Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was an 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 SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Video Clifford D. Simak
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 a blurb in 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 25 April 1988.
Maps Clifford D. Simak
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 repeat a few basic ideas and themes. First and foremost is a setting in rural Wisconsin. A crusty individualistic backwoodsman character literally comes with the territory, the best example being Hiram Taine, the protagonist of The Big Front Yard. Hiram's dog "Towser" (sometimes "Bowser") is another Simak trademark being common to many of Simak's works. But the rural setting is not always as idyllic as here; and in Ring Around the Sun it is largely dominated by intolerance and isolationism.
An idea often found in Simak's stories is that there is no past time for a time traveler to go to. Instead, our world moves along in a stream of time, and to move to a different place in time is to move to another world altogether. 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 the ingeniously constructed Time and Again, which then ventures into metaphysics. 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--spirits? souls?--that seem to accompany every sentient being throughout life. His fuddled 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". His robots begin as likable mechanical persons, but morph in surprising ways. Having achieved intelligence, robots move onto 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.
Simak's robot-awareness theme goes farthest 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. Yet he's still drifting and hunted as chattel. Finally 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 they know. Human-created robots set loose can become agents with para-human abilities that directly or indirectly benefit humanity. Thus do robots, and Mankind, escape "all the traps of earth".
The religious theme is often present in Simak's work, but the protagonists who have searched for God in a traditional sense tend to find something more abstract and inhuman. Hezekiel in A Choice of Gods cannot accept this. Quote: "God must be, forever, a kindly old (human) gentleman with a long, white, flowing beard."
Simak's short stories and longer novellas range from the contemplative and thoughtfully idyllic to pure terror, although the punch line is often characteristically understated, as in Good Night Mr. James and Skirmish. There is also a group of humorous stories, of which "The Big Front Yard" is the most successful. And Way Station is in the midst of all of the science fiction paraphernalia a moving psychological study of a very lonely man who has to make peace with his past and finally manages to do so, but not without personal loss. The contemplative nature of the Simak character is a recurring trait both of theme and of the author's style.
Many of his aliens have a dry, otherworldly sense of humor, and others are unintentionally amusing, either in their speech or their appearance. So too are his robots full of personality, and even his dogs. By contrast, his "heroes" are ciphers. His protagonists are often boring men, never described and never reappearing. They solve crises by muddling through, and if they fall in love with "the girl" (also never described), it's incidental. One of Simak's editors objected to his stories because his heroes were "losers". Simak replied, "I like losers."
One finds other traditional SF themes in Simak's work. The importance of knowledge and compassion in "Immigrant" and "Kindergarten". Identity play, as in "Good Night. Mr James" (filmed as The Outer Limits: The Duplicate Man in 1964). Fictions come to life in "Shadow Show" and elsewhere, such as the novel Out of Their Minds. And there is the revolt of the machines in "Skirmish". And the rather horrifying meeting with an alien world in Beachhead, also known as "You'll Never Go Home Again". (Many of these are in Strangers in the Universe).
Finally, Simak throws in many science-fictional fillips that remain unexplained. Simak's characters encounter alien creatures and concepts they simply cannot understand, and never will. For example, in Special Deliverance, the humans are stalked by The Wailer, which turns out to be a huge wolf-like creature that bellows an infinitely sad howl. They never learn what the creature is, why it seems sad, or how it got there. Simak leaves mysteries hanging in his writing.
Simak himself sums up his life's work in the Foreword to his collection Skirmish. After explaining what themes he avoids--no large-scale alien invasions, no space wars, no empire sagas--he states, "Overall, I have written in a quiet manner; there is little violence in my work. My focus has been on people, not on events. More often than not I have struck a hopeful note... I have, on occasions, tried to speak out for decency and compassion, for understanding, not only in the human, but in the cosmic sense. I have tried at times to place humans in perspective against the vastness of universal time and space. I have been concerned where we, as a race, may be going, and what may be our purpose in the universal scheme--if we have a purpose. In general, I believe we do, and perhaps an important one."
Works
Novels
- "The Creator" (48-page novelette: first magazine publication 1935, first book publication 1946)
- Cosmic Engineers (first published as a "short novel" in Astounding Science Fiction, February 1939, March 1939, and April 1939, expanded slightly for novel publication, 1950.) A crew is piped to the edge of known space, where metal-men Cosmic Engineers need help to prevent two universes from colliding, while opposing Hellhounds want destruction and chaos.
