Harry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 – October 29, 2003) better known by the
pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Hal Clement, was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
writer and a leader of the
hard science fictionHard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
subgenre.
Stubbs was born in
Somerville, MassachusettsSomerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 77,478 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...
and died in
Milton, MassachusettsMilton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 26,062 at the 2000 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
.
He went to
HarvardHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, graduating with a B.S. in
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
in 1943. While there he published his first story, "Proof", in the June 1942 issue of
Astounding Science Fiction.
Harry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 – October 29, 2003) better known by the
pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Hal Clement, was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
writer and a leader of the
hard science fictionHard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
subgenre.
Biography
Stubbs was born in
Somerville, MassachusettsSomerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 77,478 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...
and died in
Milton, MassachusettsMilton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 26,062 at the 2000 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
.
He went to
HarvardHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
, graduating with a B.S. in
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
in 1943. While there he published his first story, "Proof", in the June 1942 issue of
Astounding Science Fiction. His further educational background includes an M.Ed. (
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839...
1946) and M.S. in
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
(
Simmons CollegeSimmons College is a women's college in Boston, Massachusetts. Simmons is noted for its emphasis on pre-professional undergraduate education.-History:...
1963).
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Clement was a pilot and copilot of a
B-24 LiberatorThe Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, built by Consolidated Aircraft. It was produced in greater numbers than any other American combat aircraft of World War II and still holds the record as the most produced U.S. military aircraft. It was used by many Allied air forces and...
and flew 35 combat missions over
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
with the
8th Air ForceThe Eighth Air Force is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force Air Force Global Strike Command. It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, and is one of three active-duty numbered air forces in Air Combat Command....
. After the war, he served in the
United States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
ReserveThe Air Force Reserve Command is a major command of the U.S. Air Force with its headquarters at Robins AFB, Georgia.It stood up as a major command of the Air Force on 17 February 1997....
, and retired with the rank of colonel. He taught chemistry and astronomy for many years at
Milton AcademyMilton Academy is a private, preparatory, coeducational boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts. The original Milton Academy was founded in 1798 but operations ceased decades later; the institution was re-established in 1884 by John Murray Forbes and other progressive philanthropists. Up...
in
Milton, MassachusettsMilton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 26,062 at the 2000 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...
.
Clement received the 1998 recognition as a
Grand MasterThe Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is an award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It is awarded to a living author for lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy. Officially, it is not a Nebula Award though it is awarded at the Nebula ceremony...
by the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of AmericaScience Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA , was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. The organization has since changed its name to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., but continues with the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the acronym SFFWA.SFWA is a nonprofit association of...
(SFWA). In 1996 he retroactively received a 1946
Hugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories...
for his short story "
Uncommon Sense"Uncommon Sense" is a 1945 science fiction short story by Hal Clement. In 1996, it was retrospectively awarded the 1946 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.-Publication history:...
".
His best-known novel,
Mission of GravityMission of Gravity is a science fiction novel by Hal Clement. The title is a play on words, involving two uses of the word "Gravity," one meaning "Gravity, the force which pulls" and the other being "Gravity, extremely serious or important". The novel was serialized in Astounding Science Fiction...
(1954), is the account of a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet
MesklinMesklin is the name of a fictional supergiant planet created by Hal Clement and used in a number of his hard science fiction stories.It is distinctive for the interaction of its strong gravity with the centrifugal force due to its fast rotation, originating, according to Clement's original...
to recover a stranded scientific probe. The natives of Mesklin are
centipedeCentipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda and the Subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. A key trait uniting this group is a pair of venom claws or forcipules formed from a modified first appendage...
-like intelligent beings about 50 centimeters in length. Various episodes hinge on the fact that Mesklin's fast rotational speed causes it to be considerably deformed from the spherical, and its effective surface gravity to vary from approximately 3
g
The g-force experienced by an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. The term g-force is considered a misnomer, as g-force is not a force but an acceleration....
n at the equator to approximately 700
gn 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. ... 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..."
He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name
George Richard.
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. The Hal Clement Award for Young Adults for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature is presented in his memory at
WorldconWorldcon, or more formally The World Science Fiction Convention, is a science fiction convention held each year since 1939 . It is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society...
each year.
Clement died in
Milton HospitalMilton Hospital is a hospital located in Milton, Massachusetts at 199 Reedsdale Road.- History :Founded in 1903, Milton Hospital began operations as a convalescent home. 1903 saw the Cunningham Foundation offering a portion of the Edward Cunningham Estate for future development and expansion of the...
at the age of 81. He died in his sleep, most likely due to complications of diabetes.
Planets
Clement created a number of notably unusual fictional planets as settings for his works. They include:
- Abyormen – A planet circling a dwarf star
The term dwarf star refers to a variety of distinct classes of stars.* Dwarf star alone generally refers to any main sequence star, a star of luminosity class V.** Red dwarfs are low-mass main sequence stars....
(Theer), which in turn circles a blue giantIn space sciences, a blue giant is a star with a spectral type of O or B and a luminosity class of III...
. This produces a hot and a cold season, each of 80 years' duration. The native intelligent life forms undergo a seasonal mass death. From Cycle of Fire.
- Dhrawn – A high-gravity world settled by Mesklinites in Star Light.
- Hekla – An ice-age planet in Cold Front (short story, Astounding July 1946).
- Kaihapa – An uninhabited ocean planet, twin of Kainui, in Noise.
- Kainui – A ocean planet
An ocean planet is a hypothetical type of planet whose surface is completely covered with an ocean of water.Planetary objects that form in the outer solar system begin as a comet-like mixture of roughly 50% water and 50% rock by weight...
in Noise.
- Mesklin — A "superjovian" planet with ultra-high gravity (up to 700 gs) in Mission of Gravity
Mission of Gravity is a science fiction novel by Hal Clement. The title is a play on words, involving two uses of the word "Gravity," one meaning "Gravity, the force which pulls" and the other being "Gravity, extremely serious or important". The novel was serialized in Astounding Science Fiction...
.
- Sarr – An extremely hot planet with an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur ('air') and liquid copper sulphate ('water') in iceworld
Iceworld is a science fiction novel by author Hal Clement. It was published in 1953 by Gnome Press in an edition of 4,000 copies. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Astounding in 1951.-Plot introduction:...
- Tenebra – A high-gravity world with a corrosive atmosphere in Close to Critical
Close to Critical is a science fiction novel by Hal Clement. The novel was first serialized in three parts and published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1958...
.
- Enigma 88 - A small planet near Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae is a stellar system in the constellation Carina, about 7,500 to 8,000 light-years from the Sun. The system contains at least two stars, one of which is a luminous blue variable star. Its combined luminosity is about four million times that of the Sun and has an estimated system mass in...
in Still River. The interior of the object is honeycombed with caves, due to evaporation of accreted ice-rich planetoids.
External links