Childhood's End
Encyclopedia
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction
novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke
. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion
of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens
, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their space ships
, governing through indirect rule
. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age
. However, the last generation of children on Earth begins to display powerful psychic
abilities, heralding their evolution
into a group mind
, a transcendent form of life.
Clarke's idea for the book began with his short story
"Guardian Angel" (1946), which he expanded into a novel
in 1952, incorporating it as the first part of the book, "Earth and the Overlords". Completed and published in 1953, Childhood's End sold out its first printing and received good reviews, becoming Clarke's first successful novel of his career. The book is regarded as Clarke's best novel by both readers and critics, and is described as "a classic of alien literature". Along with The Songs of Distant Earth (1986), Clarke considered Childhood's End one of his favourite novels.
Several film adaptations of the novel have been attempted, with director Stanley Kubrick
expressing interest in the 1960s, but collaborating with Clarke on 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968) instead. The novel's theme of transcendent evolution also appears in Clarke's Space Odyssey series, and is attributed to the influence of British author Olaf Stapledon
. In 1997, the BBC produced an original, two-hour radio dramatization of Childhood's End written by Tony Mulholland. Clarke's novel was nominated for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2004.
Some humans are suspicious of the Overlords' benign intent, as they never appear in physical form. Overlord Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," speaks directly only to Rikki Stormgren, the Finnish UN Secretary-General. Karellen tells Stormgren that the Overlords will reveal themselves in person in 50 years, when humanity will have become used to their presence. Stormgren smuggles a device onto Karellen's ship in an attempt to see Karellen's true form.
image of demons — large bipeds with leathery wings, horns and tails.
The Overlords are interested in psychic research
; humans suppose this is part of their anthropological study. Rupert Boyce, a prolific book collector on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study these books at his home. To impress his friends with Rashaverak's presence, Boyce holds a party, during which he makes use of a Ouija board
. An astrophysicist, Jan Rodricks, asks the identity of the Overlords' home star. George Greggson's wife Jean faints as the Ouija board reveals a star-catalog number confirming the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear. Jan Rodricks stows away on an Overlord supply ship and travels 40 light-years to their home planet. Due to the time dilation
of special relativity
at near-light speeds, the elapsed time on the ship is only a few weeks, and he arranges to endure it in drug-induced suspended animation.
strikes the island. They have in fact been watching them since the incident with the Ouija board revealed the seed of the coming transformation hidden within Jean.
Sixty years after the Overlords' arrival, human children, including the Greggsons, begin to display telekinetic powers. Karellen finally reveals the Overlords' purpose: They serve the Overmind, a vast cosmic intelligence, born of amalgamated ancient civilizations, and freed from matter's limits. Yet the Overlords themselves are strangely unable to join the Overmind, but serve it as a kind of bridge species, charged with fostering other races' eventual merger with it. Because of this, Karellen expresses envy of humanity. For the transformed children's safety, they are segregated on a continent of their own. As no more human children are born, many parents find their lives stripped of meaning, and die or commit suicide. New Athens is destroyed with a nuclear bomb by its members.
Rodricks emerges from hibernation on the Overlord supply ship and arrives on their planet. The Overlords permit him a glimpse of how the Overmind communicates with them. When Rodricks returns to Earth, approximately 80 years later by Earth time
, he finds an unexpectedly altered planet. Humanity as he had known it has become extinct, and he is now the last man alive. Hundreds of millions of children – no longer fitting with what Rodricks defines as "human" – remain on the quarantined continent. Barely moving, with eyes closed and communicating by telepathy, they are the penultimate form of human evolution, having become a single group mind
readying themselves to join the Overmind.
Some Overlords remain on Earth to study the children from a safe distance. When the evolved children mentally alter the Moon's rotation and make other planetary manipulations, it becomes too dangerous to remain. The departing Overlords offer Rodricks the option of leaving with them, but he chooses to stay, witness Earth's end, and transmit a report of what he sees. The Overlords are eager to somehow escape from their own evolutionary dead-end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks' information is potentially of great value to them.
By radio Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet. As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a sense of profound emptiness: they have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency. Rodricks reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfilment. In a flash of light the Earth evaporates. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System
and gives a final salute to the human species.
