Volume 3 contains the complete Mesklin writings of Hal Clement, including his superb novel Mission of Gravity. Volume 1, Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter contains three novels by Hal Clement, while Volume 2, Music of Many Spheres, contains a wide variety of Hal Clement's short fiction.
Table of Contents
- Introduction by David Langford
- Mission of Gravity (novel)
- Under (short story written for this book and first published in Analog in January 2000)
- Lecture Demonstration (novelette)
- Star Light (novel)
- Whirligig World (article)
- I Discover Hal Clement by Tony Lewis
- A Perfect Hard SF Novel by Mark L. Olson
![[Hal Clement photo]](images/Clement-Hal-200.JPG)
Hal Clement
Hal Clement was the pseudonym of the exemplar of hard science fiction, Harry C. Stubbs. He created the pseudonym while working for his Master's degree in Astronomy at Harvard, fearing his professor would not want him to be "wasting" his time. He did not know that this same professor submitted science fiction to Hugo Gernsback's magazines. Hal's first published story was "Proof" which appeared in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Then, like many other sf writers, the War intervened.
Following bomber combat duty in Europe with the Army Air Corps in World War II, Harry returned home, learned to drive a car, became a high-school chemistry teacher, and wrote Hugo-winning science fiction.
Hal was a fixture at many SF conventions, where he always had time to talk to his fellow fans.