Clifford D. Simak

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Clifford D. Simak
OccupationJournalist, novelist, short story author
GenreScience fiction, Fantasy

Clifford Donald Simak (August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was a major American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award, as well as being named the third Grand Master by the SFWA in 1977.

Biography

Clifford Donald Simak was born in Millville, Wisconsin, son of John Lewis and Margaret (Wiseman) Simak. He married Agnes Kuchenberg on April 13, 1929 and they had two children, Scott and Shelley. Simak attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later worked at various newspapers in the Midwest. He began a lifelong association with the Minneapolis Star and Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) in 1939, which continued until his retirement in 1976. He became Minneapolis Star 's news editor in 1949 and coordinator of Minneapolis Tribune's Science Reading Series in 1961. He died in Minneapolis.

Writing career

Simak became interested in science fiction after reading the works of H. G. Wells as a child. He started writing for science fiction pulp magazines in 1931, but dropped out of the field by 1933. The only science-fiction piece that he published between 1933 and 1937 was The Creator (Marvel Tales #4, March-April 1935), a notable story with religious implications, which was at the time a rarity in the genre of science fiction.

Once John W. Campbell began redefining the field in late 1937, Simak returned to science fiction and was a regular contributor to Astounding Stories throughout the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1938–1950). His first publications, such as Cosmic Engineers (1939), were in the traditions of the earlier superscience subgenre perfected by E. E. "Doc" Smith, but he soon developed his own style, which is usually described as gentle and pastoral. A typical Simak alien is much more likely to be seen sitting on a porch in rural Wisconsin drinking beer with the protagonist than invading Earth. During this period, Simak also published a number of war and western stories in pulp magazines. His best known novel may be City, a collection of short stories with a common theme of mankind's eventual exodus from Earth.

Simak continued to produce award-nominated novels throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The quality of his longer pieces somewhat declined in the 1970s as his health deteriorated, although his short fiction was still well regarded. Aided by a friend, he continued writing and publishing science fiction and, later, fantasy, into his 80s. He believed that science fiction not rooted in scientific fact was responsible for the failure of the genre to be taken seriously, and stated that his aim was to make the genre a part of what he called "realistic fiction."

Common themes

Also see transmog.

Simak's best known stories often repeat a few basic ideas and themes. First and foremost is a setting in rural Wisconsin. A crusty individualistic backwoodsman character literally comes with the territory, the best example being Hiram Taine, the protagonist of The Big Front Yard. Hiram's dog "Towser" (sometimes "Bowser") is another Simak trademark being common to many of Simak's works. But the rural setting is not always as idyllic as here; and in Ring Around the Sun it is largely dominated by intolerance and isolationism.

Another idea often found in the stories is the idea that there is no past time for a time traveler to go to. Instead, our world moves along in a stream of time, and to move to a different place in time is to move to another world altogether. Thus in City our Earth is overrun by ants, but the intelligent dogs and the remaining humans escape to other worlds in the time stream. In Ring Around the Sun the persecuted paranormals escape to other Earths which, if they could all be seen at once, would be at different stages of their orbit around the sun, hence the title. In Time is the Simplest Thing a paranormal escapes a mob by moving back in time, only to find that the past is a place where there are no living things and inanimate objects are barely substantial. Time travel also plays an important role in the ingeniously constructed Time and Again, in which a space traveler returns with message which is SF-slanted yet religious in tone.[citation needed]

An important theme (or theme group) concerns robots, who in Simak's case are usually very likable mechanical persons. In the novella All the Traps of Earth (in the collection of the same title) the robot Daniel seeks freedom having served men for a very long time, only to find in the end that he has become more human than he had thought. There is also the faithful butler Jenkins in City, the religious robot Hezekiel in A Choice of Gods and the theological project of the robots in Project Pope.

The religious theme is often present in Simak's work, but the protagonists who have searched for God in a traditional sense, tend to find something more abstract and inhuman. Hezekiel in A Choice of Gods cannot accept this. Quote: "God must be, forever, a kindly old (human) gentleman with a long, white, flowing beard."

One finds many other traditional SF themes in Simak's work. The importance of knowledge and compassion in Immigrant and Kindergarten. Identity play, at times almost in a Philip Dick like manner, as in Good Night. Mr James (filmed as The Outer Limits: The Duplicate Man in 1964). Fictions come to life in Shadow Show and elsewhere. And there is the revolt of the machines in Skirmish. And the rather horrifying meeting with an alien world in Beachhead. (Many of these stories are to be found in Strangers in the Universe).

Simak's range

Simak's short stories and longer novellas range from the contemplative and thoughtfully idyllic to pure terror, although the punch line is often characteristically understated, as in Good Night Mr. James and Skirmish. There is also a group of humorous stories, of which The Big Front Yard is the most successful. And Way Station is in the midst of all of the science fiction paraphernalia a moving psychological study of a very lonely man who has to make peace with his past and finally manages to do so, but not without personal loss. The contemplative nature of the Simak character is a recurring trait both of theme and of the author's style.

