Arthur C. Clarke's 2001-Inspired Ballantine Book Covers

by John Scoleri

In March of 1969, Ballantine Books decided to take advantage of the success of Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey by re-releasing five of their Arthur C. Clarke paperback backlist titles with matching trade design. Each features artwork clearly inspired by the film (while Ballantine had published numerous books by Clarke, Signet Books had the rights to the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey and other books related to the film, one of which (The Lost Worlds of 2001) I discussed in a previous blog entry).

Several years ago, after reading Clarke's novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (which I not only greatly enjoyed, but which led me to appreciate the film beyond its amazing audio/visual spectacle), I decided to seek out other works by the author.

I'm not sure which of these five titles I ran across first, but as soon as I saw the ship designs so clearly inspired by the film, I decided I'd have to track them all down. Fortunately, the back of each book shows the covers of the other four titles in the series, making it was easy to know what to look for. While none are particularly rare in these editions, paperback collectors will appreciate the desire to have a matching set of books like these.

Sadly, the cover artist responsible for these renditions is not credited in the books. If you stumble across this blog entry and happen to know the artist responsible, please leave a comment and I will gladly update this entry. For now, here are the details and a larger version of each of the five books in the series.

Childhood's End
Ballantine 345-01558 75¢
Tenth Printing, March 1969

Expedition to Earth (short stories)
Ballantine 345-01559 75¢
Fourth Printing, March 1969

Earthlight
Ballantine 345-01560 75¢
Fifth Printing, March 1969

Reach for Tomorrow (short stories)
Ballantine 345-01561 75¢
Fourth Printing, March 1969

Tales from the White Hart (short stories)
Ballantine 345-01562 75¢
Fourth Printing, March 1969

Happy Anniversary 2001, RIP Arthur C. Clarke

I came late to sci-fi, and even now I'd have to say at best I'm a casual fan. Growing up, I was always into darker things, with room for the fantastic. Particularly in the fiction I read. It was much later in life that I came to read Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. With Clarke's recent passing, and the 40th anniversary of the film, I decided to revisit the monolith, and picked up a book that's been sitting on my shelf for the last several years anyway, The Lost Worlds of 2001.

This book is to 2001 what a bonus disc is for a special edition DVD. It delves behind the scenes into the evolution of the novel and film, including excised chapters and alternate events. Clarke details his working relationship with Stanley Kubrick on what was a very unique project. If you're not aware, the movie was not based on an existing novel, nor was the novel an adaptation of the screenplay. The two were developed hand in hand, in a symbiotic back and forth format between Clarke and Kubrick.

The starting point for the story is the regularly reprinted short story, "The Sentinel", included within. It basically represents the portion of the story of the monolith on the moon, a marker left by an advanced alien race that would be triggered only if man made the one small leap into his larger universe.

Of particular interest to me were a few chapters of an earlier draft of the book, focusing on the Dawn of Man sequence. At one point, the plan was to actually have an alien visitor interacting with the ape-men. Despite having access to a fine make-up artist in Stuart Freeborn, I do think it was a wise decision NOT to pursue this path in the film, as I can't imagine any sort of alien design that would not have taken the viewer out of the moment. That said, it is very interesting to read these chapters, told from the alien (Clindar's) perspective.

Additional unseen chapters detail the life of the astronauts on Earth before heading to Jupiter, and a number of alternate events that befell a larger group of astronauts in the original concept. The final chapters of the book provide an alternate series of events that occurred once Bowman was through the Star Gate. The first of these reintroduce us to Clindar. The sequences, which attempt to describe both the aliens and their civilization – would definitely not have worked onscreen, and they don’t hold up very well in the novel format, either.

All in all, the book offers an interesting insight into the development of the film and novel. It’s a rare opportunity to be able to read alternate chapters of a book. If you’re a fan of the film (and novel), The Lost Worlds of 2001 is definitely worth tracking down.