Visionary Author Arthur Clarke Dies at 90

World | March 19, 2008, Wednesday // 00:00
Visionary Author Arthur Clarke Dies at 90 Author Arthur C. Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for "2001: A Space Odyssey" to an early proposal for communications satellites, has died at age 90. Photo by Bloomberg

Author Arthur Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for "2001: A Space Odyssey" to communications satellites proposal, has died at age 90.

Clarke, who had been wheelchair-bound for several years, passed away at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s.

In a videotaped 90th birthday message to fans, the author said he still hoped to see some sign of intelligent life beyond Earth, more work on alternatives to fossil fuels and an end to the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and ethnic Tamil separatists.

"I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka as soon as possible. But I'm aware that peace cannot just be wished - it requires a great deal of hard work, courage and persistence," the literature legend said.

Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick shared an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay for "2001" that grew out of Clarke's 1951 short story "The Sentinel".

As a Royal Air Force officer during World War II, Clarke took part in the early development of radar. In a paper written for the radio journal "Wireless World" in 1945, he suggested that artificial satellites hovering in a fixed spot above Earth could be used to relay telecommunications signals across the globe.

His best-known works, such as "2001" or the 1953 novel "Childhood's End," combined the hard science he learned studying physics and mathematics with insights into how future discoveries would change humanity.

Clarke was knighted in 1998. He wrote dozens of novels and collections of short stories and more than 30 nonfiction works during his career, and served as a television commentator during several of the Apollo moon missions.

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