The novel first took shape in July 1946, when Clarke wrote "Guardian Angel", a short story that would eventually become Part I of Childhood's End. Clarke's portrayal of the Overlords as devils was influenced by John W. Campbell
's depiction of the devilish Teff-Hellani species in The Mightiest Machine
, first serialized in Astounding Stories in 1934. After finishing "Guardian Angel", Clarke enrolled at King's College London
and served as the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society
from 1946–1947, and later from 1951–1953. He earned a first-class degree in mathematics and physics from King's in 1948, after which he worked as an assistant editor for Science Abstracts. "Guardian Angel" was submitted for publication but rejected by several editors, including Campbell. At the request of Clarke's agent (and unbeknownst to Clarke) the story was edited by James Blish
who rewrote the ending. Blish's version of the story was accepted for publication in April 1950 by Famous Fantastic Mysteries
magazine. Clarke's original version of "Guardian Angel" was later published in the Winter 1950 issue of New Worlds
magazine. The latter version published in New Worlds more closely resembles Part I of the novel, "Earth and the Overlords".
After Clarke's nonfiction science book The Exploration of Space (1951) was successfully received, he began to seriously focus on his writing career. In February 1952, Clarke started working on the novelization of "Guardian Angel", completing a first draft of the novel Childhood's End in December; a final revision occurred in January 1953. Clarke travelled to New York in April with the novel and several of his works. Literary agent Bernard Shir-Cliff
convinced Ballantine Books
to buy everything Clarke had, including Childhood's End, "Encounter in the Dawn
" (1953), (which Ballantine changed to Expedition to Earth
), and Prelude to Space
(1951). However, Clarke had composed two different endings for the novel, and the last chapter of Childhood's End was still not finished. Clarke left New York and proceeded to make his way down to the west central coast of Florida to go scuba diving with George Grisinger in Tampa Bay
. On his way to Florida, Clarke stopped in to see his friend Frederick C. Durant (President, International Astronautical Federation
, 1953–1956) and his family in the Washington Metropolitan Area where he continued working on the last chapter. He then travelled to Atlanta, Georgia
, where he visited with his friend Ian Macauley who was active in the anti-segregation movement. The last chapter of the novel would be finished in Atlanta while Clarke and Macauley discussed racial issues; these conversations may have influenced the development of the last chapter, particularly Clarke's choice of making the character of Jan Rodricks—the last surviving member of the human species at the end of the novel—an African American.
Clarke arrived in Florida at the end of April, spending his time diving in Tampa Bay and the Florida Keys
with the Grisinger family. The short story, "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea", included in the Tales from the White Hart
(1957) collection, was influenced by his time in Florida. While in Key Largo
in late May, Clarke met Marilyn Mayfield, an attractive young woman. After a whirlwind romance lasting less than three weeks, they travelled to Manhattan
and were married at New York City Hall
. The couple spent their honeymoon in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where Clarke proofread Childhood's End. In July, Clarke brought his new wife home to England, but towards the end of the month, it became clear that the marriage would not last; Clarke spent most of his time reading and writing, and talking about his work. Further, Clarke wanted to be a father, and Marilyn, who already had a son from a previous marriage, informed Clarke after they were married that she could no longer have children due to a botched surgery after the birth of her first child. When Childhood's End was published the following month, it originally appeared with a dedication to his wife: "To Marilyn, For letting me read the proofs on our honeymoon." The couple separated after only months together, but remained married for the next decade.
Ballantine finally convinced Clarke to let them publish Childhood's End first, and on August 24, 1953, the novel was published with a cover designed by American science fiction illustrator Richard M. Powers
. Childhood's End appeared in both paperback and hardcover upon its initial release, with the paperback as the primary edition, an unusual approach for the 1950s. For the first time in his career, Clarke became known as a novelist.
Decades later, Clarke was in the process of preparing a new edition of the book after recent events had dated the story. After the book was published in 1953, the U.S. Apollo 11
mission landed the first humans on Earth's Moon 16 years later in 1969; Two decades later, President George H. W. Bush
announced the Space Exploration Initiative
(SEI) in 1989, calling for astronauts to eventually explore Mars. In 1990, Clarke added a new foreword and revised the first chapter, changing the space race from the Moon to Mars. Editions since have appeared with the original opening or including both alternatives.
