Clarke, Arthur C., Sir (Arthur Charles), 1917-2008 Search this
Extent:
95.02 Cubic feet (188 legal size boxes; 5 15 x 12 x 3 flat boxes; 1 16 x 20 x 3 flat box; 4 12 x 8 x 5 shoeboxes)
88.55 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1932-2012
bulk 1950-2008
Summary:
Sir Arthur C. Clarke is one of the preeminent science-fiction writers of the 20th century.
Scope and Contents:
Contains personal and business correspondence, manuscripts of most of Clarke's fiction works in various draft states, short stories, articles, addresses, speeches, movie outlines, Apollo 11 broadcast material, datebooks & notebooks, reference materials, business cards of visitors & contacts, photos & slides. There is some material by people other than the creator such as manuscripts and film/TV scripts.
This collection also includes audio-visual material. Please contact the Media Archivist for access.
Arrangement:
Series were based on the creator's original arrangement of material.
Arranged into 7 Series:
Series 1: Correspondence
Series 2: Original Writing
2.1: "Clarkives"
2.2: Non-"Clarkives"
2.3: Articles, Short Stories
2.4: Lectures, Speeches
Series 3: Media & Publicity
Series 4: Awards & Tributes
Series 5: Manuscripts written by others relating to Clarke's Literary Works
Series 6: Miscellaneous
Series 7: Images
7.1: Photos
7.2: Slide Albums
Biographical / Historical:
Born on December 16, 1917, in Minehead, England, Arthur Charles Clarke became obsessed with science fiction and astronomy at a young age. He was the eldest of four children born into a farming family, however he would become, with his brother Fred Clarke acting as a business associate, one of the leading names in science fiction.
During World War II Clarke served as a radar instructor and in his free time became one of the early members of the British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, Clarke made one of his earliest predictions (he called them "extrapolations") when he came up with the idea of communication satellites. He became known for this uncanny prescience which is seen in so much of his work.
In 1948 Clarke graduated from King's College, London with honors in math and physics. By 1951, Clarke had gained respect as both a fiction and non-fiction writer with Interplanetary Flight and Prelude to Space, respectively.
In 1956, Clarke emigrated to Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, where he could indulge a new obsession - skin diving. He remained in Sri Lanka for the rest of his life, creating a diving company and funding many science education programs in the country.
Perhaps Clarke's most recognizable feat came when he was able to work with Stanley Kubrick over a course of 4 years in order to create the book and film 2001: A Space Odyssey which was loosely based on the earlier Clarke story "The Sentinel."
Clarke accomplished an amazing amount of writing, speaking tours, TV appearances and humanitarian work despite suffering from post-polio syndrome for decades. He won numerous awards, mostly for his science fiction but also for popularizing science. He was knighted in 1998. He died, age 90, March 19, 2008.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Division of Community Life World's Fairs Collection, 1876-1993, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Clarke, Arthur C., Sir (Arthur Charles), 1917-2008 Search this
Container:
Box 1
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1937-2009
bulk 1962-2005
Scope and Contents:
Contains personal and business correspondence. Occasionally includes speeches by Arthur C. Clarke, editor's notes on various novels, interview transcripts, photos sent by the letter writers (sometimes of Clarke,) newspaper clippings and pages from magazines.
Some correspondence was grouped separately, by correspondent, even though these correspondents also occur in the general correspondence.
In 1998, Arthur Clarke's correspondence with Lord Dunsany was published as a book.
