Hal Clement
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| Science Fiction Writer | |
| Books · Authors · Films · Television
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| Hal Clement | |
| Pseudonym(s): | (legal name) Harry Clement Stubbs, George Richard |
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| Born: | May 30, 1922 Somerville, Massachusetts |
| Died: | October 29, 2003 |
| Occupation(s): | Novelist, military pilot, science teacher |
| Genre(s): | Science fiction |
| Literary movement: | Hard science fiction |
| Debut work(s): | Needle |
| Magnum Opus: | Mission of Gravity |
Harry Clement Stubbs, better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer, a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre.
He went to Harvard, graduating with a B.S. in astronomy in 1943. While there he published his first story, "Proof", in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. His further educational background includes an M.Ed. (Boston University 1946) and M.S. in chemistry (Simmons College 1963).
During World War II he was a pilot and copilot of the B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe with the 8th Air Force. After the war, he served in the United States Air Force Reserve, and retired with the rank of colonel. He taught chemistry and astronomy for many years at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.
Clement received the 1998 recognition as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). In 1996 he retroactively received a 1946 Hugo Award for his short story "Uncommon Sense".
His best-known novel, Mission of Gravity (1954), is the account of a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet Mesklin to recover a stranded scientific probe. The natives of Mesklin are centipede-like intelligent beings about 50 centimeters in length. Various episodes hinge on the fact that Mesklin's fast rotational speed causes it to be considerably deformed from the spherical, and its effective surface gravity to vary from approximately 3 gn at the equator to approximately 700 gn at the poles.
Clement's article "Whirligig World" describes his approach to writing a science fiction story:
"Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work. ... the fun... lies in treating the whole thing as a game. ... the rules must be quite simple. They are; for the reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible of the author's statements or implications which conflict with the facts as science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he possibly can ... Certain exceptions are made [e.g., to allow travel faster than the speed of light], but fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story..."
He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard.
Clement was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions, especially in the eastern United States, where he usually presented talks and slide shows about writing and astronomy.
[edit] Planets
Clement created a number of notably unusual fictional planets as settings for his works. They include:
- Abyormen – A planet circling a dwarf star (Theer), which in turn circles a blue giant. This produces a hot and a cold season, each of 80 years' duration. The native intelligent life forms undergo a seasonal mass death. From Cycle of Fire.
- Dhrawn – A high-gravity world settled by Mesklinites in Star Light.
- Hekla – An ice-age planet in Cold Front (short story, Astounding July 1946).
- Kaihapa – An uninhabited ocean planet, twin of Kainui, in Noise.
- Kainui – A waterworld in Noise.
- Mesklin — A "superjovian" planet with ultra-high gravity (up to 700 gs) in Mission of Gravity.
- Tenebra – A high-gravity world with a corrosive atmosphere in Close to Critical.
[edit] Bibliography
- Needle (1950), ISBN 0-380-00635-9
- Iceworld (1953), ISBN 0-345-25805-3
- Mission of Gravity (1954), ISBN 0-345-31622-3
- The Ranger Boys in Space (1956) (for children)
- Cycle of Fire (1957), ISBN 0-345-24368-4
- Close to Critical (1964), ISBN 0-345-24508-3
- Star Light (1971), ISBN 0-345-02361-7(sequel to Mission of Gravity)
- Ocean on Top (1973), ISBN 1-4510-1057-5
- Through the Eye of a Needle (1978), ISBN 0-345-25850-9 (sequel to Needle)
- The Nitrogen Fix (1980), ISBN 0-441-58116-1
- Still River (1987), ISBN 0-345-32916-3
- Fossil (1993), ISBN 0-88677-573-6
- Half Life (1999), ISBN 0-312-86920-7
- The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 1: Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter (1999), ISBN 1-886778-06-X
- Noise (2003), ISBN 0-7653-0857-6
- The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 2: Music of Many Spheres (2000), ISBN 1-886778-07-8
- The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton (2000), ISBN 1-886778-08-6
[edit] External links
Categories: 1922 births | 2003 deaths | American science fiction writers | American novelists | American short story writers | American military personnel of World War II | Harvard University alumni | Hugo Award winning authors | SFWA Grand Masters | Science Fiction Hall of Fame | People from Middlesex County, Massachusetts | Worldcon Guests of Honor
