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Gollancz in Arthur C Clarke odyssey

26.03.08 Graeme Neill

Gollancz is hoping to repackage key backlist titles by Arthur C Clarke following the science fiction author's death aged 90 last week.

The books Gollancz is keen to refresh include City in the Stars and Rendezvous with Rama, both of which are published under its SF Masterworks series. "We have just started to talk about this, but we want to bring his books to any readers who haven't come across him yet," said editorial director Simon Spanton.

Gollancz will also promote Clarke's entire backlist with retailers by sending out a special order form outlining his titles, but Spanton said there were no plans to bring forward publication of his final novel. The Last Theorem, co-written with US author Frederik Pohl and due in November, was described by the publisher as "the last great adventure by one of the world's greatest ever adventure writers".

Spanton said that Clarke was an "unparalleled" figure in science fiction writing. "There are only a few writers who can say they have changed the world," he said. "No-one was writing what he was in the 1950s—he was key to the post war history of science fiction."

Clarke, seen as one of the most definitive voices in 20th century science fiction, died on 18th March in his adopted home of Sri Lanka. In the 1940s he predicted—to much ridicule—that man would walk on the moon by the year 2000. He also predicted the invention of communication satellites.

Spanton said it was unlikely that Neil McAleer’s 1992 biography of Clarke would be reprinted. "If we were going to do that, it would be more likely that we would update the biography," he said. "It would be a much bigger project."

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