Clifford D Simak Popular Books
Clifford D Simak Biography & Facts
Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is associated with the pastoral science fiction subgenre. Biography Early life, education, and journalism career Simak was born in Millville, Wisconsin in 1904, son of John Lewis and Margaret (Wiseman) Simak. Simak attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and then taught in the public schools until 1929. He later worked at various newspapers in the Midwest. He began a lifelong association with the Minneapolis Star and Tribune (in Minneapolis, Minnesota) in 1939, which continued until his retirement in 1976. He became Minneapolis Star's news editor in 1949 and coordinator of Minneapolis Tribune's Science Reading Series in 1961. Personal life He married Agnes Kuchenberg on April 13, 1929, and they had two children, Richard "Dick" Scott (1947–2012) and Shelley Ellen. In his novel, Time and Again he wrote, "I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty three years and have two children. My favorite recreation is fishing (the lazy way, lying in a boat and letting them come to me). Hobbies: Chess, stamp collecting, growing roses." He dedicated the book to his wife Kay, "without whom I'd never have written a line". He was well liked by many of his science fiction-writing friends, especially Isaac Asimov. Death He died in Minneapolis on April 25, 1988. Writing career Simak became interested in science fiction after reading the works of H. G. Wells as a child. His first contribution to the literature was "The World of the Red Sun", published by Hugo Gernsback in the December 1931 issue of Wonder Stories with one opening illustration by Frank R. Paul. Within a year, he placed three more stories in Gernsback's pulp magazines and one in Astounding Stories, then edited by Harry Bates. But his only science fiction publication between 1932 and 1938 was "The Creator" (Marvel Tales #4, March–April 1935), a story with religious implications, which was then rare in the genre. Once John W. Campbell, at the helm of Astounding from October 1937, began redefining the field, Simak returned and was a regular contributor to Astounding Science Fiction (as it was renamed in 1938) throughout the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1938–1950). At first, as in the 1939 serial novel Cosmic Engineers, he wrote in the tradition of the earlier "super science" subgenre that E. E. "Doc" Smith perfected, but he soon developed his own style, which is usually described as gentle and pastoral. During this period, Simak also published a number of war and western stories in pulp magazines. His best-known book may be City, a fix-up novel based on short stories with a common theme of mankind's eventual exodus from Earth. Simak continued to produce award-nominated novels throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Aided by a friend, he continued writing and publishing science fiction and, later, fantasy, into his 80s. He believed that science fiction not rooted in scientific fact was responsible for the failure of the genre to be taken seriously, and stated his aim was to make the genre a part of what he called "realistic fiction." Themes Simak's stories often have a rural setting, which led to his style being described as "pastoral" or "pastoral science fiction".: 27 Crusty individualistic backwoodsman characters often appear - for example, Hiram Taine, the protagonist of "The Big Front Yard". Hiram's dog "Towser" (sometimes "Bowser") is common to many of Simak's works. The rural setting is not always idyllic; for instance, in Ring Around the Sun, it is largely dominated by intolerance and isolationism. Many of his aliens have a dry, otherworldly sense of humor, and others are unintentionally amusing, in their speech, behavior or appearance. His robots are full of personality, as are his dogs. By contrast, his "heroes" are ciphers. His protagonists are often boring men, never described and never reappearing. One of Simak's editors objected to his stories because his heroes were "losers". Simak replied, "I like losers." Many of Simak's story lines involve a quest, or a mission. Characters set out, alone, and acquire companions, often unlikely matches, along the way. On the journey, some fall by the wayside, and of these, some are reunited with the group, whilst others never heard from again. Simak's stories often say that there is no past time for a time traveler to go to. Our world moves along in a stream of time, and to move to a different place in time is to move to another world. Thus in City our Earth is overrun by ants, but the intelligent dogs and the remaining humans escape to other worlds in the time stream. In Ring Around the Sun, the persecuted paranormals escape to other Earths which, if they could all be seen at once, would be at different stages of their orbit around the Sun, hence the title. In Time Is the Simplest Thing a paranormal escapes a mob by moving back in time, only to find that the past is a place where there are no living things and inanimate objects are barely substantial. Time travel also plays an important role in Time and Again. A long-lost space traveler returns with a message which is SF-slanted, yet religious in tone. Having crashed on a planet, he is then nurtured by ethereal duplicates that seem to accompany every sentient being throughout life. His befuddled observations are seized upon by religious factions, and a schism then threatens to erupt into war on Earth. Intelligence, loyalty and friendship, the existence of God and souls, the unexpected benefits and harm of invention, tools as extensions of humanity, and more questions are often explored by Simak's robots, whom he uses as "surrogate humans". They begin as likable mechanical persons, but change in surprising ways. Having achieved intelligence, robots move on to common themes such as, "Why are we here?" and "Do robots have souls"? Examples are the faithful butler Jenkins in City, the religious robot Hezekiel in A Choice of Gods, the frontier robots in Special Deliverance and A Heritage of Stars, and the monk-like robots in Project Pope who seek heaven. In All the Traps of Earth, a 600 year-old robot, a family retainer who earned the name Richard Daniel, is considered chattel to be reprogrammed and lose all its memories. The robot runs away, hitches onto a spaceship, and passes through hyperspace unprotected. Daniel gains the ability to see and fix problems in anything – a ship, a robot, a human – telekinetically, but is still drifting and hunted as chattel. He stumbles on a frontier planet and finds a purpose, helping the pioneers as a doctor, a servant, a colonist, and a friend. And here Daniel achieves an epiphany: Human beings are more clever than.... Discover the Clifford D Simak popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Clifford D Simak books.