- Empire (1951) (Galaxy novel #7).
- Time and Again (1951) Alternate paperback title: First He Died; serialized (with a different ending) as Time Quarry. When a long-lost spaceman returns to Earth from a distant planet where our "souls" may live, his fuddled observations spark a religious schism and war.
- City (1952) In the far future, only dogs and robots are left on Earth to recount the old stories and debate whether Man ever existed at all. "Epilog" was added in 1981.
- Ring Around the Sun (1953) A man's unique psychic gift allows him to step into parallel "quantum" earths--a ring around the sun--where he may become mankind's last chance for survival.
- Time is the Simplest Thing (1961) Serialized in Analog April, May, June, July 1961 as "The Fisherman". A paranormal who telepathically travels to other planets brings back an alien consciousness that can manipulate time. He will need the help as humans rise to wipe out "parries".
- The Trouble with Tycho (1961; first published in Amazing Science Fiction, October 1960) A lunar prospector investigates the crater Tycho where spacecraft have disappeared.
- They Walked Like Men (1962) A newsman learns alien "bowling balls" that can take any form are buying up the Earth.
- Way Station (1963) Serialized in Galaxy Magazine June and August 1963 as "Here Gather the Stars". 1964 Hugo Award Winner. A Civil War veteran is a caretaker of a secret Way Station, a transfer point for aliens. But the outside world is snooping around, and their blundering may endanger all of humanity.
- All Flesh Is Grass (1965) The town of Millville is trapped in a bubble by an alien hive-race of purple flowers. It is established a toehold for mutual cooperation--or invasion.
- Why Call Them Back From Heaven? (1967) A man becomes embroiled in a scandal at a wealthy cryonics corporation.
- The Werewolf Principle (1967) An astronaut returns to Earth with two different creatures trapped inside him, so in times of stress morphs into either a "werewolf" or an impregnable pyramid.
- The Goblin Reservation (1968) A traveler teleporting home learns he was murdered a week before by either sneaking aliens or their rivals, the leprechauns and trolls of the local reservation.
- Out of Their Minds (1970) A newsman is hunted by werewolves, dinosaurs, sea serpents, and other creatures from human imagination, and no one will tell him why.
- Destiny Doll (1971) Four humans explore the mysteries of an eerie deserted planet.
- A Choice of Gods (1972) After 99.99% of the human race has disappeared, people discover they have lifespans of five or six thousand years.
- Cemetery World (1973) Earth has been turned into a vast and silent cemetery. A composer and a treasure-hunter have come to venture past the walls into the wilderness, where they find renegades, war machines, steel wolves, and ghosts whispering answers.
- Our Children's Children (1974) Refugees from 500 years in the future arrive through time tunnels - and hard behind them come ravening monsters.
- Enchanted Pilgrimage (1975) When a scholar finds a hidden manuscript he sets out to discover the secrets of the wasteland, accompanied by fellow travelers who join him along the way.
- Shakespeare's Planet (1976) Two explorers, a robot, a warrior, and even an inky "pond" are stuck on a dead-end planet because the star-tunnel is locked. Yet something is about to happen.
- A Heritage of Stars (1977) In a primitive world where technology collapsed, a woodsrunner, a witch, and a frontiering robot seek answers at The Place of Going to the Stars.
- The Fellowship of the Talisman (1978) On a parallel Earth perpetually laid waste by the Harriers of the Horde, a young man must ferry what may be a true account of Jesus's teachings to distant London. He is helped by a lonely ghost, a goblin, a demon, and a warrior woman riding a griffin.
- Mastodonia (1978) (published as Catface in the UK, a considerably expanded and re-written version of Simak's 1955 short story "Project Mastodon" which was also broadcast on the X Minus One radio program). A cat-faced alien stranded in Wisconsin befriends locals, then time-engineers portals into prehistoric epochs. The locals start a tourism company for big-game hunters, and maybe a new country: Mastodonia.
- The Visitors (1980). Giant black boxes land on Earth to eat trees. Completely ignored, humans wonder if this is an invasion or something even more sinister.
- Project Pope (1981) On the planet End of Nothing, robots have labored a thousand years to build a computerized infallible pope to eke out the ultimate truth. Their work is preempted when a human Listener discovers what might be the planet Heaven.
