A Late Master

Clifford D. Simak would have been 101 years old today.

Not many people read his books anymore, which is a shame, because unlike some other sf writers (that's science fiction to you) he got his points across gently. Take that book to the right - it's a collection of stories told about an Earth that's gone. The stories are supposed to be so old they're practically myths, and the collection presents them together with a number of scholarly analyses of each one. The surprising thing is that talking dogs wrote these analyses; dogs run this world with the help of robots, and examine the stories in an attempt to learn about their own origins and who these mysterious "humans" were. Sounds like a parody, or at least a comedy - it's not. The ecological and psychological themes are pretty clear, but never too obvious.

Simak was one of the earliest sf writers, publishing his first story in 1931. He's in the science fiction hall of fame and won Hugos and Nebulas.

But my favorite story about Simak comes from Isaac Asimov's editorial comment in "The Hugo Winners". According to good Dr. Asimov, when he was a mere fan and not the galaxy-spanning hero he later became, he read a Simak story in a pulp magazine and hated it. He published a scathing letter in said pulp magazine. Next thing you know, young Isaac got a letter from Simak himself asking for futher particulars of what he had done wrong in the story so he could improve next time. Asimov was so startled at this humility that he went back and re-read the story, discovered that those characteristics he had previously thought lousy was brilliant, and immediately adopted said characteristics for the stories he was then working on.

That attitude may or may not make a great artist, but I'd bet the house it makes for a happier life.

Benshlomo says, Man, I wish I had that combination of talent and humility.