Bummer on a Galactic Scale

One of the giants of sci-fi's golden age, Arthur C. Clarke, has died. He was probably most well known for 2001, both the novel and the film that spawned it, a collaboration with Stanley Kubrick. When the collaboration was suggested, Kubrick reportedly questioned the wisdom of teaming up with "a recluse, a nut who lives in a tree." Clarke responded in kind, that he was "frightfully interested in working with enfant terrible."

Of course, Clarke's long career went well beyond one book:

In addition to the "2001" series, some of Clarke's best-known works are "Childhood's End" (1953), "The City and the Stars" (1956), "The Nine Billion Names of God" (1967), "Imperial Earth" (1975) and "The Songs of Distant Earth" (1986). His 1973 novel "Rendezvous With Rama" is reportedly being adapted for film, with actor Morgan Freeman as producer and star.

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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. He became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1976, and was awarded British knighthood in 1989.

He will be missed.