"Thulemanden" <thulemanden.DeleteThis@staroffice.com> wrote:
>Could Hari Seldon from Asimov's Foundation series be based
on Arthur C. Clarke?
All the clues point away from Clarke and in an entirely different
direction.
The first "Foundation" story appeared in Astounding magazine in 1942
(and later formed the beginning of the Gnome Press novel of the same
name in 1951). In that year, Sir Arthur was not yet publishing
fiction and was not known to Asimov at all.
Sir Arthur didn't develop a reputation for prognostication until the
early 1960s (with "Profiles of the Future") and didn't start using a
wheelchair until the mid- to late 1980s. So he couldn't have been the
prototype for Selden, unless Asimov had one of those Baxter-Clarke
worm-cams.
Asimov was a voracious reader when he was young and, among his
readings were the works by another Sir Arthur – Conan Doyle. His
creation Sherlock Holmes was a man who could predict future events
through what ACD called deduction but was actually induction.
ACD's influence on Asimov shows up elsewhere. Asimov transformed the
Holmes-Watson duo into R. Daneel Olivaw and Lije Bailey for his
robot-detective tales, and Mycroft Holmes into Geoffrey Urth for
another series of mystery stories. Asimov in time became a member of
the Baker Street Irregulas of New York City, and attended meetings
until his death. One of his smaller works is a slim little work called
"Asimov's Sherlockian Limericks," in which he paraodies each of the
Holmes stories.
"Selden" is the name of a character in "The Hound of the
Baskervilles." And, of course, Hari Selden's initials, reversed, are
those of Sherlock Holmes.
Our Sir Arthur C. Clarke links:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.geocities.com/jcsherwood/ACClinks2.htm" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/jcsherwood/ACClinks2.htm</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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