Arthur C. Clarke

"The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale."

- Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke was born at the coast town of Minehead. While in school, Clarke started to writes 'fantastic' stories and read eagerly the magazine Astounding Stories. He also looked at the stars through his homemade telescopes. On leaving school he worked in the Exchequer and Adult Department in London.His apartment became the headquarters of the British Interplanetary Society, and in 1949 he became its chairman. After the war, Clarke entered King's College, London, and took his B.Sc. with honors in physics and mathematics in 1948. His first published novel, PRELUDE TO SPACE. Since 1952, Clarke has been a full-time writer. In the 1950s, Clarke became interested in undersea exploration and moved to Sri Lanka, writing several fiction and nonfiction books and articles about the Indian Ocean. Clarke also worked as a director of Rocket Publishing, London, Underwater Safaris, Colombo, and Spaceward Corporation, New York.

In 1962 Clarke became completely paralyzed after an accidental blow on the head. He wrote DOLPHIN ISLAND as his farewell to the sea. After recovering Clarke started his cooperation with the director Stanley Kubrick and later he accompanied his friend Mike Wilson on an underwater adventure six miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, which was depicted in THE TREASURE OF THE GREAT REEF (1964). In 1975, the Indian government presented him with a satellite dish, with which he was able to receive programs broadcast from experimental satellite ATS6.

In the 1980s Clarke was a presenter of the television series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980) and World of Strange Powers (1985). He lectured widely in Britain and in the United States. Among Clarke's best-known work is the short story THE SENTINEL (1951) about man's contact with sentient life. Clarke's work became the basis of the novel and film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), for which Clarke wrote the scriptwith Stanley Kubrick. In the story, a mysterious monolith is found buried beneath the surface of the moon. It sends a signal towards Jupiter. To solve the mystery astronauts are sent to Jupiter with the help of the super-computer HAL 9000. With the amazing computer, Clarke presents one of the basic philosophical questions: can there be intelligence without consciousness? After series of accidents and HAL's operations, one of the astronauts, David Bowman, is left alone as the ship reaches the planet.He embarks on the final step in humankind's next developmental stage. Clarke continued the Odyssey Saga in three sequels, 2010: ODYSSEY TWO (1982), 2061: ODYSSEY THREE (1988), and 3001: THE FINAL ODYSSEY (1996).

Clarke's other works include CHILDHOOD'S END (1953), a story about the beginning of the age of Humankind after Overlords have eliminated ignorance, disease and poverty, EARTHLIGHT (1955), A FALL OF MOONDUST (1961), a tale of marooned moon schooner, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973), in which a research team is sent to investigate a cylindrical object hurtling through the solar system, and THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE (1979). In the 1980s Clarkewrote with Gentry Lee, the chief engineer on Project Galileo, CRADLE (1988), originally conceived as a movie project, and RAMA II 1989). Clarke's catastrophe novel THE HAMMER OF GOOD (1993) about an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, anticipated such films as Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998).

Clarke is fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and recipient of many awards for his science fiction. He was the guest of honour at the 1956 World Science Fiction Convention, when he won a Hugo for his story 'The Star'. Rendezvous with Rama won the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.Clarke has also won the Franklin Gold Medal, and in 1962 the UNESCO-Kalinga Prize for popularizing science.