60 Fun Facts About Arthur C. Clarke

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

2001: A Space Odyssey premiered in April 1968, months before Clarke's novel appeared in July, which he felt made the book look like a mere novelisation of Kubrick's film.

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

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, in 1956 to pursue scuba diving, and in 2005 received Sri Lankabhimanya, the island's highest civil honour.

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

Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein were dubbed the Big Three of science fiction; under the 'Clarke-Asimov Treaty', each would call Clarke the better SF writer and Asimov the better science writer.

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

Clarke's third law ends 'indistinguishable from magic'; he set it down in the 1973 revision of his essay 'Hazards of Prophecy' and quipped that 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?

Clarke's October 1945 paper argued that three satellites in geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the equator, could relay signals worldwide; the orbit is often called the Clarke Orbit.

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

Wireless World printed 'Extra-Terrestrial Relays' in October 1945; asked why he never patented the idea, Clarke 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?

Minehead is in Somerset; Clarke grew up on a farm at Bishops Lydeard, stargazing and collecting fossils, and attended Huish's Grammar School in Taunton.

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

Clarke was an RAF radar specialist, working mostly on ground-controlled approach, the radar landing system that later proved vital in the Berlin Airlift; he turned it 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?

Clarke joined the British Interplanetary Society in 1934, the year after its founding, and chaired it in 1946-47 and 1951-53; he first circulated his satellite idea among its members.

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

'The Sentinel', written in 1948 for a BBC contest that rejected it, gave Kubrick and Clarke their starting point when they met in New York in 1964; they wrote the novel first to let their imaginations run.

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

In the novel Discovery is bound for Saturn; Kubrick switched the film to Jupiter because convincing rings could not be built, and Clarke followed the film's Jupiter in his sequels.

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

Bowman finds the larger monolith on Iapetus (spelled Japetus in the book); in 2007 Clarke recorded a greeting for Cassini's close flyby of Iapetus, months before he died.

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

TMA-1 stands for Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One, found buried in the crater Tycho; its sides are in the exact ratio 1:4:9 and it screams a radio burst when sunlight first strikes 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?

2010: Odyssey Two (1982) became Peter Hyams's film 2010 in 1984; a Time cover seen in the film shows Clarke 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?

2061: Odyssey Three (1987) sends Heywood Floyd to land on Halley's Comet during its 2061 return; a second ship crash-lands 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?

Frank Poole, the astronaut HAL cast adrift during a spacewalk in 2001, is found frozen beyond Neptune in 3001 and revived a thousand years on.

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

Rendezvous with Rama (1973) won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and British SF awards; in the book, astronomers name the cylinder Rama because Greek and Roman mythology had long been used up and they had moved on to the Hindu pantheon.

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

The Cylindrical Sea, a frozen band ringing Rama's interior that thaws as the ship nears the Sun, holds a central island the explorers dub New York for its skyscraper-like structures.

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

The crew call them biots, short for biological robots; Surgeon-Commander Laura Ernst dissects a dead three-legged, three-eyed 'spider' and finds it part creature, part machine.

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

The Hermians, Mercury's colonists, launch a nuclear missile at Rama; Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo, a devout Cosmo Christer, spacewalks out and disarms it while exploiting the radio lag to its controllers.

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

The Overlords rule Earth benevolently from their ships for decades before revealing themselves, and they look like the traditional Christian image of demons: horns, leathery wings and barbed tails.

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

Karellen, the alien Supervisor for Earth, deals only with Secretary-General Rikki Stormgren at first; his race serves the Overmind, a cosmic intelligence into which humanity's children finally merge.

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

'Guardian Angel', published in 1950, became the opening section of Childhood's End (1953); the novel sold out its first printing and was adapted by Syfy as a 2015 miniseries.

What kind of megastructure is built in Clarke's novel The Fountains of Paradise?

The Fountains of Paradise (1979) builds a space elevator, which Clarke called an 'orbital tower' and thought might one day rank with 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?

Sri Kanda stands in for Adam's Peak (Sri Pada), the island's conical sacred mountain with a footprint-shaped hollow at its summit revered by several faiths, which Clarke moved south toward the equator for the story.

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

Diving off Swami Rock in 1956, Clarke and Mike Wilson found the ruins of the original Koneswaram Temple, razed by the Portuguese in 1622, including carved columns; Clarke described the find in The Reefs of Taprobane (1957).

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

The Great Basses wreck carried fused bags of silver rupees struck at Surat in 1702 for the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb; Clarke told the story in The Treasure of the Great Reef (1964).

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

The Exploration of Space (1951) won the International Fantasy Award for non-fiction in 1952; von Braun reportedly used it to persuade President Kennedy that a Moon landing was feasible.

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

Clarke joined Walter Cronkite and astronaut Wally Schirra on CBS for the Apollo 11 landing; 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?