Best Seller Clifford D Simak Books of 2024
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Dusty Zebra
Clifford D. SimakTales of science fiction and adventure from the Hugo Award–winning author of Way Station and City. The long and prolific career of Clifford D. Simak cemented him as one of t...
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The Shipshape Miracle
Clifford D. SimakNine tales of imagination and wonder from one of the formative voices of science fiction and fantasy, the author of Way Station and City. Named a Grand Master by the Scienc...
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Time Hole
Clifford D. SimakGoing back 50,000 years in time, opportunists found "Mastodonia" to make millions selling access to their country and its resources. Second Childhood: Achieving immortality...
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Good Night, Mr. James
Clifford D. SimakStrange, poignant tales of life in outer space and on tomorrow’s Earth from the multiple Hugo Award–winning Grand Master of Science Fiction. Virtually every major author from scien...
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Grotto of the Dancing Deer
Clifford D. SimakTen tales of wonder, danger, and the futureincluding the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning title storyfrom the science fiction Grand Master. This volume contains ten stellar short stor...
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The Works of Clifford D. Simak Volume One
Clifford D. SimakTwo classic novels and a short story collection from the legendary Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author in one volume. This volume from an icon of the Golden Age of science fiction...
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The Works of Clifford D. Simak Volume Two
Clifford D. SimakMultiple masterpieces of science fiction from a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author in one volume. From a master of the Golden Age of science fiction, this collection includes: ...
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Earth for Inspiration
Clifford D. SimakFrom tales of alien invasions and intergalactic war to visions of dystopian tomorrows, an astonishing collection from one of literary science fiction’s alltime greats, Hugo Award w...
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The Greatest Sci-Fi Books - Clifford D. Simak Edition
Clifford D. SimakThis eBook edition of "The Greatest SciFi Books Clifford D. Simak Edition" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices....
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Epilog
Clifford D. SimakA volume of eleven stories from the Hugo Award–winning science fiction author that explore inner space, future worlds, and the peculiar lives of robots. One of the twentieth centur...
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The Big Front Yard
Clifford D. SimakTales of the unknown in which a fixit man crosses into another dimensionand more Hiram Taine is a handyman who can fix anything. When he isn’t fiddling with his tools, he is roamin...
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I Am Crying All Inside
Clifford D. SimakFrom the Nebula Award–winning author of Way Station: Ten storiesincluding one never before publishedof mystery and imagination in a world that cannot be. People work; folk play. T...
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Clifford D. Simak. The Greatest Science Fiction Stories
Clifford D. SimakClifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand M...
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A Death in the House
Clifford D. SimakTen thrilling and intriguing tales of space travel, war, and alien encounters from the multiple Hugo Award–winning Grand Master of Science Fiction. From Frank Herbert’s Dune...
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No Life of Their Own
Clifford D. SimakTwelve classic tales of the unknown from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of Way Station. Clifford D. Simak had a sublime ability to evoke a lost way of life. He spent...
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The Collected Works of Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. Simakeartnow presents to you this meticulously edited Clifford D. Simak collection, formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Empire The W...
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The Works of Clifford D. Simak Volume Four
Clifford D. SimakA collection of masterpieces from a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Grand Master of Science Fiction who “has never written a bad book” (Theodore Sturgeon).The Big Front Yard and Othe...
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The Thing in the Stone
Clifford D. SimakA mindopening collection of short science fiction from one of the genre’s most revered Grand Masters. Legendary author Robert A. Heinlein proclaimed, “To read science fictio...
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The Works of Clifford D. Simak Volume Three
Clifford D. Simak & David W. WixonThree stunning works of science fiction from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning grandmaster and author of Way Station. I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories: Ten stories of...
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More Fantastic Stories
Frank Herbert, R. A. Lafferty, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Clifford D. Simak, Carl Jacobi, Edgar Pangborn & Andre NortonCollected here are six fantastic science fiction stories by R. A. Lafferty, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Clifford D. Simak, Edgar Pangborn, Andre Norton, and Frank Herbert. 'Sodom and ...
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Buckets of Diamonds
Clifford D. SimakThis collection of stories from the Hugo Award–winning science fiction author ranges from alien planets to the more peculiar corners of the American landscape. A pioneering voice i...
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Complete Science Pulp of Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. SimakAn American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo Awards and by colleagues with one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third...
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The Ghost of a Model T
Clifford D. SimakTales of nostalgia and loss in a world overrun by technology Hank is walking home from the bar when the Model T pulls alongside him. It’s been decades since he saw a car this old, ...