- Where the Evil Dwells (1982) Adventurers seeking a lost fiancee and cathedral enter the Empty Lands, where even Roman Legions get slaughtered.
- Special Deliverance (1982) A college professor and other oddballs are dropped onto a bleak world near a giant blue cube - and no clue how to proceed.
- Highway of Eternity (1986; also known as Highway to Eternity). A man who can "step around a corner" gets scattered across time alongside futuristic refugees. All are fleeing super-advanced humans who have transcended into pure thought--and expect everyone else to come along.
Collections
- Strangers in the Universe (1956) (contents revised in 1957 and 1958). Paperback contains 7 of 11 stories from hardback edition: "Target Generation", "Mirage", "Beachhead", "The Answers", "Retrograde Evolution", "The Fence", "Shadow Show", "Contraption", "Immigrant", "Kindergarten" and "Skirmish".
- The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1960) Contains "Dusty Zebra", "Honorable Opponent", "Carbon Copy", "Founding Father", "Idiot's Crusade", "The Big Front Yard", "Operation Stinky", "Jackpot", "Death Scene", "Lulu", "Green Thumb" and "Neighbor".
- Aliens for Neighbours (1961; UK reprint of The Worlds of Clifford Simak) Contains "Dusty Zebra", "Honorable Opponent", "Carbon Copy", "Idiot's Crusade", "Operation Stinky", "Jackpot", "Death Scene", "Green Thumb" and "Neighbor".
- All the Traps of Earth and Other Stories (1962; contents revised in 1963) Contains "All the Traps of Earth", "Good Night, Mr. James", "Drop Dead", "No Life Of Their Own", "The Sitters", "Crying Jag", "Installment Plan", and "Condition of Employment", (revised 1979) "Project Mastodon".
- Other Worlds of Clifford Simak (1962; abridgment of The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1961) Contains "Dusty Zebra", "Carbon Copy", "Founding Father", "Idiot's Crusade", "Death Scene", and "Green Thumb".
- The Night of the Puudly (1964) Contains "The Night of the Puudly", "Crying Jag", "Installment Plan", "Condition of Employment" and "Project Mastodon".
- Worlds Without End (1964) Contains "Worlds Without End", "The Spaceman's Van Gogh", and "Full Cycle".
- Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak (1967) Contains "Founding Father", "Immigrant", "New Folks Home", "Crying Jag", "All The Traps Of Earth", "Lulu" and "Neighbor".
- So Bright the Vision (1968) Contains "The Golden Bugs", "Leg. Forst.", "So Bright the Vision," and "Galactic Chest".
- The Best of Clifford D. Simak (1975) Contains "Madness from Mars", "Sunspot Purge", "The Sitters", "A Death in the House", "Final Gentleman", " Shotgun Cure", "Day of Truce", "Small Deer", "The Thing in the Stone", "The Autumn Land".
- Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (1977) Contains "Huddling Place", "Desertion", "Skirmish", "Good Night, Mr. James", "The Sitters", "The Big Front Yard", "All the Traps of Earth", "The Thing in the Stone", "The Autumn Land", and "The Ghost of a Model T".
- Brother And Other Stories (1986) Contains "Brother", "Over The River And Through The Woods", "Auk House" and "Kindergarten".
- The Marathon Photograph (1986) Contains "The Birch Clump Cylinder", "The Whistling Well", "The Marathon Photograph", and "The Grotto of the Dancing Deer". Introduction by Francis Lyall.
- Off-Planet (1989) Contains "Construction Shack", "Ogre", "Junkyard", "The Observer", "The World That Couldn't Be", "Shadow World" and "Mirage". Introduction by Francis Lyall.
- The Autumn Land and Other Stories (1990) Contains "Rule 18", "Jackpot", "Contraption", "Courtesy", "Gleaners" and "The Autumn Land".
- Immigrant and Other Stories (1991) "Neighbor", "Green Thumb", "Small Deer", "The Ghost of a Model T", "Byte your Tongue!", "I am Crying All Inside", and "Immigrant". Introduction by Francis Lyall.
- The Creator and Other Stories (1993) Contains "The Creator", "Shotgun Cure", "All The Traps Of Earth", "Death Scene", "Reunion On Ganymede", "The Money Tree", "Party Line", "The Answers" and "The Thing In The Stone".
