Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka Tyler Love 2015 National Air and Space Museum Archives 14390 Air & Space Museum Parkway Chantilly, VA 20151 [email protected] https://airandspace.si.edu/archives Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 2 Biographical / Historical.................................................................................................... 1 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 2 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 4 Series 1: Correspondence, 1937-2009 (bulk 1962-2005)........................................ 4 Series 2: Original Writing, 1948-c.2008 (bulk 1948-2008)..................................... 32 Series 3: Media & Publicity, 1950-2007 (bulk 1960-2007)..................................... 52 Series 4: Awards & Tributes, 1932-2003............................................................... 56 Series 5: Manuscripts written by others relating to Clarke's Literary Works, 1966-2007............................................................................................................... 57 Series 6: Miscellaneous, 1933-2012...................................................................... 59 Subseries 7: Images, 1953-2008........................................................................... 64 Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka NASM.2015.0010 Collection Overview Repository: National Air and Space Museum Archives Title: Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka Identifier: NASM.2015.0010 Date: 1932-2012 (bulk 1950-2008) Creator: Clarke, Arthur C., Sir (Arthur Charles), 1917-2008 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 Language: Majority of materials in English; some material in French and Sinhala Summary: Sir Arthur C. Clarke is one of the preeminent science-fiction writers of the 20th century. Administrative Information Acquisition Information Arthur C. Clarke Trust, gift, 2014 Processing Information When appropriate, the processing archivist added a description beneath the file unit title. This collection was received at the National Air and Space Museum from Sri Lanka on 16 Dec 2015 at NASM, Arthur Clarke's 98th birthday. Preferred Citation Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka, Acc. 2015-0010, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Restrictions No restrictions on access. Conditions Governing Use Permissions Requests 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. Page 1 of 75 Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka NASM.2015.0010 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. 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 Page 2 of 75 Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka NASM.2015.0010 Names and Subject Terms This collection is indexed in the online catalog of the Smithsonian Institution under the following terms: Subjects: Apollo 11 Flight Artificial satellites Astronautics Interplanetary voyages Manned space flight Science fiction Underwater archaeology -- 1960's nonfiction novels Page 3 of 75 Series 1: Correspondence Arthur C. Clarke Collection of Sri Lanka NASM.2015.0010 Container Listing Series 1: Correspondence, 1937-2009 (bulk 1962-2005) Box 1 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. Scope and Contains personal and business correspondence. Occasionally includes speeches by Arthur Contents: 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,