Following is a selection of Clifford Simak's major works including fiction, short stories and non-fiction. If something major has been omitted, please e-mail pfbram@comcast.net the title, publisher, and publishing date.

Titles which are highlighted below include a short summary of the book. Many of the works deal with time travel, philosophy, intergalactic universities or robots. Few authors today are willing to use science fiction as a vehicle to go off the beaten path into the estoteric while at the same maintaining a focus outside of technology. Though categorized as science fiction, philosophy and nature sometimes play larger roles than science in much of Simak's work. However far afield Simak takes the reader, there tends to be a definite rooting in a basic human sensibility.

At one point my goal was to provide a comprehensive listing, but after delving more deeply into his writings, it becomes obvious that they span several decades, many printings, several languages and many formats (newspaper, magazine, book, etc.). Instead, I hope to just include major works which might still be found in used bookstores, science fiction specialty shops or online. For a complete listing of his works, I suggest going to your local library and getting an interlibrary loan on the following books:

Clifford D. Simak: A primary and secondary bibliography
1980, By Muriel R. Becker
Boston: G.K. Hall Company.
Notes: Try the University of Minnesota, Wilson Library
 Galactic Central Vol. 39
Bibliographies for the Avid Reader
Clifford D. Simak, Pastoral Spacefarer
A Working Bibliography
Stephensen-Payne, Phil
San Bernardino: The Borgo Press
Notes: I couldn't find a date. Try the University of Iowa



Title Publisher Date
The Creator Crawford 1946
Cosmic Engineers Gnome Press 1950
Empire Galaxy 1951
Time and Again Simon & Schuster 1951
City Gnome Press 1952
Ring Around the Sun Simon & Schuster 1953
Time is the Simplest Thing Ace 1961
The Trouble With Tycho Ace 1961
They Walked Like Men Doubleday 1962
Way Station Doubleday 1963
All Flesh Is Grass Doubleday 1965
Why Call them Back From Heaven? Doubleday 1967
The Werewolf Principle Putnam 1967
The Goblin Reservation Putnam 1968
Out of Their Minds Putnam 1970
Destiny Doll Putnam 1971
A Choice of Gods Putnam 1972
Cemetery World Putnam 1973
Our Children's Children Putnam 1974
Enchanted Pilgramage Berkley 1975
Shakespeare's Planet Berkley 1976
A Heritage of Stars Berkley 1977
The Fellowship of the Talisman Ballantine 1978
Mastodonia Ballantine 1978
The Visitors Ballantine 1980
Project Pope Ballantine 1981
Where the Evil Dwells Ballantine 1982
Special Deliverance Ballantine 1982
Highway of Eternity Ballantine 1986






Title Publisher Date
Strangers in the Universe Simon & Schuster 1956
The Worlds of Clifford Simak Simon & Schuster 1960
All the Traps of Earth and Other Stories Doubleday 1962
Other Worlds of Clifford Simak Doubleday 1962
Worlds Without End Belmont Books 1964
Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford Simak Faber 1967
So Bright the Vision Ace 1968
(Editor) Nebula Award Stories #6 Doubleday 1971
The Best of Clifford D. Simak Sidgwick & Jackson 1975
Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Berkley 1977
Brother And Other Stories Severn House UK, ed. F. Lyall 1986
The Marathon Photograph and Other Stories Severn House Publishers 1986
Over the River & Through the Woods : The Best Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak  Tachyon Publications 1996
Civilization Game and Other Stories Severn House Publishers 1997






Title Publisher Date
The Solar System: Our New Front Yard St.Martin's 1962
Trilobite, Dinosaur, and Man: The Earth's Story St. Martin's 1965
(Editor) From Atoms to Infinity: Readings in Modern Science Harper 1965
Wonder and Glory: The Story of the Universe St. Martin's 1969
Prehistoric Man: The Story of Man's Rise to Civilization St. Martin's 1971
(Editor) The March of Science Harper 1971






Following are informal summaries of selected works. In no case is the ending of a book given away.

