Sunday Spotlight: Clifford Simak

   In Janet Jeppson Asimov’s opinion, the best science fiction writer was, not her husband Isaac, but Clifford Simak. Isaac wholeheartedly agreed with her. One of the first stories he read as a young man was The World of the Red Sun (Wonder Stories, 1931), which so enraptured the young Asimov that he sat on a street curb and read it to his fellow junior high school peers.

  Clifford Donald Simak (1904 – 1988) was born in Millville, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and began working as a newspaper reporter in various locations around the Midwest, eventually settling at the Minneapolis Star, and Minneapolis Tribune. A writer after the mold of H.G. Wells, and patterning himself somewhat after E. E. “Doc” Smith (though not limiting himself to that style), he reported on science and technology issues while being a writer of, and an enthusiast for, science fiction. He became the editor of the Minneapolis Star in 1949, and coordinator of the Minneapolis Tribune’s Science Reading Series in 1961.

  He started writing science fiction for the pulps in 1931. The World of the Red Sun, which so enthralled young Asimov, was his first story. But he retired from writing fiction for a time after that, being unhappy with the direction that science fiction was being taken in. He was firmly committed to scientific realism, and felt that incorporating the fantastic and paranormal cheapened and degraded the experience. The only thing he wrote between 1933 and 1937 was The Creator (1935), a short story with religious undertones (bold, especially for the 1930’s!). Only after John Campbell revamped the genre did he decide to begin writing again, and write he did!

  In Simak’s writings one finds themes that are beyond cutting edge. For example, time travel backward is all but impossible – a fact confirmed by modern physics, but which science fiction writers struggle to work around, even today. Also, religious themes crop up in his books. For example, in A Choice of Gods (1972), a robot named Hezekiel is religious! Sentient robots are one thing, but when one writes about robots that develop not only feelings and emotions but religious fervor as well, the implications are huge!

  Simak’s best known work is City (1953), which won the International Fantasy Award for best fiction book. It is a collection of stories about an Earth abandoned by humans, leaving only sentient robots and dogs to debate over whether humans even existed. Each tale adds another piece to the puzzle of where the humans went, and how the dogs gained sentience. Some of the science is a bit off, as the dogs develop the ability to speak through Lamarckian evolution, something disproven long ago. And certain facts regarding how hospitable Jupiter’s surface can be are ignored. But if one is willing to overlook all that, City is an amazing tale. Way Station (1963) won the Hugo for best novel, and for good reason. It’s depiction of a civil war veteran, still youthfully alive late into the 20th century because he was left in charge of an alien way station with time-dilating effects, is a magnificent yarn. The Big Front Yard (1959) won the Hugo for best novelette. A Heritage of Stars (1978), won the Jupiter award (a short-lived sci-fi award that was given out briefly between 1974 and 1978) for best novel. But his big short-story triumph was Grotto of the Dancing Deer (1980), which won the Hugo, the Nebula and the Locus Award.

  Really, anything of Simak’s is guaranteed to be rather enjoyable. But to get a good anthology of his short stories, there are two options. One is to find an old copy of The Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak (1972), which will have much of his older material. The other is to explore Over the River & Through The Woods: The Best Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak (1996), which contains his more recent shorts, including the essential, Grotto of the Dancing Deer. City and Way Station are absolute must-reads.