60 Fun Facts About Arthur C. Clarke

Which 1968 film did Arthur C. Clarke co-write with its director, Stanley Kubrick?

The film reached cinemas in spring 1968 before the novel was finished, and Clarke complained that made his book look like a novelisation.

In which country did Arthur C. Clarke live from 1956 until his death in 2008?

He moved to what was then Ceylon to pursue scuba diving and later received the island's highest civil honour, the Sri Lankabhimanya.

Along with Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, Clarke was one of science fiction's so-called what?

Clarke and Asimov agreed a 'treaty': asked who was better, each would say Clarke was the better SF writer and Asimov the better science writer.

Complete Clarke's third law: 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from...' what?

It first appeared in a 1968 letter to Science and was added to the 1973 revision of his essay 'Hazards of Prophecy'; he said three laws were good enough for Newton so he would stop there.

Clarke's 1945 paper proposed satellites in which orbit as ideal telecommunications relays?

The idea was published in October 1945, and the International Astronomical Union officially calls that orbit the Clarke Orbit.

In which magazine did Clarke's 1945 satellite paper 'Extra-Terrestrial Relays' appear?

Asked why he never patented the idea, he liked to say 'a patent is really a licence to be sued'.

In which English county was Clarke born, in the seaside town of Minehead?

He grew up on a farm at Bishops Lydeard, stargazing and collecting fossils, and went to Huish's Grammar School in Taunton.

During the Second World War, Clarke served in the Royal Air Force as a specialist in what?

He worked mostly on ground-controlled approach, the landing system that later proved vital during the Berlin Airlift, and turned the experience into his only non-SF novel, Glide Path.

Which organisation, devoted to space travel, did Clarke join as a teenager in 1934 and later chair twice?

He was chairman in 1946-47 and again in 1951-53, and it was among its core members that he first circulated his satellite idea.

Which 1948 short story, rejected by a BBC competition, became the seed of Clarke and Kubrick's 1968 film?

Kubrick and Clarke met in New York in 1964 and decided to build their film loosely on it, writing a novel first to let their imaginations run.

In the novel version of the 1968 Kubrick film, the Discovery's mission is to which planet?

Kubrick switched the film to Jupiter because he and Douglas Trumbull could not build convincing rings; Clarke used Jupiter himself in the sequels.

In the 2001 novel, on which moon does Bowman find the second, much larger monolith?

In 2007 Clarke sent a video greeting for NASA's Cassini flyby of that very moon, months before his death.

What does 'TMA-1', the designation of the monolith dug up on the Moon in 2001, stand for?

The slab's sides are in the exact ratio 1:4:9, the squares of the first three integers, and it screams a radio burst when sunlight first hits it.

What is the man-ape whose tribe meets the monolith at the start of the 2001 novel called?

His rival, the leader of 'the Others', is One-Ear; the monolith teaches Moon-Watcher's tribe to use tools and kill for meat.

Which of Clarke's sequels to 2001 was made into a 1984 film directed by Peter Hyams?

Clarke has a cameo feeding pigeons outside the White House, and a Time cover in the film shows him as the US President and Kubrick as the Soviet Premier.

Clarke's 2061: Odyssey Three involves a visit to which celestial object on its next inner Solar System pass?

The book also features a spaceship crash on Europa, where native life is developing under the Monolith's protection.

In 3001: The Final Odyssey, whose freeze-dried body is found beyond Neptune and revived?

He was the astronaut killed by HAL during a spacewalk a thousand years earlier.

Which 1973 Clarke novel about a giant alien cylinder swept the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards?

It was the first title of a record three-book deal; the ship's name comes from the Hindu god because the older Greek and Roman names had run out.

What do the explorers of Rama name the frozen band of water dividing the alien ship's interior?

They name the island in the middle of it New York, and later find microorganisms in the melting water.

What do the crew exploring the alien ship Rama call the part-biological, part-robotic creatures inside?

The name is coined after Surgeon-Commander Laura Ernst dissects a three-eyed, three-legged spider-like specimen that fell from a platform.

As Rama nears the Sun, which planet's government fires a nuclear missile at the alien ship?

Crewman Boris Rodrigo intercepts and disarms it, exploiting the 12-minute radio lag between the missile and its controllers.

In Childhood's End, what are the mysterious aliens who take peaceful control of Earth called?

When they finally show themselves after decades, they look like the traditional Christian image of demons: horns, leathery wings, barbed tails.

In Childhood's End, who is the alien Supervisor for Earth who meets the UN Secretary-General?

He serves the Overmind, a cosmic intelligence, and the aliens act as a 'bridge species' guiding humanity's children into merging with it.

Which 1950 short story did Clarke expand into the first part of Childhood's End?

The finished novel sold out its first printing in 1953 and is still often called his best; the Syfy channel made it a miniseries in 2015.

Which structure, linking the ground to a satellite in high orbit, is built in The Fountains of Paradise?

Clarke thought the 'orbital tower' might one day be seen as as important as his satellite idea; the novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.

Sri Kanda in Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise is a thinly veiled version of which real Sri Lankan mountain?

In the story a Buddhist temple on the summit refuses permission for the tower until a colony on Mars offers to build a smaller one to the moon Deimos.

What underwater discovery did Clarke and Mike Wilson make off Trincomalee in 1956?

He described the carved columns and elephant-head stones in his 1957 book The Reefs of Taprobane, and the find made the area popular with divers.

The wreck Mike Wilson found off Great Basses Reef in 1961 belonged to which ruler?

It yielded fused bags of silver rupees and cannon; Clarke had to watch the salvage from shore because he had just been paralysed by illness.