Works

Novels

  • The Creator (first magazine publication 1935, first book publication 1946)
  • Cosmic Engineers (first magazine publication 1939, first book publication 1950)
  • Empire (1951) (Galaxy novel #7)
  • Time and Again (1951) [paperback title First He Died]
  • City (fixup 1952, "Epilog" added in the 1976 edition, but omitted in some subsequent Science Fiction Book Club reprints)
  • Ring Around the Sun (1954)
  • Time is the Simplest Thing (1961)
  • The Trouble With Tycho (1961)
  • They Walked Like Men (1962)
  • Way Station (1963) [1964-Hugo Award Winner]
  • All Flesh Is Grass (1965)
  • Why Call them Back From Heaven? (1967)
  • The Werewolf Principle (1967)
  • The Goblin Reservation (1968)
  • Out of Their Minds (1970)
  • Destiny Doll (1971)
  • A Choice of Gods (1972)
  • Cemetery World (1973)
  • Our Children's Children (1974)
  • Enchanted Pilgrimage (1975)
  • Shakespeare's Planet (1976)
  • A Heritage of Stars (1977)
  • The Fellowship of the Talisman (1978)
  • Mastodonia (1978) [UK title Catface]
  • The Visitors (1980)
  • Project Pope (1981)
  • Where the Evil Dwells (1982)
  • Special Deliverance (1982)
  • Highway of Eternity (1986) [alternate title Highway to Eternity]

Collections

  • Strangers in the Universe (1956) (contents revised in 1957 and 1958). Paperback contains 7 of 11 stories from hardback edition: “Target Generation”, “Mirage”, “Beachhead”, “The Answers”, “Retrograde Evolution”, “The Fence”, and “Shadow Show”.
  • The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1960)
  • Aliens for Neighbours (1961) (UK reprint of The Worlds of Clifford Simak)
  • All the Traps of Earth and Other Stories (1962) (contents revised in 1963) Contains “All the Traps of Earth”, “Good Night, Mr. James”, “Drop Dead”, “The Sitters”, “Installment Plan”, and “Condition of Employment”.
  • Other Worlds of Clifford Simak (1962) (abridgement of The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1961) Contains “Dusty Zebra”, “Carbon Copy”, “Founding Father”, “Idiot’s Crusade”, “Death Scene”, and “Green Thumb”.
  • The Night of the Puudly (1964) (UK reprint of All the Traps of Earth and Other Stories)
  • Worlds Without End (1964) Contains “Worlds Without End”, “The Spaceman’s Van Gogh”, and “Full Cycle”.
  • Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford Simak (1967)
  • So Bright the Vision (1968) Contains “The Golden Bugs”, “Leg. Forst.”, “So Bright the Vision,” and “Galactic Chest”.
  • The Best of Clifford D. Simak (1975) Contains “1939: Madness from Mars”, “1940: Sunspot Purge”, “1958: The Sitters”, “1959: A Death in the House”, “1960: Final Gentlemen”, “1961: Shotgun Cure”, “1963: Day of Truce”, “1965: Small Deer”, “1970: The Thing in the Stone”, and “1971: The Autumn Land”.
  • Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (1977) Contains “Huddling Place”, “Desertion”, “Skirmish”, “Good Night, Mr. James”, “The Sitters”, “The Big Front Yard”, “All the Traps of Earth”, “The Thing in the Stone”, “The Autumn Land”, and “The Ghost of a Model T”.
  • Brother And Other Stories (1986)
  • The Marathon Photograph and Other Stories (1986)
  • Off-Planet (1989)
  • The Autumn Land and Other Stories (1990)
  • Immigrant and Other Stories (1991)
  • The Creator and Other Stories (1993)
  • Over the River and Through the Woods: The Best Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (1996)
  • The Civilization Game and Other Stories (1997)

Non-fiction

  • The Solar System: Our New Front Yard (1962)
  • Trilobite, Dinosaur, and Man: The Earth's Story (1965)
  • Wonder and Glory: The Story of the Universe (1969)
  • Prehistoric Man: The Story of Man's Rise to Civilization (1971)

Books edited by Clifford D. Simak

  • From Atoms to Infinity: Readings in Modern Science (1965)
  • The March of Science (1971)
  • Nebula Award Stories #6 (1971)
  • The Best of Astounding (1978)

Audiotape

  • Cliffod D. Simak; Over the River and Through the Woods (read by Jonathan Frakes) (1995)

Awards

Books about Clifford D. Simak

  • Muriel R. Becker Clifford D. Simak, a primary and secondary bibliography (1980)
  • Mark Owings The Electric Bibliograph 1: Clifford D. Simak
  • Phil Stephensen-Payne Clifford D. Simak: A Working Bibliography (1991, ISBN 1-871133-28-9)
  • Robert J. Ewald Clifford Simak Reader's Guide to Contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Vol. 59 ()

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Clifford D. Simak.

Biographical sources

  • Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series. Detroit, Gale Research Co.
  • Sam Moskowitz Seekers of Tomorrow (1967) (one chapter covers Simak)
  • "Obituaries: Clifford D. Simak." Nationwide News Pty Limited - Herald, April 29, 1988.
  • Weatherby, W. J. "Obituary of Clifford Simak, realist of SF." Guardian Newspapers Limited/The Guardian (London), April 29, 1988.
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