This balance between the scientific and technological on the one hand and the transcendental on the other provides for Clarke's most distinctive contribution to modern science fiction.
Arthur Charles Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, on 16 December 1917, the eldest child of Charles Wright Clarke, a farmer, and Nora Willis Clarke. He, his two brothers, and a sister grew up on a farm the family moved to after their father returned from World War I. Clarke attended Huish's Grammar School on a scholarship from 1927 until he graduated in 1936. His father died in 1931, and to make money young Clarke worked at the post office as both a mail sorter and a telephone operator.
From an early age he was interested in telescopes, rockets, astronomy, and communications equipment. He also read and collected science fiction, mostly American pulp magazines. In 1934 he joined the newly formed British Interplanetary Society. This group, along with fellow science-fiction fans including John Christopher (Sam Youd) and John Wyndham, made up the circle of friends he had in London when he moved there in 1936 to take a civil-service job. Writing for the Society and for science-fiction fan magazines, however, was the real beginning of his career.