Which 1951 Clarke book did Wernher von Braun reportedly use to convince Kennedy a Moon landing was possible?

It won the International Fantasy Award's non-fiction category in 1952 and prompted Robert Heinlein to start writing to him.

For which US network did Clarke commentate on the Apollo 11 Moon landing on 20 July 1969?

The fame of 2001 was such that Apollo 13's command module was later named Odyssey.

Which title completes the name of Clarke's 1980 TV series on unexplained phenomena, from the Nazca lines to cryptids?

It sorted mysteries into three kinds - once baffling but now understood, like a rainbow; not yet understood; and utterly beyond understanding.

UNESCO gave Clarke which award for popularising science in 1961?

His science and science-fiction writing together earned him the nickname 'Prophet of the Space Age'.

How old was Arthur C. Clarke when he died in Colombo in March 2008?

He had recorded an audio-only farewell to fans on his 90th birthday three months earlier, and had just reviewed the manuscript of his last novel, The Last Theorem.

With which fellow SF veteran did Clarke co-write his final novel, The Last Theorem, by e-mail?

The book was published after his death; his Rama sequels had been co-written with Gentry Lee.

What record-setting event reached Earth hours before Clarke's death, prompting the 'Clarke Event' name?

GRB 080319B, 7.5 billion light-years away, briefly became the most distant object ever visible to the naked eye.

Which illness, contracted in 1962, left Clarke needing a wheelchair for most of his later life?

He was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome in 1988 and was for years a vice-patron of the British Polio Fellowship.

Clarke's investiture as a Knight Bachelor was delayed until 2000 at his own request because of what?

The Sunday Mirror later apologised; the ceremony was finally held in Colombo because his health ruled out a trip to Buckingham Palace.

When Clarke joined the RAF, he insisted his dog tags be marked with which belief instead of Church of England?

Later in life he called himself an atheist and a 'crypto-Buddhist', and left orders that no religious rites be used at his funeral.

In which magazine did Clarke make his first professional sales, 'Loophole' and 'Rescue Party', in 1946?

He briefly edited Science Abstracts before turning to full-time writing in 1951.

Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956) was the third rewrite of which work first published as a novella in 1948?

It was his first science fiction novel and was considered ground-breaking for the concepts it contained.

Which 1930 book by Olaf Stapledon did Clarke say had a greater influence on his life than any other?

Stapledon's idea of species evolving toward godhood runs through Childhood's End and the Odyssey books.

The prize money for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best SF novel is set to match what?

Clarke funded the initial £1,000 prize in 1986; it was raised to £2001 in 2001 and has tracked the calendar since.

What kind of dinosaur was named Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei in Clarke's honour?

It was found at Inverloch in Australia; the genus name also nods to Serendib, an old name for his adopted island.

How long did Arthur C. Clarke and Marilyn Mayfield live together after their 1953 marriage before separating?

The divorce was not finalised until 1964; he later called the marriage 'incompatible from the beginning' and never remarried.

Clarke's 1984 congressional testimony against which programme caused a rift with Robert Heinlein?

Heinlein confronted him at Larry Niven's house over the 'Star Wars' missile shield, and the two stayed distant until Heinlein's death in 1988.

What was Clarke's playful reply when journalists asked whether he was gay?

His friend Kerry O'Quinn wrote in an obituary that Clarke was gay but never publicised it, though he was open and honest if asked.

What destroyed Clarke's diving school at Hikkaduwa in December 2004?

Clarke and his Colombo home were unharmed; his foundation then pushed for better disaster-warning systems.

Which honour did Clarke receive in 1989 'for services to British cultural interests in Sri Lanka'?

The knighthood came in the 1998 New Year Honours, though he asked for the investiture to wait until 2000.

Which actor spent years trying to get a Rendezvous with Rama film financed?

The project sat in 'development hell'; in 2003 it briefly seemed to be moving forward.

Which NASA spacecraft, launched in 2001, is named in honour of Clarke's works?

An asteroid, 4923 Clarke, also bears his name; the number 2001 was already taken by Albert Einstein.

After the war, Clarke took a first-class degree in mathematics and physics at which institution?

He then worked as assistant editor at Physics Abstracts while twice presiding over the British Interplanetary Society.

For which short story did Clarke win a Hugo Award in 1956?

His novels Rendezvous with Rama and The Fountains of Paradise later took both the Hugo and Nebula.

Which 1962 Clarke book laid out inventions up to 2100, including a 'global library' by 2005?

It grew out of magazine essays begun in 1958 and also contained his famous laws.

What is Clarke doing in his cameo in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey?

He also appears on a Time magazine cover in the hospital scene, cast as the American President opposite Kubrick as Soviet Premier.

With which British author did Clarke co-write the 2000 novel The Light of Other Days?

Other late collaborators included Gentry Lee on Cradle and Mike McQuay on Richter 10.

Clarke served from 1989 to 2004 as the first chancellor of which institution?

He was also chancellor of the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka.

Asteroid 2001 could not be named for Clarke because it had already been assigned to whom?

He got 4923 Clarke instead, a number assigned before and independently of the name.

Which award for innovation in communications did Clarke win in 1982?

The Franklin Institute had already given him its 1963 Stuart Ballantine Medal for the concept of satellite communications.

Which Clarke novella won the 1973 Nebula Award?

That same year Rendezvous with Rama took the Nebula for best novel, then the Hugo and Jupiter awards in 1974.

In which south-coast town did Clarke first settle when he moved to Sri Lanka in 1956?

He later moved to Colombo, where the Sri Lanka Air Force once lent a helicopter to show visiting Robert Heinlein the island.