Colombo, Sri Lanka (Mar. 19, 2007) (AP) — Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who co-wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, has died. He was 90.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka after breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.
Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer. H wrote more than 100 books and over 1,000 shorter works, was prophetic in many ways.
He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits. He has also heroed in his many works the post-modern technologies of ion rocket propulsion, massive magnetic sling shots and space elevators all of which are currently under development.
Born in Minehead, England, in 1917 he was the son of a farmer. He worked as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.
After World War II, Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London. In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was in charge of a new radar blind-landing system. In a 1945 RAF memo, he wrote about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications — an idea whose time had decidedly not come.
Clarke, who was awarded a knighthood in 1998, wanted a private funeral with no religious services and to be buried in the family plot of his Sri Lankan business partner, Hector Ekanayake, with whose family he lived.
Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956; "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986. His most recent release was 'First Born' the third and final chapter to the 'A Time Odyssey' trilogy which ironically wraps up one of his most famous of all characters.