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980) sorted its cases into three kinds: once baffling but since explained, like the rainbow; not yet understood; and utterly beyond understanding.

UNESCO gave Clarke which award for popularising science in 1961?

The Kalinga Prize, UNESCO's award for the popularisation of science, went to Clarke 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?

Clarke died at 90; born in December 1917, he had recorded a video message of 90th-birthday reflections three months before, and had just reviewed the final manuscript of The Last Theorem.

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

Frederik Pohl, a fellow Golden Age veteran, finished The Last Theorem with Clarke by e-mail; it appeared in 2008 after Clarke's death, while the Rama sequels had been 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?

A tabloid accusation later found baseless by police, printed by the Sunday Mirror in 1998, led Clarke to ask that his investiture wait; the paper apologised, and he was knighted in Colombo in 2000.

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

Clarke had 'pantheist' stamped on his RAF dog tags rather than the default Church of England; later he described himself as an atheist and a 'crypto-Buddhist', and banned religious rites at his funeral.

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

Astounding Science Fiction, edited by John W. Campbell, printed 'Loophole' in April 1946 and 'Rescue Party' in May 1946; Clarke turned 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?

Against the Fall of Night, begun in 1937 and printed as a novella in Startling Stories in November 1948, was expanded into a 1953 novel and then completely rewritten as The City and the Stars.

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

Last and First Men (1930), Stapledon's two-billion-year future history, was the book Clarke said influenced his life more than any other; its 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 the Australian species named for Clarke in 2003?

A ceratopsian: Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei, named in 2003 from a single ulna found at Inverloch, Victoria; 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?

Clarke and Marilyn Mayfield, an American divorcee, married in June 1953 and separated after six months; the divorce was only finalised in 1964, and he called the marriage 'incompatible from the beginning'.

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

Clarke's testimony against the Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan's 'Star Wars' missile shield, led Heinlein to confront him at Larry Niven's house; the two stayed distant until Heinlein's death in 1988.

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

Asked if he was gay, Clarke answered 'No, merely mildly cheerful'; his friend Kerry O'Quinn wrote after his death that Clarke was gay but never publicised it, though honest if asked privately.

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

The Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 wiped out Clarke's Underwater Safaris dive school at Hikkaduwa; he and his Colombo home were unharmed, and his foundation pushed for better disaster-warning systems.

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

Clarke was appointed CBE in the 1989 Birthday Honours, the citation naming his services to British cultural interests on the island; the knighthood followed in the 1998 New Year Honours.

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

Morgan Freeman's production company Revelations Entertainment held the film rights to Clarke's Rama novel for years, with David Fincher once attached to direct, and in 2021 Denis Villeneuve signed on to direct a new attempt.

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

Mars Odyssey, launched in April 2001, took its name from Clarke and Kubrick's 1968 film with Clarke's blessing; asteroid 4923 Clarke also honours him.

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

Clarke graduated from King's College London in 1948 with first-class honours in mathematics and physics, then worked as assistant editor of Physics Abstracts before writing full-time.

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

'The Star', in which a Jesuit astrophysicist finds a supernova's doomed civilisation was the Star of Bethlehem, won Clarke the 1956 Hugo for best short story.

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

Profiles of the Future (1962) grew out of magazine essays begun in 1958; its chart of coming inventions ran to 2100, and the book also contained his famous laws of prediction.

What is Clarke doing in his cameo in the 1984 sequel film directed by Peter Hyams?

Clarke is seen feeding pigeons outside the White House in Peter Hyams's 1984 sequel; he had no on-screen cameo in Kubrick's 1968 original.

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

Stephen Baxter, the British author of the Xeelee sequence, co-wrote The Light of Other Days (2000) with Clarke and later the Time Odyssey trilogy, beginning with Time's Eye.

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

The International Space University, founded in 1987 and based in Strasbourg, made Clarke its first chancellor, a post he held from 1989 to 2004; he was also chancellor of the University of Moratuwa.

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

Asteroid 2001 had been named Einstein for Albert Einstein, so Clarke instead got 4923 Clarke, whose number was assigned independently of the name.

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

The Marconi Prize, awarded for innovation in communications, went to Clarke in 1982 for his satellite concept; the Franklin Institute had already given him its 1963 Stuart Ballantine Medal for the same idea.

Which Clarke novella about a balloon expedition into Jupiter's atmosphere won a Nebula Award?

A Meeting with Medusa, first published in Playboy in December 1971, took the Nebula for best novella presented in 1973; its hero Howard Falcon pilots a balloon craft through Jupiter's clouds.

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

Unawatuna, a beach village near Galle on the south coast, was Clarke's first home on the island in 1956 before he settled in Colombo, where he lived for the rest of his life.