at the time that

10112-520: The first-season episode " Datalore " called the positronic brain "Asimov's dream". Asimov was so prolific and diverse in his writing that his books span all major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification except for category 100, philosophy and psychology . However, he wrote several essays about psychology, and forewords for the books The Humanist Way (1988) and In Pursuit of Truth (1982), which were classified in

10240-512: 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 ). In December 2007 on his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded

10368-567: The future course of history according to dynamical laws regarding the statistical analysis of mass human actions. Campbell raised his rate per word, Orson Welles purchased rights to " Evidence ", and anthologies reprinted his stories. By the end of the war Asimov was earning as a writer an amount equal to half of his Navy Yard salary, even after a raise, but Asimov still did not believe that writing could support him, his wife, and future children. His "positronic" robot stories —many of which were collected in I, Robot (1950)—were begun at about

10496-738: The genre was becoming more science-centered. Asimov was also a frequent patron of the Brooklyn Public Library during his formative years. Asimov attended New York City public schools from age five, including Boys High School in Brooklyn . Graduating at 15, he attended the City College of New York for several days before accepting a scholarship at Seth Low Junior College . This was a branch of Columbia University in Downtown Brooklyn designed to absorb some of

10624-511: The gorillas in 2001, he lent his voice to their cause. The dive shop that he set up continues to operate from Trincomalee through the Arthur C Clarke Foundation. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Clarke presented his television programmes Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World , Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers , and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe . On a trip to Florida in 1953, Clarke met and quickly married Marilyn Mayfield,

10752-410: 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

10880-586: The knowledge of a galactic Empire in the 1989 science fiction short story " The Originist " by American novelist Orson Scott Card , and took place in Isaac Asimov's fictional "Foundation" Universe. In the comic science fiction series by Douglas Adams , the Galactica is frequently contrasted with the apparently more popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy : In many of the more relaxed civilizations on

11008-506: 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. Titled The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010 , and co-authored with Hyams, it illustrates his fascination with

11136-413: The premiere of 2001 , Clarke left the theatre at the intermission in tears, 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. In 1972, Clarke published The Lost Worlds of 2001 , which included his accounts of

11264-534: The production of the video series were Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation , The Learning Channel (retitled Amazing Space ), The Discovery Channel Europe , S4C Wales , System TV France and Yleisradio Finland . There was an Encyclopedia Galactica: from the Fleet Library aboard the Battlestar Galactica published in 1978. Aimed at a juvenile audience , this was a tie in to

11392-429: The production, and alternative 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. 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

11520-665: The public eye back then." He said that Asimov's being associated with CSICOP "gave it immense status and authority" in his eyes. Asimov described Carl Sagan as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky . Asimov was an on-and-off member and honorary vice president of Mensa International , albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". After his father died in 1969, Asimov annually contributed to

11648-435: The publication of Foundation's Edge . From then until his death, Asimov published several more sequels and prequels to his existing novels, tying them together in a way he had not originally anticipated, making a unified series. There are many inconsistencies in this unification, especially in his earlier stories. Doubleday and Houghton Mifflin published about 60% of his work up to 1969, Asimov stating that "both represent

11776-412: The room. After a five-minute wait, he was summoned back into the room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov". Demand for science fiction greatly increased during the 1950s, making it possible for a genre author to write full-time. In 1949, book publisher Doubleday 's science fiction editor Walter I. Bradbury accepted Asimov's unpublished "Grow Old with Me" (40,000 words), but requested that it be extended to

11904-401: The same time. They promulgated a set of rules of ethics for robots (see Three Laws of Robotics ) and intelligent machines that greatly influenced other writers and thinkers in their treatment of the subject. Asimov notes in his introduction to the short story collection The Complete Robot (1982) that he was largely inspired by the tendency of robots up to that time to fall consistently into

12032-507: The screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey , widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science fiction writer, an avid populariser of space travel, and a futurist of a distinguished ability. He wrote many books and many essays for popular magazines. In 1961, he received the Kalinga Prize , a UNESCO award for popularising science. Clarke's science and science fiction writings earned him

12160-404: 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

12288-677: The sum of everything all human beings know or have ever known might be nothing more than an infinitesimal fraction of the Encyclopedia Galactica ." "Encyclopedia Galactica" is mentioned by Charlie Sheen's character in The Arrival (1996), and by Jodie Foster's character in Contact (1997). The Orion's Arm worldbuilding project uses a fictional database called the Encyclopaedia Galactica as its primary framing device, each page presenting itself as an individual article of

12416-410: The term "robotics" without suspecting that it might be an original word; at the time, he believed it was simply the natural analogue of words such as mechanics and hydraulics , but for robots . Unlike his word "psychohistory", the word "robotics" continues in mainstream technical use with Asimov's original definition. Star Trek: The Next Generation featured androids with " positronic brains " and

