British science fiction writer Clarke dies in Sri Lanka
20/3/2008 17:44
British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke passed away at the age of
90 in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo yesterday morning, said the Sri Lankan
government in a statement.
The statement said Clarke, who had been living in
Sri Lanka since 1956, passed away at 1:30 a.m. (0800 GMT).
Clarke had battled
debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s, the statement said.
Sources
close to Clarke said the famous writer died of respiratory complications and
heart failure.
Most famous for expanding his short story "The Sentinel" into
a novel and screenplay that served as the basis for Stanley Kubrick' s 1968 film
2001: A Space Odyssey, the British-born Clarke authored more than 100 books
involving space, science, and science fiction.
Clarke was often credited with
inventing the concept of satellite communications. Today, the International
Astronomical Union refers to a geostationary satellite orbit as The Clarke
Orbit.
Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England on Dec. 16, 1917. In
1936, he moved to London, where he worked as a clerk.
During the Second World
War, he joined the British Royal Air Force and was eventually put in charge of a
new radar-based blind landing system.
Then, in May 1946, his first published
story "The Rescue Party" appeared in Astounding Science Fiction.
"The
Sentinel" was published two years later. Kubrick approached Sir Clarke in 1964,
and after four years of collaboration, they received a joint Academy awards
nomination for their work on the 2001 screenplay.
Clarke's "2001" novel,
written alongside the screenplay, was followed by three sequels: "2010," "2061,"
and "3001: The Final Odyssey."
Other well-known Clarke books include
"Childhood's End," "The City and The Stars," "The Nine Billion Names of God,"
"Rendezvous with Rama," "Imperial Earth," and "The Songs of Distant
Earth."
Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America
in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention
in 1974 and 1980 and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers
of America.
Xinhua
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