Re: ~ Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Author and Gay Man, Dies ~

In article <13u2iudep335u2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 "Frank R.A.J. Maloney" <frajm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Will in New Haven wrote:
> > On Mar 19, 1:05 pm, "Mike McKinley" <mp...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> "Franklin Hummel" <hum...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >>
> >> news:frrh00$oid$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>
> >>> In 1988, when I was Director of the newly formed Gaylactic Network,
an
> >>> association of organization for gay science fiction fans and their
> >>> friends, I wrote Sir Clarke
> >>     I believe he would be called Sir Arthur.
> > 
> > That's all right. Anyone who thinks Sir Arthur is "Likely the present-
> > day world's most famous science fiction author," is probably going to
> > get everything else wrong too. Even narrowing the definition of
> > "science fiction author" so that it doesn't include Rowling won't do
> > it.
> 
> Of course we would exclude Rowling since the Harry Potter series is 
> fantasy, *not* science fiction.
> 
> So who do you think is the world's most famous science author?

I'm not sure I know what the term means, since it depends on the 
audience. 

Checking Amazon, several of Heinlein's books have a sales rank of about 
3000

Asimov about 10,000

Several of Clarke's have ranks better than 1000, and at least one is 
333. So by that measure Clarke is more famous.

If I go to "science fiction" and ask Amazon to give me books by 
best-selling, I get:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy #57 

Revelation by Karen Travis (Star Wars book) #258 

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke #319

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut #333

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger #437

The next familiar one is 1984 at #606

So the two familiar names are Clarke and Vonnegut, with Clarke a little 
ahead. I think that provides at least some sup****t for the "most famous" 
claim. On the other hand, I would be very reluctant to agree that 
Vonnegut is a more famous science fiction author than Heinlein, or 
Niven, or Asimov.

I wonder how much of this reflects the books that high school and 
college English teachers assign, and how much books that readers 
actually read on their own.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, in bookstores now