Literary Birthday – 30 May – Hal Clement
Hal Clement was born on 30 May 1922 and died on 9 October 2003.
Hal Clement Quotes
- Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you’ve only founded a superstition. If you test it, you’ve started a science. (A-Z)
- Human beings are prone to believe the things they wish were true. (A-Z)
- Some things were too hard to believe, however entertaining they might be to hear or read. (A-Z)
- If you want adventure, you made a mistake exploring space. The only space adventures I’ve heard of are second-hand stories built on guesswork; the people who really had them weren’t around to tell about it. (Hot Planet)
- I am resigned to living in a chess-type universe—few and simple rules, but infinite combinations of them. But it would be nice to know an answer sometime. (Hot Planet)
Hal Clement was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He enjoyed creating unusual and extreme, but still realistic, settings and creatures for his stories. He earned a B.S. in astronomy from Harvard University and served as a lieutenant pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Clement’s writing career began with his first published story, ‘Proof’, in 1942, and he gained recognition for his novels, notably Needle, Iceworld, and Mission of Gravity. In 1998, Clement was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He was named the 17th SFWA Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1999. The Hal Clement Award for Young Adults for Excellence in Children’s Science Fiction Literature was presented in Clement’s name from 1992 to 2016. He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard.
Source for photograph: slomuse, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14th_WSFS_008_-_Hal_Clement.jpg
by Amanda Patterson
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