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Classic Fiction
Hal Clement
(custom book cover)
Jerry eBooks
Title Page
About Hal Clement
Pseudonyms
Bibliography
Short Fiction Bibliography: chronological
Short Fiction Bibliography: alphabetical
Fiction Series
1942
PROOF
IMPEDIMENT
AVENUE OF ESCAPE
1943
ATTITUDE
1944
TECHNICAL ERROR
TROJAN FALL
1945
UNCOMMON SENSE
1946
COLD FRONT
ASSUMPTION UNJUSTIFIED
1947
ANSWER
1949
FIREPROOF
NEEDLE (First of two parts)
NEEDLE (First of two parts)
1951
ICEWORLD (First of three parts)
ICEWORLD (Second of Three Parts)
ICEWORLD (Third of Three Parts)
1952
HALO
1953
CRITICAL FACTOR
MISSION OF GRAVITY (First of Four Parts)
MISSION OF GRAVITY (Second of Four Parts)
MISSION OF GRAVITY (Third of four parts)
MISSION OF GRAVITY (Conclusion)
GROUND
1956
DUST RAG
1957
PLANET FOR PLUNDER
1958
CLOSE TO CRITICAL (First of Three Parts)
CLOSE TO CRITICAL (Second of Three Parts)
CLOSE TO CRITICAL (Conclusion)
1960
THE LUNAR LICHEN
SUNSPOT
1963
THE GREEN WORLD
HOT PLANET
1965
RAINDROP
1966
THE FOUNDLING STARS
THE MECHANIC
1967
OCEAN ON TOP (First of Three Parts)
OCEAN ON TOP (Part Two)
OCEAN ON TOP (Conclusion)
1968
BULGE
1970
STARLIGHT (First of Four Parts)
STARLIGHT (Part III of IV)
STARLIGHT (Conclusion)
1972
PLANETFALL
1973
LECTURE DEMONSTRATION
1974
MISTAKEN FOR GRANTED
THE LOGICAL LIFE
1976
LONGLINE
STUCK WITH IT
A QUESTION OF GUILT
1978
SEASONING
1987
STATUS SYMBOL
1989
BLOT
1991
PHASES IN CHAOS
1992
EYEBALL VECTORS
1994
SORTIE
SETTLEMENT
1995
SEISMIC SIDETRACK
SIMILE
1998
OH, NATURAL
OPTIONS
1999
EXCHANGE RATE
2000
UNDER
2003
OFFICE POLITICS
Harry Clement Stubbs, better known as Hal Clement (his primary pen name) was born on May 30, 1922 in Somerville, Massachusetts. Clement grew up in greater Boston, attending schools in Arlington and Cambridge. Clement was fascinated with science and science fiction from an early age. In 1930, he saw a Buck Rogers comic strip, featuring a space ship en route to Mars. Like an innocent and curious child, he had many questions about what he saw which he posed to his father who was unable to answer him. His father took him to the library from which he returned with an astronomy book under one arm and Jules Verne’s Trip to the Moon under the other. Clement graduated high school from Rindge Tech in 1939 with his science and science fiction interests still intact.
Clement attended the prestigious Harvard University and graduated in 1943 with a B.S. in astronomy which he took a great interest in, shaping the accurate knowledge he later infused his science fiction novels with. He also attended Boston University (1946) and Simmons College receiving a M. Ed. and M.S. in chemistry (1963) respectively.
With World War II affecting the lives of everyone across the world, Clement was affected as well. He entered the Army Air Corps Reserves after graduating from Harvard (prior to obtaining the two aforementioned degrees) In late 1943, Clement came to the Penn State University campus to take a course in meteorology. Science Fiction expert Fred Ramsey recalls Clement speaking fondly of his time in Pennsylvania, saying that he and his newly-married wife regarded it as their honeymoon. In March 1944, Clement received his pilot’s wings and a lieutenant’s commission at Steward Field, New York. He was no stranger to the sky and flew 35 combat missions as copilot and pilot in B-24 bombers with the 8th Air Force. Clement had not been on active duty his whole time in the army, but in 1951 he was recalled to it. He spent eight months as a squadron executive officer at Bolling Air Force Base and sixteen months as a technical instructor at the Armed Forces Special Weapons School in Sandia Base, New Mexico. He retired from the service as a full colonel in 1976.
After college, Clement started writing and his first published work, Proof, appeared in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. His first novel came shortly thereafter in 1949 when he was in the army. Needle is a novel about an alien race whose members live in symbiosis inside other races. One member of this race, the Hunter, comes to Earth in search of a fugitive. The tale concerns his search for the Fugitive, a search like finding a needle in a haystack.
