Arthur Clarke - The Lost Worlds of 2001

February 9, 1965. Caught Dali on TV, painting in a Fifth Avenue store window to promote Fantastic Voyage. Reported this to Stanley, who replied: "Don't worry– we've already reserved a window for you."

March 8. Fighting hard to stop Stan from bringing Dr. Poole back from the dead. I'm afraid his obsession with immortality has overcome his artistic instincts.

April 6. To COMSAT Headquarters, Washington, for launch of first commercial communications satellite, Early Bird." Introduced to Vice-President Humphrey, who is also Chairman of the Space Council, and told him we were spending ten million dollars to publicize space. Added that one character in the movie would be the Chairman of the Space Council . . . thirty years from now. "Oh," said H. H. H. at once, "I still intend to be chairman then."

April 12. Much excitement when Stanley phones to say that the Russians claim to have detected radio signals from space. Rang Walter Sullivan at the New York Times and got the real story-merely fluctuations in Quasar CTA 102.

April 14. Reception at Harcourt, Brace and World. Those present included Bill Jovanovich (president), Jeremy Bernstein (New Yorker Magazine), Dennis Flanagan (Scientific American), Dr. Robert Jastrow ( Goddard Space Center ), Stanley and Christiane Kubrick, Al Rosenfeld (Science Editor, Life), Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, Scott Meredith and many other friends. There was a general belief that the party was to celebrate Harcourt's publication of Journey Beyond the Stars, but I explained that this was not definite, and depended upon the size of the mortgage they could raise on the building.

April 19. Went up to the office with about three thousand words Stanley hasn't read. The place is really humming now-about ten people working there, including two production staff from England . The walls are getting covered with impressive pictures and I already feel quite a minor cog in the works.

Some psychotic who insists that Stanley must hire him has been sitting on a park bench outside the office for a couple of weeks, and occasionally comes to the building. In self-defense, Stan has secreted a large hunting knife in his briefcase.

May 1. Found that a fire had broken out on the third floor of the Chelsea . Waited anxiously in the lobby while the firemen dealt with it . . . visions of the only complete copy of the MS going up in smoke….

May 2. Completed the Universe" chapter-will soon have all Part Three ready for typing, hurrah…. Stan phoned to say he liked the "Floating Island" sequence. Strange and encouraging how much of the material I thought I'd abandoned fits in perfectly after all.

May 3. Finished first draft of the runaway antenna sequence.

May 25. Now Stanley wants to incorporate the Devil theme from Childhood's End….

June 7. Bad book review in Tribune-says I should stick to science exposition and am an amateur at fiction.

Late June. Read Victor Lyndon's production notes; they left me completely overwhelmed. Glad that's not my job. One scene calls for four trained warthogs.

On that note, more or less, I returned to Ceylon after an absence of over a year, and subsequently rejoined Stanley at the MGM studios at Boreham Wood, fifteen miles north of London , in August. His empire had now expanded vastly, the art department was in full swing, and impressive sets were being constructed. My time was now equally divided between the apparently never-ending chore of developing ideas with Stanley , polishing the novel, and almost daily consultations at the studio.

August 25. Suddenly realized how the novel should end, with Bowman standing beside the alien ship.

September 25. Visitors from NASA-Dr. George Mueller, Associate Administrator, and "Deke" Slayton (Director of Flight Crew Operations). Gave them the Grand Tour– they were quite impressed. George made several useful suggestions and asked wistfully if he could have the model of Discovery for his office when we'd finished with it. Deke was later reported to have said: " Stanley , I'm afraid you've been conned by a used capsule salesman." An improbable story-I suspect the fine Italian hand of Roger Caras, Stanley 's vice-president i/c promotion.

October 1. Stanley phoned with another ending. I find I left his treatment at his house last night-unconscious rejection?

October 3. Stanley on phone, worried about ending . . . gave him my latest ideas, and one of them suddenly clicked-Bowman will regress to infancy, and we'll see him at the end as a baby in orbit. Stanley called again later, still very enthusiastic. Hope this isn't a false optimism: I feel cautiously encouraged myself.

October 5. Back to brood over the novel. Suddenly (I think) found a logical reason why Bowman should appear at the end as a baby. It's his image of himself at this stage of his development. And perhaps the Cosmic Consciousness has a sense of humor. Phoned these ideas to Stan, who wasn't too impressed, but I'm happy now.

October 15. Stan has decided to kill off all the crew of Discovery and leave Bowman only. Drastic, but it seems right. After all, Odysseus was the sole survivor….

October 17. For the first time, saw Stan reduced to helpless hysterics as we developed comic ideas. There will be no one in the hibernacula-all the trainees chickened out, but the mission had to go ahead regardless.

October 19. Collected by studio car, and spent all day working (or trying to work) with Stan. Despite usual crowds of people getting at him, long phone calls to Hollywood, and a "work-to– rule" the unions called, got a lot done and solved (again!) our main plot problems.

October 26. Had a discussion with Stanley over his latest idea-that Discovery should be nuclear– pulse-driven. Read a recently declassified report on this and was quite impressed-but the design staff rather upset.

November 10. Accompanied Stan and the design staff into the Earth-orbit ship and happened to remark that the cockpit looked like a Chinese restaurant. Stan said that killed it instantly for him and called for revisions. Must keep away from the Art Department for a few days.

November 16. Long session with Stanley discussing script. Several good ideas, but I rather wish we didn't have any more.

November 18. Feeling rather stale-went into London and saw Carol Reed's film about Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy. One line particularly struck me-the use of the phrase "God made Man in His own image." This, after all, is the theme of our movie.

November 30. To the Oxford and Cambridge Club with Roger Caras and Fred Ordway (Technical Adviser) to meet Dr. Louis Leakey and his son Richard. Dr. Leakey is just as I imagined him-full of enthusiasm and ideas. He thinks that Man now goes back at least four to five million years. He also confided to me that he'd written a play-a fantasy about primitive man which he thought would make a fine movie. It's about a group of anthropologists who are sent back into the past by a witch doctor. I said (breaking all my rules) that I'd be glad to see the MS-which is true.

December 16. My 48th birthday-and Somerset Maugham dies. Trying to make something of this (last of the competition?).

December 25. Christmas Day, ha-ha! Hacked my way to Jupiter-slow but steady going.

December 26. Working all day. Stan phoned to thank me for the presents and sent a driver to collect what I'd written. He called later to say that he didn't think much of the dialogue. I agreed.

That Christmas of 1965 we were really under the gun, and no one had a holiday. Stanley was up against an unbreakable deadline. The enormous set of the TMA 1 excavation, containing the monolith found on the Moon, had been constructed at the Shepperton Studios, in South West London-and it had to be torn down by the first week of the New Year, so that another production could move in. Stanley had only a week to do all his shooting, for the second crucial encounter between Man and Monolith.