Hal Clement
- HAL CLEMENT - A black ink and gray pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size vellum paper. It appears on the cover of "STARMONT READER'S GUIDE No. 11".
His real name was Harry Clement Stubbs. He lived the kind of life most men should envy. He was born in 1922 and grew up to graduate from Harvard with a degree in Astronomy, went on to Boston University and earned a degree in Education, then went on to earn a degree in Chemistry from Simmons College.
And while he was accomplishing all that scholarly stuff, he started writing science fiction stories. He managed to sell them to the best and highest paying magazine, "Astounding SF" using the pen name "Hal Clement".
During World War Two he piloted a B-24 Liberator bomber and flew 35 missions over enemy territory in Europe with the 8th Air Force. Those missions had very high casualties rates, he was lucky to survive the war. After the war he taught Astronomy and Chemistry at Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and continued to write and sell SF stories in his spare time.
As Hal Clement he wrote "hard" science fiction, meaning that his stories feature humans, or aliens, who are challenged to overcome difficult scientific problems. His best known story is, "Mission of Gravity," a "hard" SF drama that has become the standard by which all other hard SF stories are measured.
In 1996 his story, "Uncommon Sense" won the "Hugo" award for best short story of the year. And in 1998 he received the "Grand Master" award from the SF Writers of America, for his life-long contribution to the SF field. He died in 2003 at age 82.
Feel Free to add your Comments about this Artwork
Please do not abuse this feature or it will be removed, Keep it clean, keep it classy, keep it respectful