Notable correspondents include: J.B.S. Haldane, Wernher von Braun, Ben Bova, Val Cleaver, Fred Clarke, Bill Temple, John W. Campbell, Horace Dall, Robert & Ginny Heinlein, Hugh Hefner, Felix Godwin, Patrick Moore, Willian Macquitty, Carl Sagan, Luis Alvarez, Stanley Kubrick, Esther Goddard, Nigel Calder, Issac Asimov, Michael Moorcock, Willy Ley, John Glenn, Ray Bradbury, Brian Aldiss, George Mueller, James Webb, Paul Garber, David Gerrold, Gregory Peck, Ivan Yefremov, David Lasser, Owen Gingrich, Gore Vidal, Douglas Trumbell, Sam Youd, Frederick Pohl, Fred Durant, Mike Wilson, Roger Caras, Robert K.G. Temple, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Cronkite, Fred Whipple, Harlan Ellison, Jack Williamson, Baird Searles, Uri Geller, Gene Rodenberry, Frank Herbert, Frank Rich, Alan Dean Foster, J. William Fulbright, William Hartmann, Gregory Benford, Frank Drake, Jerry Pournelle, Bill Moyers, Katherine MacLean, Neil McAleer, Gerard O'Neil, Yuri Artsutanov, Robert Forward, Larry Niven, Kurt Vonnegut, Marilyn Clarke, W.H. Pickering, Max Von Sydow, David Langford, Nigel Calder, Harry Miller, Fred Ordway, Satyajit Ray, Michael Crichton, Kenneth Anger, Spark Matsunaga, Gioia Marconi Braga, James Randi, Michael A. G. Michaud, Alexei Leonov, Steve Jobs, Peter Hyams, G. David Brin, Michael Collins, Kathryn Lindskoog, Gentry Lee, Stephen Baxter, Margaret Atwood, Richard Hoagland, Alistair Cooke, John Updike, Hayley Mills, George Zebrowski, Greg Bear, Martin Gardner, David S. Garnett, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Alexander Alexandrov, Steve Wozniak, Doris Lessing, Roddy McDowall, Steven Spielberg, Carrie Fisher, Ted Turner, Peter Cushing, Charles Pellegrino, Benoit Mandelbrot, Michael Snowden, Kim Stanley Robinson, Terry Pratchett, Mike Oldfield, Poul Anderson, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Glenn, Rupert Murdoch, Stephen J. Gould, Patrick Stewart, Newt Gringrich, Bill Gates, Tom Hanks, Ray Harryhausen, Piers Bizony, the Dalai Lama, Richard Dawkins, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Roger Ebert, George Soros, Paul Kurtz, Peter Jackson, William Shatner, Robert Truax, Brian May, Steve Allen, Eugene Shoemaker, Mark Kahn.
Some associations he corresponded with were: British Interplanetary Society, JPL, NASA, IBM, National Geographic Society, Boeing, Seti, Bell Labs, The Planetary Society, European Space Agency, National Air & Space Museum, War Control Planners, various astronauts, congressmen, publishers and publications, news outlets, charities and satellite companies.
Arrangement:
Original order by the creator was chronological by year, split into 2-3 months at a time, then alphabetically. Sometimes correspondence was in store-bought file folder with sections, sometimes in handmade "binders" but always the same arrangement. Archivist physically re-created this arrangement by using paper wrappers to represent each section. When the section was labeled by the creator, the archivist labeled the paper wrapper the same. If paper wrapper is blank then so was the original section tab.
There are some missing years in the correspondence. Misc. correspondence found loose in the collection was placed at the end of the series.
When appropriate, the processing archivist added a description beneath the file unit title.
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Collection Rights:
Permissions Requests
Collection Citation:
Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka, Acc. 2015-0010, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Clarke, Arthur C., Sir (Arthur Charles), 1917-2008 Search this
Container:
Box 96-135
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1948-1996
Scope and Contents:
This series consists of manuscripts of most of Clarke's fiction works, about half of his non-fiction works, only 1 short story collection and a small amount of contributions to others' works. There are also a few MSS by other people.
"Clarkives" was the name Arthur Clarke assigned these materials.
Arrangement:
The archivist arranged these materials by their publication date. Manuscript numbers were given each manuscript by the creator(?) but it is unclear what they mean.
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Collection Rights:
Permissions Requests
Collection Citation:
Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka, Acc. 2015-0010, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