"Guardian Angel" has also appeared in two short story collections: The Sentinel
(1983), and The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
(2001).
published two positive reviews of the book: Basil Davenport (1905–1966) compared Clarke to Olaf Stapledon
, C. S. Lewis
, and H. G. Wells
—a "very small group of writers who have used science fiction as the vehicle of philosophic ideas." William Du Bois (1903–1997) called the book "a first rate tour de force that is well worth the attention of every thoughtful citizen in this age of anxiety." Don Guzman of the Los Angeles Times
admired the novel for its suspense, wisdom, and beauty, and compared Clarke's role as a writer to that of an artist, "a master of sonorous language, a painter of pictures in futuristic colours, a Chesley Bonestell
with words". Galaxy
reviewer Groff Conklin
termed the novel "a formidably impressive job . . . a continuous kaleidoscope of the unexpected."
Boucher
and McComas
, however, were more sceptical, finding fault with the novel's "curious imbalance between its large-scale history and a number of episodic small-scale stories." While praising Clarke's work as "Stapledonian
[for] its historic concepts and also for the quality of its prose and thinking," they concluded that Childhood's End was "an awkward and imperfect book." P. Schuyler Miller
characterized the novel as "all imagination and poetry," but concluded it was "not up to some of Clarke's other writing" due to weakness in its "episodic structure."
Aldiss and Wingrove
wrote that Childhood's End rested on "a rather banal philosophical idea," but that Clarke "expressed [it] is simple but aspiring language that vaguely recalls the Psalms
[and] combined [it] with a dramatized sense of loss [for] undeniable effect."
was originally interested in a film adaptation of the novel in the 1960s, but blacklisted
director Abraham Polonsky
had already optioned it. Instead, Kubrick collaborated with Clarke on adapting the short story "The Sentinel
" into what eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968). Months before his performance at Woodstock in 1969, folk singer and guitarist Richie Havens
told Ebony
magazine about his appreciation for Clarke's story and expressed his personal interest in working on a future film adaptation of Childhood's End. Screenplays by Polonsky and Howard Koch
were never made into a film. , rights to the novel were held by Universal Pictures
, with director Kimberly Peirce
attached to the current project.
David Elgood first proposed a radio adaptation of the novel in 1974, but nothing came of it until radio director Brian Lighthill revisited the proposal and obtained the rights in 1995. After Lighthill received a green-light from BBC Radio in 1996, he commissioned a script from Tony Mulholland, resulting in a new, two-part adaptation. The BBC
produced the two-hour radio dramatization of the novel, broadcasting it on BBC Radio 4
in November 1997. The recording was released on cassette in 1998 and on CD by BBC Audiobooks in 2007.
On October 28, 2008, Audible.com
released a 7 hour and 47 minute unabridged version of Childhood's End narrated by Eric Michael Summerer under its "Audible Frontiers" imprint. An AudioFile
review commended Summerer's narration as "smoothly presented and fully credible". A bonus audio introduction and commentary is provided by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their space ships
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
, governing through indirect rule
Indirect rule
Indirect rule was a system of government that was developed in certain British colonial dependencies...
. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
. However, the last generation of children on Earth begins to display powerful psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
abilities, heralding their evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
into a group mind
Group mind (science fiction)
A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....
, a transcendent form of life.
Clarke's idea for the book began with his short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"Guardian Angel" (1946), which he expanded into a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
in 1952, incorporating it as the first part of the book, "Earth and the Overlords". Completed and published in 1953, Childhood's End sold out its first printing and received good reviews, becoming Clarke's first successful novel of his career. The book is regarded as Clarke's best novel by both readers and critics, and is described as "a classic of alien literature". Along with The Songs of Distant Earth (1986), Clarke considered Childhood's End one of his favourite novels.
Several film adaptations of the novel have been attempted, with director Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
expressing interest in the 1960s, but collaborating with Clarke on 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
(1968) instead. The novel's theme of transcendent evolution also appears in Clarke's Space Odyssey series, and is attributed to the influence of British author Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
. In 1997, the BBC produced an original, two-hour radio dramatization of Childhood's End written by Tony Mulholland. Clarke's novel was nominated for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2004.