12544-788: The thousands in attendance. Clarke's papers were donated to the National Air and Space Museum in 2014. On 8 January 2024, a portion of Clarke's ashes were launched on the Peregrine Mission One to the Moon. The Peregrine spacecraft failed to land on the moon, and the spacecraft disintegrated in the Earth's atmosphere on 19 January 2024. 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 "

12672-459: The three books of the Foundation trilogy . More positronic robot stories were republished in book form as The Rest of the Robots . Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke CBE FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British science fiction writer , science writer, futurist , inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote

12800-599: The two h's and say it again and you have Asimov. Asimov's family name derives from the first part of озимый хлеб ( ozímyj khleb ), meaning ' winter grain ' (specifically rye ) in which his great-great-great-grandfather dealt, with the Russian surname ending -ov added. Azimov is spelled Азимов in the Cyrillic alphabet . When the family arrived in the United States in 1923 and their name had to be spelled in

12928-497: The university's Mugar Memorial Library , to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gotlieb. In 1959, after a recommendation from Arthur Obermayer , Asimov's friend and a scientist on the U.S. missile defense project, Asimov was approached by DARPA to join Obermayer's team. Asimov declined on the grounds that his ability to write freely would be impaired should he receive classified information , but submitted

13056-487: The visit, he finished the story on June 19, 1938, and personally submitted it to Astounding editor John W. Campbell two days later. Campbell met with Asimov for more than an hour and promised to read the story himself. Two days later he received a detailed rejection letter. This was the first of what became almost weekly meetings with the editor while Asimov lived in New York, until moving to Boston in 1949; Campbell had

13184-738: The words " DON'T PANIC " inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. Robert A. Heinlein mentioned the Encyclopedia in chapter three of To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987): "... the computer that led the Lunar Revolution on time line three, code 'Neil Armstrong.' Let's skip the details; it's all in Encyclopedia Galacta (sic) and other books." In Arthur C. Clarke 's and Gentry Lee 's novel Rama II (1989), Nicole des Jardins says to Richard Wakefield, "Just think,

13312-506: The world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'." "Nightfall" is an archetypal example of social science fiction , a term he created to describe a new trend in the 1940s, led by authors including him and Heinlein, away from gadgets and space opera and toward speculation about the human condition . After writing " Victory Unintentional " in January and February 1942, Asimov did not write another story for

13440-696: 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. He was promoted to flying officer on 27 November 1943. He was appointed chief training instructor at RAF Honiley in Warwickshire and was demobilised with the rank of flight lieutenant . After the war, he attained a first-class degree in mathematics and physics from King's College London . After this, he worked as assistant editor at Physics Abstracts . Clarke served as president of

13568-551: Was a distinctive pseudonym created by an author with a common name. Asimov was born in Petrovichi , Russian SFSR , on an unknown date between October 4, 1919, and January 2, 1920, inclusive. Asimov celebrated his birthday on January 2. Asimov's parents were Russian Jews , Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, the son of a miller. He was named Isaac after his mother's father, Isaac Berman. Asimov wrote of his father, "My father, for all his education as an Orthodox Jew ,

13696-598: Was about that. But I've grown disillusioned, partly because after all this time, they're still arguing about whether these things happen. I suspect that telepathy does happen." 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. Almost all of his short stories can be found in

13824-717: Was adapted into the 1999 movie Bicentennial Man , starring Robin Williams . In 1966 the Foundation trilogy won the Hugo Award for the all-time best series of science fiction and fantasy novels, and they along with the Robot series are his most famous science fiction. Besides movies, his Foundation and Robot stories have inspired other derivative works of science fiction literature, many by well-known and established authors such as Roger MacBride Allen , Greg Bear , Gregory Benford , David Brin , and Donald Kingsbury . At least some of these appear to have been done with

13952-529: 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 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 The Ransom Trilogy

14080-517: Was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University . During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke . A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards . Best known for his hard science fiction , Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy , as well as popular science and other non-fiction . Asimov's most famous work

14208-694: Was awarded Sri Lanka's highest civil honour, Sri Lankabhimanya , in 2005. Clarke was born in Minehead , Somerset, England, and grew up in nearby Bishops Lydeard . As a boy, he lived on a farm, where he enjoyed stargazing , fossil collecting , and reading American science fiction pulp magazines . He received his secondary education at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton . Some of his early influences included dinosaur cigarette cards , which led to an enthusiasm for fossils starting about 1925. Clarke attributed his interest in science fiction to reading three items:

14336-422: Was based on an unrelated script by Jeff Vintar titled Hardwired , with Asimov's ideas incorporated later after the rights to Asimov's title were acquired. (The title was not original to Asimov but had previously been used for a story by Eando Binder .) Also, one of Asimov's robot short stories, " The Bicentennial Man ", was expanded into a novel The Positronic Man by Asimov and Robert Silverberg , and this

14464-622: Was employed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard (where two of his co-workers were L. Sprague de Camp and Robert A. Heinlein ). Gertrude returned to Brooklyn while he was in the army, and they both lived there from July 1946 before moving to Stuyvesant Town , Manhattan , in July 1948. They moved to Boston in May 1949, then to nearby suburbs Somerville in July 1949, Waltham in May 1951, and, finally, West Newton in 1956. They had two children, David (born 1951) and Robyn Joan (born 1955). In 1970, they separated and Asimov moved back to New York, this time to

14592-509: 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 which 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

14720-403: Was gay were told, "No, merely mildly cheerful." However, Michael Moorcock wrote: 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. In an interview in

14848-562: Was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to literature" at a ceremony in Colombo. The award of a knighthood had been announced in the 1998 New Year Honours list, but investiture with the award had been delayed, at Clarke's request, because of an accusation by the tabloid the Sunday Mirror of paying boys for sex. The charge was subsequently found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police. According to The Daily Telegraph ,

14976-574: Was not Orthodox in his heart", noting that "he didn't recite the myriad prayers prescribed for every action , and he never made any attempt to teach them to me." In 1921, Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed double pneumonia . Only Asimov survived. He had two younger siblings: a sister, Marcia (born Manya; June 17, 1922 – April 2, 2011), and a brother, Stanley (July 25, 1929 – August 16, 1995), who would become vice-president of Newsday . Asimov's family travelled to

15104-544: Was not published (except for two "special cases" ). By 1941 Asimov was famous enough that Donald Wollheim told him that he purchased " The Secret Sense " for a new magazine only because of his name, and the December 1940 issue of Astonishing —featuring Asimov's name in bold—was the first magazine to base cover art on his work, but Asimov later said that neither he nor anyone else—except perhaps Campbell—considered him better than an often published "third rater". Based on

15232-460: Was one of the few works of science fiction that should be considered literature. 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

15360-485: Was open and honest." Clarke accumulated 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 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." On 26 May 2000, he

15488-566: Was pleased to give autographs. He was of medium height, 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and stocky build. In his later years, he adopted a signature style of "mutton-chop" sideburns . He took to wearing bolo ties after his wife Janet objected to his clip-on bow ties. He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle, but did learn to drive a car after he moved to Boston. In his humor book Asimov Laughs Again , he describes Boston driving as "anarchy on wheels". Asimov's wide interests included his participation in later years in organizations devoted to

15616-510: Was promoted to tenured associate professor. In December 1957, Asimov was dismissed from his teaching post, with effect from June 30, 1958, due to his lack of research. After a struggle over two years, he reached an agreement with the university that he would keep his title and give the opening lecture each year for a biochemistry class. On October 18, 1979, the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry. Asimov's personal papers from 1965 onward are archived at

15744-523: Was published in Wireless World in October of that year. Clarke also wrote a number of nonfiction books describing the technical details and societal implications of rocketry and space flight. The most notable of these may be Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics (1950), The Exploration of Space (1951), and The Promise of Space (1968). In recognition of these contributions,

15872-455: Was published in April, while " Rescue Party ", his first sale, was published in May. 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

16000-473: Was removed from a task force days before it sailed to participate in Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll . He was promoted to corporal on July 11 before receiving an honorable discharge on July 26, 1946. After completing his doctorate and a postdoctoral year with Robert Elderfield , Asimov was offered the position of associate professor of biochemistry at

16128-427: Was the president of the American Humanist Association . Several entities have been named in his honor, including the asteroid (5020) Asimov , a crater on Mars , a Brooklyn elementary school, Honda 's humanoid robot ASIMO , and four literary awards . There are three very simple English words: 'Has', 'him' and 'of'. Put them together like this—'has-him-of'—and say it in the ordinary fashion. Now leave out

16256-510: Was then duly knighted. Although he and his home were unharmed by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami , his "Arthur C. Clarke Diving School" (now called "Underwater Safaris") at Hikkaduwa near Galle was destroyed. He made humanitarian appeals, and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation worked towards better disaster notification systems. 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

16384-424: Was withdrawn and Asimov was offered the position of instructor of biochemistry instead, which he accepted. He began work in 1949 with a $ 5,000 salary (equivalent to $ 64,000 in 2023), maintaining this position for several years. By 1952, however, he was making more money as a writer than from the university, and he eventually stopped doing research, confining his university role to lecturing students. In 1955, he

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