Hal Clement


Harry Clement Stubbs, better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard.
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.

Biography

Harry Clement Stubbs was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on May 30, 1922.
He went to Harvard, graduating with a B.S. in astronomy in 1943. While there he wrote his first published story, "Proof", which appeared in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, edited by John W. Campbell; three more appeared in later 1942 numbers. His further educational background includes an M.Ed. and M.S. in chemistry.
During World War II Clement was a pilot and copilot of a B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe with the 68th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, based in England with 8th Air Force. After the war, he served in the United States Air Force Reserve, and retired with the rank of colonel. He taught chemistry and astronomy for many years at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.
From 1949 to 1953, Clement's first three novels were two-, three-, and four-part Astounding serials under Campbell: Needle, Iceworld, and Mission of Gravity, his best-known novel, published by Doubleday's Science Fiction Book Club. The latter novel features a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet Mesklin to recover a stranded scientific probe. The natives of Mesklin are centipede-like intelligent beings about 50 centimeters long. Various episodes hinge on the fact that Mesklin's fast rotational speed causes it to be considerably deformed from the spherical, with effective surface gravity that varies from approximately 3 g''n at the equator to approximately 700 g''n at the poles.
Clement's article "Whirligig World" describes his approach to writing a science fiction story:
Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work.... the fun... lies in treating the whole thing as a game.... he 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, but fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story...

Clement was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions, especially in the eastern United States, where he usually presented talks and slide shows about writing and astronomy.
Clement died in his sleep in Massachusetts at the Milton Hospital on October 29, 2003, at age 81.

Awards and honors

Clement has been honored several times for his cumulative contributions including 1998 Hall of Fame induction, when Clement and Frederik Pohl were the fifth and sixth living persons honored, and the 1999 SFWA Grand Master Award.
For the 1945 short story "Uncommon Sense" he received a 50-year Retro Hugo Award at the 1996 World [Science Fiction Convention]. Mission of Gravity, first published as a serial during 1953, was named best foreign novel by the Spanish Science Fiction Association in 1994 and it was a finalist for a 50-year Retro Hugo Award in 2004.
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.
Wayne Barlowe illustrated two of Clement's fictional species, the Abyormenites and the Mesklinites, in his Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.

Short stories, novelettes and novellas

  • "Proof". Short story. Published in Astounding. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2, Possible Worlds of Science Fiction, SF: Author's Choice 2, Where Do We Go From Here?, The Great SF Stories 4 , First Voyages, The Golden Years of Science Fiction , ', ' and '.
  • Impediment. Novelette. Published in Astounding. Collected in Natives of Space, The Best of Hal Clement and The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • Avenue of Escape. Published in Astounding's series Probability Zero. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Attitude". Novella. Published in Astounding. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2 and Travellers of Space.
  • Technical Error". Novelette. Published in Astounding. Collected in Natives of Space, The Best of Hal Clement and The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Trojan Fall". Short story. Published in Astounding. Collected in Small Changes.
  • "Uncommon Sense". His most famous short story. Part of the Laird Cunningham Series. Hugo Award for Best Short Story of 1945. Published in Astounding. Collected in Small Changes, The Best of Hal Clement, Intuit, The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2, , and Nebula Awards Showcase 2000.
  • "Cold Front". Novelette. Published in Astounding. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2, Men Against the Stars and '.
  • Assumption Unjustified. Novelette. Published in Astounding. Collected in Natives of Space, The Best of Hal Clement and .
  • "Answer". Short story. Published in Astounding SF. Collected in The Best of Hal Clement and Science Fiction Thinking Machines.
  • "Fireproof". Short story. Published in Astounding. Collected in Small Changes, Decade of the 1940s and Combat SF.
  • "Halo". Novelette. Published in Galaxy. Collected in Small Changes, The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2 and .
  • "Critical Factor". Short story not included in any of the Hal Clement's compilations. Published in . Collected in ' and The Road to Science Fiction #3: From Heinlein to here.
  • "Ground". Short story not included in any of the Hal Clement's compilations. Published in Science Fiction Adventures.
  • "Dust Rag". Short story. Published in Astounding. Collected in Small Changes, The Best of Hal Clement, Where Do We Go From Here? and '.
  • "Planet for Plunder". Published in Satellite SF jointly with Sam Merwin Jr. A previous version of "Planetfall". Collected in Men of the Morning Star/Planet for Plunder.
  • "The Lunar Lichen". Novelette not included in any of the Hal Clement's compilations. Published in Future Science Fiction. Collected in The Time Trap/The Lunar Lichen.
  • "Sun Spot". Short story. Published in Analog. Collected in Small Changes, The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2, ' and '
  • "". Novella not included in any of the Hal Clement's compilations. Published in If. Collected in The Moon is Hell!/The Green World.
  • "". Novelette not included in any of the Hal Clement's compilations to date. Published in Galaxy. Collected in The 9th Annual of the Year's Best SF, Spectrum 4, , ' and '.
  • "Raindrop". Novelette. Published in If. Collected in Small Changes, The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2 and '.
  • "The Foundling Stars". Short story. Published in If. Collected in Small Changes and The Second If Reader of Science Fiction.
  • "The Mechanic". Novelette. Published in Analog. Collected in Small Changes, The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2 and '.
  • "Bulge". Novelette. Published in If. Collected in Small Changes and The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • '"Planetfall". Original version of "Planet for Plunder". Published in Strange Tomorrows. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Lecture Demonstration". Short story from the Mesklin Series. Published in the book Astounding. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 3, Heavy Planet and .
  • "Mistaken for Granted". Novella. Published in Worlds of If. Collected in The Best of Hal Clement.
  • "The Logical Life". Second short story in the Laird Cunningham Series. Published in Stellar #1. Collected in Intuit and The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Question of Guilt". Novelette. Published in The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series IV. Collected in The Best of Hal Clement.
  • "Stuck with It". Novelette in the Laird Cunningham Series. Published in . Collected in The Best of Hal Clement, Intuit and The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Longline". Novelette. Published in Faster than Light. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Seasoning". Novelette set in Harlan Ellison's Medea world. Not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations. Published in IASFM. Collected in ' and '.
  • "Status Symbol". Novelette, the last story in the Laird Cunningham Series. Published in Intuit. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2.
  • "Blot". Novelette about Asimov's positronic robots. Not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations to date. Published in '.
  • "Phases in Chaos'". Novella not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations. Published in '.
  • "Eyeball Vectors". Novella not included in any of Clement's compilations to date. Published in '.
  • "Sortie". First part of the Sortie series. Novella not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations to date. Published in Harsh Mistress.
  • "Settlement". Second part of the Sortie series. Novella not included in any of Clement's compilations. Published in Absolute Magnitude.
  • "Seismic Sidetrack". Third part of the Sortie series. Novella not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations to date. Published in Absolute Magnitude.
  • "Simile". Fourth and last part of the Sortie series. Novella not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations. Published in Absolute Magnitude.
  • "Oh, Natural". Novelette not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations. Published in Absolute Magnitude. Collected in '.
  • Options". Short story not included in any of Clement's compilations to date. Published as Harry C. Stubbs in '.
  • "Exchange Rate". Novella not included in any of Hal Clement's compilations to date. Published in Absolute Magnitude. Collected in ' and .
  • "Under". Short story, last story in the 'Mesklin series. Published in Analog. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 3 and Heavy Planet.
  • "Office politics". Short story not included in any of Clement's compilations. Published in ''''