Plot summary
The novel is divided into three parts, following a third-person omniscient narrative with no main character.Earth and the Overlords
In the late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union are competing to launch the first spaceship into orbit, to military ends. However, when vast alien spaceships suddenly position themselves above Earth's principal cities, the space race is halted, forever. After one week, the aliens announce they are assuming supervision of international affairs to prevent humanity's extinction. As the Overlords, they bring peace, and they claim that interference will be limited.Some humans are suspicious of the Overlords' benign intent, as they never appear in physical form. Overlord Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," speaks directly only to Rikki Stormgren, the Finnish UN Secretary-General. Karellen tells Stormgren that the Overlords will reveal themselves in person in 50 years, when humanity will have become used to their presence. Stormgren smuggles a device onto Karellen's ship in an attempt to see Karellen's true form.
The Golden Age
Humankind enters a golden age of prosperity, but at the expense of creativity. As promised, five decades later, the Overlords appear for the first time; they resemble the traditional human folkFolklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
image of demons — large bipeds with leathery wings, horns and tails.
The Overlords are interested in psychic research
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
; humans suppose this is part of their anthropological study. Rupert Boyce, a prolific book collector on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study these books at his home. To impress his friends with Rashaverak's presence, Boyce holds a party, during which he makes use of a Ouija board
Ouija
The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye", and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board...
. An astrophysicist, Jan Rodricks, asks the identity of the Overlords' home star. George Greggson's wife Jean faints as the Ouija board reveals a star-catalog number confirming the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear. Jan Rodricks stows away on an Overlord supply ship and travels 40 light-years to their home planet. Due to the time dilation
Time dilation
In the theory of relativity, time dilation is an observed difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from gravitational masses. An accurate clock at rest with respect to one observer may be measured to tick at...
of special relativity
Special relativity
Special relativity is the physical theory of measurement in an inertial frame of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies".It generalizes Galileo's...
at near-light speeds, the elapsed time on the ship is only a few weeks, and he arranges to endure it in drug-induced suspended animation.
The Last Generation
Although humanity and the Overlords have peaceful relations, some believe human innovation is being suppressed and that culture is becoming stagnant. These groups establish "New Athens," an island colony devoted to creative arts. George Greggson and Jean join the colony. The Overlords conceal a special interest in the Greggson children, Jeffrey and Jennifer Anne, even intervening to save Jeffrey's life when a tsunamiTsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
strikes the island. They have in fact been watching them since the incident with the Ouija board revealed the seed of the coming transformation hidden within Jean.
Sixty years after the Overlords' arrival, human children, including the Greggsons, begin to display telekinetic powers. Karellen finally reveals the Overlords' purpose: They serve the Overmind, a vast cosmic intelligence, born of amalgamated ancient civilizations, and freed from matter's limits. Yet the Overlords themselves are strangely unable to join the Overmind, but serve it as a kind of bridge species, charged with fostering other races' eventual merger with it. Because of this, Karellen expresses envy of humanity. For the transformed children's safety, they are segregated on a continent of their own. As no more human children are born, many parents find their lives stripped of meaning, and die or commit suicide. New Athens is destroyed with a nuclear bomb by its members.
Rodricks emerges from hibernation on the Overlord supply ship and arrives on their planet. The Overlords permit him a glimpse of how the Overmind communicates with them. When Rodricks returns to Earth, approximately 80 years later by Earth time
Time dilation
In the theory of relativity, time dilation is an observed difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from gravitational masses. An accurate clock at rest with respect to one observer may be measured to tick at...
, he finds an unexpectedly altered planet. Humanity as he had known it has become extinct, and he is now the last man alive. Hundreds of millions of children – no longer fitting with what Rodricks defines as "human" – remain on the quarantined continent. Barely moving, with eyes closed and communicating by telepathy, they are the penultimate form of human evolution, having become a single group mind
Group mind (science fiction)
A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....
readying themselves to join the Overmind.
