Clark, Ronald W
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1916-1987) UK author and journalist, active mainly with nonfiction since before World War Two, writing several biographies of figures like Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. He began publishing sf with "The Man Who Went Back" for the London Evening Standard in 1949, but was not a prolific contributor to the genre. His first sf novel, Queen Victoria's Bomb: The Disclosures of Professor Franklin Huxtable, MA, Cantab. (1967), achieved some success, and was one of the numerous contributions to the subgenre of sf works that exhibit nostalgia for a previous generation's view of the future; it could be regarded as a precursor to Steampunk. The Bomb that Failed (1969; vt The Last Year of the Old World: A Fiction of History 1970) is an Alternate History story in which a failed nuclear test at Alamagordo changes history, as the Japanese do not surrender. [JC]
see also: Nuclear Energy.
Ronald William Clark
born London: 2 November 1916
died London: 9 March 1987
works
- Queen Victoria's Bomb: The Disclosures of Professor Franklin Huxtable, MA, Cantab. (London: Jonathan Cape, 1967) [hb/Mon Mohan]
- The Bomb that Failed (New York: William Morrow, 1969) [hb/Paul Bacon]
- The Last Year of the Old World: A Fiction of History (London: Jonathan Cape, 1970) [vt of the above: hb/Leigh Taylor]
nonfiction (selected)
- The Huxleys (London: Heinemann, 1968) [nonfiction: includes study of Aldous Huxley: hb/]
- J.B.S.: The Life and Work of J.B.S. Haldane (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1968) [nonfiction: concerning J B S Haldane: hb/]
- Einstein: The Life and Times (New York: World Publishing, 1971) [nonfiction: hb/]
- The Life of Bertrand Russell (London: Jonathan Cape and London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975) [nonfiction: concerning Bertrand Russell: hb/]
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