I’m remiss in never mentioning the passing of science fiction great Arthur C. Clarke earlier this year. I think of him mostly for his later book work (and 2001: A Space Odyssey), but Clarke was a prolific writer for the pulps from 1938 on.
SciFi.com has posted an interview with Clarke conducted by George Zebrowski in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Clarke touches on his discovery of science fiction wth a copy of Amazing Stories in 1928, and numerous pulpsters (and others) whom he admired.
Talking about Hugo Gernback, the founder of Amazing Stories, Clarke recalls:
I think we only met once. Dinner somewhere. Of course, he’s rather a controversial character. His reluctance to pay his authors may have been involuntary, but he certainly had a tremendous impact on the field. The Hugo Award is justly named after him. We did have one comic encounter some years later. He wrote, chastising me for saying that the Orbital Post Office had been invented by me. He claimed to have thought of it first. I was able to reply that it had appeared (1) before he’d said he invented it, in a book of mine, which (2) was dedicated to him! I had a very amusing, contrite reply.
It’s a lengthy interview, but well worth reading.
– William