Some Overlords remain on Earth to study the children from a safe distance. When the evolved children mentally alter the Moon's rotation and make other planetary manipulations, it becomes too dangerous to remain. The departing Overlords offer Rodricks the option of leaving with them, but he chooses to stay, witness Earth's end, and transmit a report of what he sees. The Overlords are eager to somehow escape from their own evolutionary dead-end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks' information is potentially of great value to them.
By radio Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet. As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a sense of profound emptiness: they have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency. Rodricks reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfilment. In a flash of light the Earth evaporates. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
and gives a final salute to the human species.
Development
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
's depiction of the devilish Teff-Hellani species in The Mightiest Machine
The Mightiest Machine
The Mightiest Machine is a science fiction novel by author John W. Campbell, Jr. It was published in book form in 1947 by The Hadley Publishing Co. in an edition of 1,200 copies...
, first serialized in Astounding Stories in 1934. After finishing "Guardian Angel", Clarke enrolled at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
and served as the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society
British Interplanetary Society
The British Interplanetary Society founded in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest space advocacy organisation in the world whose aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration.-Structure:...
from 1946–1947, and later from 1951–1953. He earned a first-class degree in mathematics and physics from King's in 1948, after which he worked as an assistant editor for Science Abstracts. "Guardian Angel" was submitted for publication but rejected by several editors, including Campbell. At the request of Clarke's agent (and unbeknownst to Clarke) the story was edited by James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
who rewrote the ending. Blish's version of the story was accepted for publication in April 1950 by Famous Fantastic Mysteries
Famous Fantastic Mysteries
Famous Fantastic Mysteries was a fantasy fiction magazine offering reprints of science-fiction and fantasy classics from earlier decades. It ran from 1939 to 1953 for a total of 81 issues....
magazine. Clarke's original version of "Guardian Angel" was later published in the Winter 1950 issue of New Worlds
New Worlds (magazine)
New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...
magazine. The latter version published in New Worlds more closely resembles Part I of the novel, "Earth and the Overlords".
After Clarke's nonfiction science book The Exploration of Space (1951) was successfully received, he began to seriously focus on his writing career. In February 1952, Clarke started working on the novelization of "Guardian Angel", completing a first draft of the novel Childhood's End in December; a final revision occurred in January 1953. Clarke travelled to New York in April with the novel and several of his works. Literary agent Bernard Shir-Cliff
Bernard Shir-Cliff
Bernard W. Shir-Cliff, an editor for Ballantine Books, Contemporary Books, Warner Books and other publishers, also translated books and later became a well-known literary agent. As a senior editor at Warner Books, he was responsible for the huge publishing success of Dr...
convinced Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
to buy everything Clarke had, including Childhood's End, "Encounter in the Dawn
Encounter in the Dawn
"Encounter in the Dawn" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke published in 1953 in the magazine Amazing Stories. It was originally collected in the anthology Expedition to Earth, and, in one edition of the book, is titled "Expedition to Earth". In a later collection the title "Encounter at...
" (1953), (which Ballantine changed to Expedition to Earth
Expedition to Earth
Expedition to Earth is a collection of science fiction short stories by Arthur C. Clarke.There are at least two variants of this book's table of contents - in different editions of the book . Both variants include the stories History Lesson and Encounter in the Dawn...
), and Prelude to Space
Prelude to Space
Prelude to Space is a science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1947. However, it was not until 1951 that the story first appeared in magazine format from World Editions Inc as number three in the series Galaxy Science Fiction...
(1951). However, Clarke had composed two different endings for the novel, and the last chapter of Childhood's End was still not finished. Clarke left New York and proceeded to make his way down to the west central coast of Florida to go scuba diving with George Grisinger in Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
. On his way to Florida, Clarke stopped in to see his friend Frederick C. Durant (President, International Astronautical Federation
International Astronautical Federation
International Astronautical Federation , the world's foremost space advocacy organisation, is based in Paris. It was founded in 1951 as a non-governmental organization. It has 206 members from 58 countries across the world. They are drawn from space agencies, industry, professional associations,...
, 1953–1956) and his family in the Washington Metropolitan Area where he continued working on the last chapter. He then travelled to Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, where he visited with his friend Ian Macauley who was active in the anti-segregation movement. The last chapter of the novel would be finished in Atlanta while Clarke and Macauley discussed racial issues; these conversations may have influenced the development of the last chapter, particularly Clarke's choice of making the character of Jan Rodricks—the last surviving member of the human species at the end of the novel—an African American.
