Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Novelist and Futurist

Arthur C. Clarke, the science-fiction writer and futurist best known for the novel adapted for the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died yesterday at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was 90.The author, scientist, space expert and underwater diver was one of the most prolific and renowned science-fiction writers, publishing more than 30 novels, at least 13 short-story collections and 28 works of non-fiction. He was honored with a British knighthood in 2000, and his work inspired the names of some spacecraft, an asteroid and even a species of dinosaur.Clarke’s visions of the future took form in geostationary satellites, which some credit as a blueprint for modern-day communication methods. In 1945, he set out his ideas in an article, “Extra-Terrestrial Relays,” published in the Wireless World magazine. Geostationary satellites orbit the Earth at the same speed that the Earth spins on its axis, making them ideal for telecommunications relays. Other visions included space elevators that would propel people beyond the Earth via a cable.“He had influenced the world in the best way possible,” writer Ray Bradbury said in Neil McAleer’s 1992 book “Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography.”Arthur Charles Clarke was born on Dec. 16, 1917, in his grandmother’s house in the southwest English coastal town of Minehead. His father, Charles, worked for the postal-service and then turned to farming. Clarke’s mother, Nora, worked as a post-office telegraphist before marrying.Clarke’s early exposure to developments in communications such as the telephone and telegraph helped trigger his later visions of the future. At the age of 11, Clarke’s interest in science fiction was sparked by a friend who showed him a 1928 issue of Amazing Stories magazine, depicting one of Jupiter’s moons and a spaceship with earthlings aboard. Fossils and dinosaurs also captured the future writer’s young imagination after his father gave him some cards with pictures of prehistoric animals.Clarke’s father died at age 43 from experimental mercury injections administered for a lung condition caused by the inhalation of poison gas in the trenches of World War I. The family was left impoverished, and his mother took in lodgers.Clarke moved to London and joined the British Interplanetary Society. He also began to write science fiction. When World War II began in 1939, Clarke enlisted in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist. He documented the experience of pioneering radar in his semi-autobiographical novel “Glide Path.”In 1946, the author attended King’s College London, where he gained first-class honors in physics and mathematics in 1948.The same year, Clarke wrote the most important story of his life, “The Sentinel,” which he submitted to a British Broadcasting Corp.competition. It was rejected. The story became the basis for his most famous work: “2001: A Space Odyssey.”The film adaptation, which addressed themes of human evolution and extra-terrestrial life, became a sci-fi classic and won an Oscar for best visual effects in 1968.Clarke moved to Colombo in 1956, partly to pursue his interest in underwater diving along the coast of Sri Lanka. He eventually became a citizen. In one dive, he helped uncover a sunken ship, a story he related in “The Treasure of the Great Reef.”In 2004, Clarke survived the tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people, mostly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. His diving school was destroyed in the catastrophe.In a video speech released to mark the author’s 90th birthday, Clarke said he was wheelchair-bound, though that “doesn’t stop my mind from roaming the universe.”Clarke’s marriage to Marilyn Mayfield in 1953 lasted less than a year, though they didn’t formally divorce until 1964. He had no children.

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Novelist and Futurist

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Novelist and Futurist

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