Cosmic Engineers. 1950.
Classic early Simak, my 1967 Paperback Library, Inc. (New York) edition says it was based on a short novel originally published in 1939 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc. A woman has spent a thousand years in suspended animation, however her brain remained awake. During this time she taught herself advanced mathematics. She is joined by two interplanetary reporters, a rocket jockey, and others. Their adventures take them to Pluto, and through a wormhole to a distant planet (compare to Carl Sagan's Contact) where they meet the Cosmic Engineers (a race of robots) to save two colliding universes and destroy a violent race of aliens, the Hellhounds.


City. 1952.
A classic and non-standard science fiction novel. The basic premise is that the invention of the family airplane and helicopter led to a sweeping change in demographics. People moved to the countryside and the cities became abandoned.

A character, Bruce Webster, surgically altered dogs' tongues enabling them to mimic human speech. Over thousands of years dogs evolved high intelligence and the capability of speech. Chapters in this book may be separated by hundreds of years. In the end, the story is told from the dogs' perspective and humans are long gone.


Ring Around the Sun. 1953.
Everlasting razor blades, automobiles, and houses -- all cheap -- are being introduced at an alarming rate. It's driving many people out of work. Jay Vickers, a writer, is approached by big business interests to write their story. But it turns out that the products are developed by mysterious, though not unfriendly, mutants. They are the next step in human development. Vickers discovers some interesting things about himself. In speculating about the mutant motives:

"The mutants would take from the human race the deadly playthings and keep them in trust until the child of Man was old enough to use them without hurting himself or injuring his neighbor...and the culture of the future, under mutant guidance, would be not merely a mechanistic culture, but a social and an economic and an artistic and spiritual culture as well as mechanical. The mutants would take lopsided Man and mold him into balance..."


Time is the Simplest Thing. 1961.
The story involves Shepherd Blaine, a sort of telepathic astronaut from an organization called Fishhook. Their speciality is in the sending of machine-assisted minds to faraway planets and recording their findings. Occasionally one of the specialists is "contaminated" by an alien mind or experience, and forced into early retirement. Blaine goes on the run.

The final showdown involves one ideology, that these mind powers can produce wonderful changes and abilities if developed properly -- versus the hellfire preaching of another former telepath who experienced something terrible. Here's an interesting quote:

"Well, then -- a painting or a piece of statuary is a thing outside the human life, your life. It is an emotional experience only. It actually has nothing to do with you yourself. You could live very well the rest of your life if you never saw it again, although you would remember it every now and then the ache would come again at the memory of it. But imagine a form of life, a culture, a way of life, a way you yourself could live, so beautiful that it made you ache just like the painting, but a thousandfold more so."


The Trouble With Tycho. 1961.
This might be termed a novella (1961 Ace paperback is only 115 pages). Chris Jackson is a lunar prospector, hired by a group of townsfolk from Millville in the hopes of striking it rich. He's persuaded to go into the Tycho crater where something seems to lurk, and from which nobody's returned.

This is a quick fun read (although my copy was poorly edited -- with numerous spelling errors). Told from first-person perspective, there weren't the heady philosophical quoteable lines in other works. A fast-pace and linear story line.


They Walked Like Men. 1962.
Parker Graves, a newspaperman in a Midwestern town, discovers that the town is being invaded by weird bowling ball shaped aliens capable of morphing into humans. Their method involves purchasing all of the real estate and major corporations, basically leaving everyone homeless and without work. As part of the solution, a character suggests to a senator:

"I can tell you what to do," I said. "What you have to do."
"I hope it's a good idea."
"Pass a law," I said.
"If we passed every law--"
"A law," I said, "outlawing private ownership. Every sort of private ownership. Make it so that no one can own a foot of ground, an additional plant, an ounce of ore, a house--"
"Are you crazy!" yelled the senator.
"You can't pass that kind of law. You can't even think about it."

This book was written in an era of the US that wasn't exactly open to comments on our basic system of government. I wonder if Clifford was sneaking in a comment regarding the Red Scare, blacklisting, and McCarthyism (Joseph McCarthy incidentally was a Wisconsin senator).