Clarke arrived in Florida at the end of April, spending his time diving in Tampa Bay and the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
with the Grisinger family. The short story, "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea", included in the Tales from the White Hart
Tales from the White Hart
Tales from the White Hart is a collection of short stories by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, in the "club tales" style.Thirteen of the fifteen stories originally appeared across a number of different publications. "Moving Spirit" and "The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch" were first...
(1957) collection, was influenced by his time in Florida. While in Key Largo
Key Largo
Key Largo is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and, at long, the largest of the Keys. It is also the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the Keys connected by U.S. Highway 1...
in late May, Clarke met Marilyn Mayfield, an attractive young woman. After a whirlwind romance lasting less than three weeks, they travelled to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and were married at New York City Hall
New York City Hall
New York City Hall is located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street. The building is the oldest City Hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as...
. The couple spent their honeymoon in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where Clarke proofread Childhood's End. In July, Clarke brought his new wife home to England, but towards the end of the month, it became clear that the marriage would not last; Clarke spent most of his time reading and writing, and talking about his work. Further, Clarke wanted to be a father, and Marilyn, who already had a son from a previous marriage, informed Clarke after they were married that she could no longer have children due to a botched surgery after the birth of her first child. When Childhood's End was published the following month, it originally appeared with a dedication to his wife: "To Marilyn, For letting me read the proofs on our honeymoon." The couple separated after only months together, but remained married for the next decade.
Publication
Ballantine wanted to publish Childhood's End before Expedition to Earth and Prelude to Space, but Clarke wanted to wait. He felt that it was a difficult book to release, and he had written two different endings for the novel, unsure of which to use. According to biographer Neil McAleer, Clarke may have been uncertain about publishing the novel because of its thematic focus on the paranormal and transcendence with the alien Overmind. While the theme was used effectively by Clarke in the novel, McAleer observes that "it was not science fiction based on science, which he came to advocate and represent". At the time he wrote the novel, Clarke was interested in the paranormal, and it wasn't until much later than he became, in his words, "an almost total sceptic".Ballantine finally convinced Clarke to let them publish Childhood's End first, and on August 24, 1953, the novel was published with a cover designed by American science fiction illustrator Richard M. Powers
Richard M. Powers
Richard M. Powers was a science fiction illustrator.- Life and work :Born in Chicago 1921 into a Catholic family, Richard Michael Gorman Powers spent most of his early life supported by his mother and aunt. His father left the family when Powers was young...
. Childhood's End appeared in both paperback and hardcover upon its initial release, with the paperback as the primary edition, an unusual approach for the 1950s. For the first time in his career, Clarke became known as a novelist.
Decades later, Clarke was in the process of preparing a new edition of the book after recent events had dated the story. After the book was published in 1953, the U.S. Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
mission landed the first humans on Earth's Moon 16 years later in 1969; Two decades later, President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
announced the Space Exploration Initiative
Space Exploration Initiative
On July 20, 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, George H. W. Bush — then President of the United States — announced plans for what came to be known as the Space Exploration Initiative...
(SEI) in 1989, calling for astronauts to eventually explore Mars. In 1990, Clarke added a new foreword and revised the first chapter, changing the space race from the Moon to Mars. Editions since have appeared with the original opening or including both alternatives.
"Guardian Angel" has also appeared in two short story collections: The Sentinel
The Sentinel (anthology)
The Sentinel is a collection of science fiction short stories by Arthur C. Clarke originally published in 1983.The stories, written between 1946 and 1981 originally appeared in a number of magazines including Astounding, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Ten Story Fantasy,...
(1983), and The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, , first published in 2001, is a collection of almost every science fiction story shorter than novel length that Arthur C. Clarke has ever published: with 114 in all arranged in order of publication, "Travel by Wire!" in 1937 through to "Improving the...
(2001).
