Among Clarke's best known work is the short story THE SENTINEL (1951) about man's contact with sentient life. In the spring of 1964, Clarke retired to Hotel Chelsea in New York and started to write a novel about a space travel. His illustrious acquaintances during this period included Arhur Miller, Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, and Norman Mailer. Clarke's work became the basis of the novel and film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), for which Clarke wrote the script with Stanley Kubrick.

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