A short four years later was when his greatest work Mission of Gravity came out. This is a science fiction novel about the account of a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet Mesklin to recover a stranded scientific probe. In his own words, Clement describes his writing in an article he wrote entitled Whirligig World by saying:
“Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work . . . the fun . . . lies in treating the whole thing as a game . . . the rules must be quite simple. They are; for the reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible of the author’s statements or implications which conflict with the facts as science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he possibly can . . . Certain exceptions are made [e.g., to allow travel faster than the speed of light], but fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story . . .”
His interest in science and science fiction in conjunction with his knowledge of them therefore provided entertaining yet at the same time very real stories. Clement therefore has a large following of fans which is supported by his success as a science fiction writer and critics are often warm towards him. In regards to Clement’s book Noise, Lazarowitz of sfsite.com states that “The science, as stated before, is detailed and impeccable. Any fan of hard science fiction will greatly appreciate the attention to detail.” Clement created new worlds, new planets, describing magnificent yet accurately real universes in his works.
Right before the publishing of his biggest work, Clement married Mary Elizabeth Myers in 1952. They had two sons, George and Richard, and one daughter, Christine. While writing, he taught high school science for forty years, two in a public school and 38 at Milton Academy in Milton Massachusetts, from which he retired in 1987. Stanley Schmidt of Analog Science Fiction & Fact writes that Clement “
generated just as much enthusiasm for the sciences through his writings as in the classroom.” He has served the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers as a Division Chairman and president. Since 1972, he has also painted astronomical and science-fiction art as George Richard. Clement received the 1998 recognition as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
According to the January 2004 issue of the Chronicle, on October 29, 2003 Hal Clement died in his sleep, aged 81, most likely due to complications of diabetes.
PSEUDONYMS
Alexander Blade
George Richard
Harry C. Stubbs
Harry Stubbs
About the Author
Hal Clement (Harry Clement Stubbs) was born in Massachusetts in 1922. He has been a science lover from early childhood, at least partly as a result of a 1930 Buck Rogers panel in which villains were "headed for Mars, forty-seven million miles away." His father, an accountant, couldn’t answer the resulting questions, and led little Hal to the local library. The result was irreversible brain influence.
He majored in astronomy at Harvard, and has since acquired master’s degrees in education and in chemistry. He earns his basic living as a teacher of chemistry and astronomy at Milton Academy, in Massachusetts, and regards science-Action writing and painting as hobbies. His first two stories, "Proof" and "Impediment," were sold when he was a junior in college; their impression on Harvard’s $400 per year tuition secured family tolerance for that crazy Buck Rogers stuff.
He has since produced half a dozen novels, of which the best known are Needle and Mission of Gravity. His reputation among science-fiction enthusiasts is that of a "hard" writer—one who tries to stick faithfully to the physical sciences as they are currently understood. Like Arthur C. Clarke and the late Willy Ley, Clement would never dream of having a spaceship fall into the sun merely because its engines broke down. He can do his own orbit computing, and does.
He leads a double life, appearing frequently at science-fiction conventions as Hal Clement and spending the rest of his time in Milton as the rather square science teacher with a wife of twenty-five years and three grown children, Harry Stubbs. He does occasional merit badge counseling for the Boy Scouts, has served on his town’s finance committee, and is an eleven-gallon Red Cross blood donor.
