CLARK, Ronald W(illiam)

(1916-1987)

   UK writer and journalist, active mainly with nonfiction since before WWII. He began publishing sf with "The Man who Went Back" for the London Evening Standard in 1949, but has not been a prolific contributor to the genre. His first sf novel, Queen Victoria's Bomb: The Disclosures of Professor Franklin Huxtable, MA, Cantab. (1967), achieved some success, and was one of the numerous contributions to the subgenre of sf works that exhibit nostalgia for a previous generation's view of the future; it could be regarded as a precursor to STEAMPUNK. The Bomb that Failed (1969; vt The Last Year of the Old World 1970 UK) is a kind of sequel, in which a failed nuclear test at Alamagordo changes history.

   JC

   Other works (nonfiction): The Huxleys (1968); J.B.S.: The Life and Work of J.B.S. Haldane (1968); Einstein: The Life and Times (1971); The Life of Bertrand Russell (1975), all nonfiction.See also: ALTERNATE WORLDS; NUCLEAR POWER.