Books

Needle, Iceworld, Mission of Gravity, .The Ranger Boys in Space Cycle of Fire, Close to Critical, Natives of Space, Small Changes, Space Lash, First Flights to the Moon, ASIN B000BCHC4Y Star Light, Ocean on Top, Left of Africa, Through the Eye of a Needle, The Best of Hal Clement, The Nitrogen Fix, Intuit, Still River, Fossil, Half Life, , , , Heavy Planet, Noise, Men of the Morning Star/Planet for Plunder, The Moon is Hell!/The Green World, The Time Trap/The Lunar Lichen, Hal Clement SF Gateway Omnibus,

About Hal Clement

Starmont Readers Guide 11: Hal Clement,. Donald M. Hassler.Hal Clement, Scientist with a Mission: a Working Bibliography, ASIN B0006OUUAU. Gordon Benson Jr.,. Several authors.

Articles and introductions

Probability Zero!. Published jointly with Malcolm Jameson, Harry Warner Jr., Dennis Tucker and P. Schuyler Miller in Astounding. About Probability Zero, Harry Harrison said in the John Campbell Memorial Anthology:
"In the early 1940s, in Astounding, there was a small department called Probability Zero! that ran short-short stories. Or items. Or lies. Things. These things were usually funny and always impossible - echoing the description of the title."Whirligig World. About how to write science fiction, and specifically, about how he wrote Mission of Gravity. Published in Astounding. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 3, Heavy Planet and Mission of Gravity.Some Notes on Xi Bootis. Published by Advent Publishers.Gravity insufficient. Published in Analog Science Fact.Chips on Distant Shoulders. Published in The Future at War Vol. 3.Basic Concepts: Astrophysics, Geology. About Harlan Ellison's world Medea. Published in '.Second Thoughts. About Harlan Ellison's world Medea, jointly written with Poul Anderson, Thomas M. Disch, Larry Niven & Frederik Pohl. Published in '.The Home System. Published in Aboriginal.Intuition: The Guide Who Needs Steering. Published in Intuit.The Magic Picture. Published in '.Whatever Happened to the Science in Science Fiction?. Published in '.Ardent Thuria, Chilly Cluros: Seeing, and Seeing From, Low Orbiting Satellites. Published in '.Only Once. Published in '.Will. Introduction to '.Jack Williamson, especulator. Introduction to '.Alfred E. van Vogt. Introduction to '.About Proof, of Course. Introduction to Proof in '.