Minnesota Author Biographies.

Clifford D. Simak

Clifford D. Simak

From Out of Their Minds (1970) by Clifford Simak

He had sat like a shrunken gnome in the great lounge chair which threatened to engulf him in its pattern of red and yellow tapestry, rolling the brandy glass between his palms and looking up at me.

"I think that we are haunted," he had said, "by all the fantasies, all the make-believe, all the ogres that we have ever dreamed, dating from that day when the caveman squatted in the dark beside his fire and stared out into the blackness of the night which lay beyond the cave. Imagining what might be out there."

Biographical Notes

Birth: August 3, 1904, Millville, Wisconsin
Death: April 25, 1988, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Author Clifford Donald Simak studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin. During the 1930s, he edited newspapers in Michigan, Iowa, North Dakota, and Missouri. Simak worked for the Minneapolis Star and the Minneapolis Tribune from 1939-76, and he became news editor of the Star in 1949. Beginning in 1961, he was the coordinator of the Minneapolis Tribune's Science Reading Series. Simak won many awards for his writing, including the1953 International Fantasy Award for his book, City (1952), the 1959 Hugo Best Novelette for The Big Front Yard (1958), the 1964 Hugo Best Novel for Way Station (1963), the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1977, and his "Grotto of the Dancing Deer" (1980) won the Hugo Best Short Story and the Nebula Best Short Story in 1981. Simak was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1973.

Selected Works
The titles below link to the catalog record in MnPALS, the Minnesota Historical Society’s library catalog. Please click on your browser's back button to return.

Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak
City
The Goblin Reservation
A Heritage of Stars
Project Pope
Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak
Time and Again
The Visitors
Way Station

Additional Resources

Minnesota Historical Society Links

• Search MNHS Library and Archives Catalog for author - Searches for works by this author in the Minnesota Historical Society’s library
Clifford D. Simak, a Primary and Secondary Bibliography by Muriel R. Becker

Web Links

Author Index - Author index to science fiction book reviews
Clifford Donald Simak Papers - University of Minnesota collection
Clifford Simak Fan Page - Simak fan page; includes biography, bibliography, and excerpts from books
Fantastic Fiction - Brief biography, bibliography, and book covers

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