CLARKE, ARTHUR C.

born Dec. 16, 1917, Minehead, Somerset, Eng. in full Arthur Charles Clarke English writer, some of whose science-fiction concepts have had remarkable parallels, particularly in the development of satellite communications. Interested in science from childhood, Clarke as a youth mapped the Moon with the aid of a telescope of his own construction. Lacking sufficient money for higher education, he worked as a government auditor from 1936 to 1941. He also joined a small, advanced group that called itself the British Interplanetary Society. From 1941 to 1946 Clarke served in the Royal Air Force, becoming a radar instructor and technician. While in the service he published his first science-fiction stories and in 1945 wrote for Wireless World an article entitled Extra-Terrestrial Relays, predicting in detail a communications satellite system that would relay radio and television signals all over the world. The reaction of even specialized readers was skeptical. Twenty years later, however, the Early Bird synchronous satellites were actually launched. After the war, Clarke secured a degree from King's College, London (B.Sc., 1948), with honours in physics and mathematics, and then became a prolific science-fiction writer, known especially for such novels as Earthlight (1955), A Fall of Moondust (1961), and The Fountains of Paradise (1979). Collections of essays and lectures include Voices from the Sky (1965), The View from Serendip (1977), Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography (1984), and Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography (1989). In the 1950s Clarke developed an interest in undersea exploration and moved to Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he embarked on a second career combining skin diving and photography; he reported his various underwater ventures in a succession of books, the first of which was The Coast of Coral (1956). In the 1960s Clarke collaborated with motion-picture director Stanley Kubrick in making the innovative and highly praised science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), based on Clarke's short story The Sentinel (1951) and subsequently developed into a novel (1968). A sequel novel, 2010: Odyssey Two (1982), was released as a film in 1984. Later novels in the series include 2061: Odyssey Three (1987) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997).