Originally appeared in Mission to Gravity, 1978.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Novels
Needle (1950)
Ice World (1953)
The Ranger Boys in Space (1956)
Cycle of Fire (1957)
Close to Critical (1964)
Starlight, (1971)
Ocean on Top (1973)
Left of Africa (1976)
Through the Eye of a Needle (1978)
The Nitrogen Fix (1980)
Still River (1987)
Fossil (1993)
Half Life (1999)
Magazine-published Novels
Planet for Plunder, Satellite Science Fiction, February 1957
The Green World, If, May 1963
Serials
Needle, Astounding Science Fiction, May-June 1949
Iceworld, Astounding Science Fiction, October-December 1951
Mission of Gravity, Astounding Science Fiction, April-July 1953
Close to Critical, Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
Ocean on Top, If, October-December 1967
Starlight, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June-September 1970
Collections
Natives of Space (1965)
Small Changes (1969)
Mission of Gravity / Lecture Demonstration (1978)
The Best of Hal Clement (1979)
Intuit (1987)
Music of Many Spheres (2000)
Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton (2000)
Heavy Planet: The Classic Mesklin Stories (2002)
Omnibii
Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter (1998)
Men of the Morning Star / Planet for Plunder (2011)
The Moon Is Hell! / The Green World (2012)
Iceworld / Cycle of Fire / Close to Critical (2014)
Nonfiction
Some Notes on Xi Bootis (1960)
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHRONOLOGICAL
1942
Proof, Astounding Science Fiction, June 1942
Impediment, Astounding Science Fiction, August 1942
Avenue of Escape, Astounding Science Fiction, November 1942
1943
Attitude, Astounding Science Fiction, September 1943
1944
Technical Error, Astounding Science Fiction, January 1944
Trojan Fall, Astounding Science Fiction, June 1944
1945
Uncommon Sense, Astounding Science Fiction, September 1945
1946
Cold Front, Astounding Science Fiction, July 1946
Assumption Unjustified, Astounding Science Fiction, October 1946
1947
Answer, Astounding Science Fiction, April 1947
1949
Fireproof, Astounding Science Fiction, March 1949
Needle (First of two parts), Astounding Science Fiction, May 1949
Needle (Second of two parts), Astounding Science Fiction, June 1949
1951
Iceworld (First of three parts), Astounding Science Fiction, October 1951
Iceworld (Second of Three Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, November 1951
Iceworld (Third of Three Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, December 1951
1952
Halo, Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1952
1953
Critical Factor, Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2, 1953
Mission of Gravity (First of Four Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, April 1953
Mission of Gravity (Second of Four Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, May 1953
Mission of Gravity (Third of four parts), Astounding Science Fiction, June 1953
Mission of Gravity (Conclusion), Astounding Science Fiction, July 1953
Ground, Science Fiction Adventures, December 1953
1956
Dust Rag, Astounding Science Fiction, September 1956
1957
Planet for Plunder, Satellite Science Fiction, February 1957
1958
Close to Critical (First of Three Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
Close to Critical (Second of Three Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
Close to Critical (Conclusion), Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
1960
The Lunar Lichen, Future Science Fiction, February 1960
Sunspot, Analog Science Fact -> Fiction, November 1960
1963
The Green World, If, May 1963
Hot Planet, Galaxy Magazine, August 1963
1965
Raindrop, If, May 1965
1966
The Foundling Stars, If, August 1966
The Mechanic, Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, September 1966
1967
Ocean on Top (First of Three Parts), If, October-December 1967
Ocean on Top (Part Two), If, October-December 1967
Ocean on Top (Conclusion), If, October-December 1967
1968
Bulge, If, September 1968
1970
Starlight (First of Four Parts), Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1970
Starlight (Second of Four Parts), Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1970
Starlight (Part III of IV), Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1970
Starlight (Conclusion), Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, September 1970
1972
Planetfall, Strange Tomorrows, October 1972
1973
Lecture Demonstration, Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, November 1973
1974
Mi
staken for Granted, If, January/February, January 1974
The Logical Life, Stellar 1, September 1974
1976
Longline, Faster Than Light, 1976
Stuck with It, Stellar 2, February 1976
A Question of Guilt, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series IV, November 1976
1978
Seasoning, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September/October, September 1978
1987
Status Symbol, Intuit, September 1987
1989
Blot, Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov, September 1989
1991
Phases in Chaos, Isaac’s Universe, Volume Two: , July 1991
1992
Eyeball Vectors, Isaac’s Universe, Volume Three: Unnatural Diplomacy, July 1992
1994
Sortie, Harsh Mistress,, Spring/Summer 1994
Settlement, Absolute Magnitude, Fall/Winter 1994
1995
Seismic Sidetrack, Absolute Magnitude, Spring 1995
Simile, Absolute Magnitude, Summer 1995
1998
Oh, Natural, Absolute Magnitude, Spring 1998
Options, Lamps on the Brow, August 1998
1999
Exchange Rate, Absolute Magnitude, Winter 1999
2000
Under, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 2000
2003
Office Politics, Readercon 15 Souvenir Book, July 2003
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALPHABETICAL
A
A Question of Guilt, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series IV, November 1976
Answer, Astounding Science Fiction, April 1947
Assumption Unjustified, Astounding Science Fiction, October 1946
Attitude, Astounding Science Fiction, September 1943
Avenue of Escape, Astounding Science Fiction, November 1942
B
Blot, Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov, September 1989
Bulge, If, September 1968
C
Close to Critical (First of Three Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
Close to Critical (Second of Four Parts), Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
Close to Critical (Conclusion), Astounding Science Fiction, May-July 1958
Cold Front, Astounding Science Fiction, July 1946
Critical Factor, Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2, 1953
D