- Over the River and Through the Woods: The Best Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (1996) Contains "A Death in the House", "The Big Front Yard", "Good Night, Mr. James", "Dusty Zebra", "Neighbor", "Over the River and Through the Woods", "Construction Shack", and "The Grotto of the Dancing Deer". Introduction by Poul Anderson.
- The Civilization Game and Other Stories (1997) Contains "Horrible Example", "The Civilisation Game", "Hermit Of Mars", "Masquerade", "Buckets Of Diamonds", "Hunch" and "The Big Front Yard".
Science fiction short stories
The table is ordered by date; select an arrow to sort by another column.
Western short stories
Simak wrote a few Western pulp stories.
War short stories
Simak wrote a few war stories during World War II.
Non-fiction books
- The Solar System: Our New Front Yard (1962)
- Trilobite, Dinosaur, and Man: The Earth's Story (1965)
- Wonder and Glory: The Story of the Universe (1969)
- Prehistoric Man: The Story of Man's Rise to Civilization (1971)
Edited books
- From Atoms to Infinity: Readings in Modern Science (1965)
- The March of Science (1971)
- Nebula Award Stories #6 (1971)
- The Best of Astounding (1978)
Film adaptations
- "Good Night, Mr. James" was adapted as "The Duplicate Man" on The Outer Limits in 1964. Simak notes this is a "vicious story --- so vicious that it is the only one of my stories adapted to television."
- Notwithstanding Simak's quote, three other Simak stories were adapted for television, one on two separate occasions. "Immigrant" and "Target Generation" were adapted for the 1962 UK anthology series Out of This World, and in 1969 "Beach Head" and "Target Generation" (again) were adapted for the third season of the UK anthology series Out of the Unknown. These series were never shown in the US, and it's doubtful Simak ever saw them. All four episodes were wiped sometime in the 1970s, and are believed lost.
Audiotapes
- Clifford D. Simak; Over the River and Through the Woods (read by Jonathan Frakes) (1995)
Awards
The Science Fiction Writers of America made Simak its third SFWA Grand Master in 1977, after Robert Heinlein and Jack Williamson. In 1987 the Horror Writers Association named him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, with Fritz Leiber and Frank Belknap Long.
- Other lifetime awards
- Minnesota Academy of Science Award for distinguished service to science 1967
- First Fandom Hall of Fame award 1973
- Best-of-year literary awards
- International Fantasy Award for best fiction book (1953) for City
- Hugo Award for best novelette (1959) for The Big Front Yard
- Hugo Award for best novel (1964) for Way Station
- Jupiter Award for best novel (1978) for A Heritage of Stars
- Hugo Award for best short story (1981) for Grotto of the Dancing Deer
- Nebula Award for best short story (1981) for Grotto of the Dancing Deer
- Locus Award for best short story (1981) for Grotto of the Dancing Deer
- Analog Analytical Laboratory award for best short story (1981) for Grotto of the Dancing Deer
Books about Clifford D. Simak
- Muriel R. Becker Clifford D. Simak, a primary and secondary bibliography (1980)
- Mark Owings The Electric Bibliograph 1: Clifford D. Simak
- Phil Stephensen-Payne Clifford D. Simak: A Working Bibliography (1991, ISBN 1-871133-28-9)
- Robert J. Ewald Clifford Simak Reader's Guide to Contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Vol. 59 (2006)
Biographical sources
- Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series. Detroit, Gale Research Co.
- Sam Moskowitz Seekers of Tomorrow (1967) (one chapter covers Simak)
- "Obituaries: Clifford D. Simak." Nationwide News Pty Limited - Herald, April 29, 1988.
- Weatherby, W. J. "Obituary of Clifford Simak, realist of SF." Guardian Newspapers Limited/The Guardian (London), April 29, 1988.
See also
References
External links
- Clifford Donald Simak Papers
- Eldonejo 'Mistera Sturno' An authorized translation of Way Station into Esperanto as a free ebook.
- Works by Clifford D. Simak at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Clifford D. Simak at Internet Archive
- Works by Clifford D. Simak at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Clifford D. Simak at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Clifford D. Simak at Goodreads
- Clifford D. Simak at the Internet Book List
- Clifford D. Simak on IMDb
- The Science Fiction Short Stories of Clifford D. Simak
- "An Interview with Clifford D. Simak" from Tangent, May 1975
- "City Slickers, Country Bumpkins, Ants, Robots and Mutants"([1] [2]) at The Grantville Gazette
- Clifford D. Simak - The International Bibliography
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