Reception
The novel was well received by most readers and critics. In only two months after publication, Clarke sold all 210,000 copies of the first printing. The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published two positive reviews of the book: Basil Davenport (1905–1966) compared Clarke to Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
, C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, and H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
—a "very small group of writers who have used science fiction as the vehicle of philosophic ideas." William Du Bois (1903–1997) called the book "a first rate tour de force that is well worth the attention of every thoughtful citizen in this age of anxiety." Don Guzman of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
admired the novel for its suspense, wisdom, and beauty, and compared Clarke's role as a writer to that of an artist, "a master of sonorous language, a painter of pictures in futuristic colours, a Chesley Bonestell
Chesley Bonestell
Chesley Bonestell was an American painter, designer and illustrator. His paintings were a major influence on science fiction art and illustration, and he helped inspire the American space program...
with words". Galaxy
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
reviewer Groff Conklin
Groff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
termed the novel "a formidably impressive job . . . a continuous kaleidoscope of the unexpected."
Boucher
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
, however, were more sceptical, finding fault with the novel's "curious imbalance between its large-scale history and a number of episodic small-scale stories." While praising Clarke's work as "Stapledonian
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
[for] its historic concepts and also for the quality of its prose and thinking," they concluded that Childhood's End was "an awkward and imperfect book." P. Schuyler Miller
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
characterized the novel as "all imagination and poetry," but concluded it was "not up to some of Clarke's other writing" due to weakness in its "episodic structure."
Aldiss and Wingrove
David Wingrove
David Wingrove is a British science fiction writer. He is well-known as the author of the Chung Kuo novels . He is also the co-author of the three Myst novels....
wrote that Childhood's End rested on "a rather banal philosophical idea," but that Clarke "expressed [it] is simple but aspiring language that vaguely recalls the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
[and] combined [it] with a dramatized sense of loss [for] undeniable effect."
Adaptations
Director Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
was originally interested in a film adaptation of the novel in the 1960s, but blacklisted
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
director Abraham Polonsky
Abraham Polonsky
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was an American film director, Academy-Award-nominated screenwriter, essayist, and novelist blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s, in the midst of the McCarthy era.-Early life:...
had already optioned it. Instead, Kubrick collaborated with Clarke on adapting the short story "The Sentinel
The Sentinel (short story)
"The Sentinel" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, which was expanded and modified into the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke expressed impatience with the common description of it as "the story on which 2001 is based." He was quoted as saying, it is like comparing "an acorn to...
" into what eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
(1968). Months before his performance at Woodstock in 1969, folk singer and guitarist Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
told Ebony
Ebony (magazine)
Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African-American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since the autumn of 1945...
magazine about his appreciation for Clarke's story and expressed his personal interest in working on a future film adaptation of Childhood's End. Screenplays by Polonsky and Howard Koch
Howard Koch (screenwriter)
Howard E. Koch was an American playwright and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.-Early Years:...
were never made into a film. , rights to the novel were held by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, with director Kimberly Peirce
Kimberly Peirce
Kimberly Peirce is an American feature film director, notable for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry . Her second feature, Stop-Loss, was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008.- Early life and career :...
attached to the current project.
David Elgood first proposed a radio adaptation of the novel in 1974, but nothing came of it until radio director Brian Lighthill revisited the proposal and obtained the rights in 1995. After Lighthill received a green-light from BBC Radio in 1996, he commissioned a script from Tony Mulholland, resulting in a new, two-part adaptation. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
produced the two-hour radio dramatization of the novel, broadcasting it on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
in November 1997. The recording was released on cassette in 1998 and on CD by BBC Audiobooks in 2007.
On October 28, 2008, Audible.com
Audible.com
Audible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....
released a 7 hour and 47 minute unabridged version of Childhood's End narrated by Eric Michael Summerer under its "Audible Frontiers" imprint. An AudioFile
AudioFile (magazine)
-Launch:The publication was launched in 1992 as a twelve-page black & white newsletter with about 50 critical reviews of audiobooks, focused on new releases. In 1997, it switched to a 36-page colour magazine format with about 60 reviews per issue and interviews with authors, readers, and...
review commended Summerer's narration as "smoothly presented and fully credible". A bonus audio introduction and commentary is provided by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
.
See also
- First contact (science fiction)First contact (science fiction)First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient race's first encounter with another one....
- Golden Age of Science FictionGolden Age of Science FictionThe first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...