In most of the science fiction genre, alien invasion is met with brute force. This represents a unusual twist on the theme. Read the book to see what approaches are tried.


Way Station. 1963.
Enoch Wallace, a civil war veteran, is recruited by aliens to man a galactic way station. Problems arise when one of the visitors dies and the body is stolen. Earth's place in the galactic club and Enoch's position are in question.

When writing on beauty (p.34 Hardcover, Book Club Edition):
"He recalled the day he found her at the place where the pink lady's-slippers grew, just kneeling there and looking at them, not picking any of them, and how he'd stopped beside her and been pleased she had not moved to pick them, knowing that in the sight of them, the two, he and she, had found a joy and beauty that was beyond possession."

On the brotherhood of life (p.105 Hardcover, Book Club Edition):
"Was it because, in truth, as he had said, she could see beyond the outward guise, could somehow sense the basic humanity (God help me, I cannot think, even now, except in human terms!) that was in these creatures?"

On the insanity of war (p. 130 Hardcover, Book Club Edition):
Somewhere, he thought, on the long backtrack of history, the human race had accepted an insanity for a principle and had persisted in it until today that insanity-turned-principle stood ready to wipe out, if not the race itself, at least all of those things, both material and immaterial, that had been fashioned as symbols of humanity through many hard-won centuries."


All Flesh is Grass. 1965.
This book takes place in Millville (carrying the same name of Clifford Simak's home town in Wisconsin). The town is surrounded by a force field bubble which keeps all living material from passing in or out. Brad Carter slips into an alternate world ruled by aliens shaped like purple flowers in search of the solution.

There he discovers a missing mentally retarded boy gifted with high empathy and the ability to communicate with the aliens.


The Werewolf Principle. 1967.
One of my favorites.  Simak writes about Andrew Blake, an astronaut with amnesia, who is brought back to earth. He's over 200 years old and discovers that inside him is a strange biological computer and a wolf-like animal. The government tries to adjust Blake back into society.

Simak explores lycanthropy and the melding of human and machine in this book. Unlike typical lycanthropy, the various roles eventually become aware of, and develop and understanding toward, each other.


Destiny Doll. 1971.
A group of space travelers is trapped on a planet that lured them to land. The story involves their adventures on the planet and the discovery of friendly aliens, robots, and not-so-friendly life forms. As with much of Simak's work, there is the alternate reality possibility toward the end of the story.


A Choice of Gods. 1972.
Here are hints of Simak's later Project Pope, this book involves a far future in which humans are less reliant on technology and have gone back to an American Indian style way of life, and have developed extraordinary mental powers. Robots still exist, however, and are working away at a mysterious project.

The progression of technology and the relationship of it to a culture's way of life are examined here. The book makes references to several places in Minnesota, though the time setting is around the year 2185 AD.


Cemetery World. 1973.
One hundred centuries in the future humans have colonized the stars. Earth has become the choice location to be buried after death for those who can afford it. Fletcher Carson, an artist, visits earth with a robot recording device to create a multimedia art form.


Our Children's Children. 1974.
Portals in time suddenly appear worldwide, refugees flood through the doors. They are our descendents 500 years into the future fleeing alien monsters. The refugees don't plan to stay long. They're looking for help creating more portals so that they can go back to the Miocene.

The story isn't about the monsters, but rather the response to an immediate global problem. What will be done for an extra 2 billion people who suddenly appear? Who is willing to help? And who wants to profit from the situation? Simak gives an inside picture of what goes on from the view of major politicians: the president, Cabinet members, and Congressmen. Some discussion is given to what the future philosophy is like (simplification of lifestyles, abandonment of religion, dependence on fusion for energy).


Mastodonia. 1978.
A gate allowing time travel is discovered in a small Wisconsin town that opens up to the Pleistocene and Cretaceous. A money-making scheme is devised to allow big game hunting and safari expeditions. Simak also lightly deals with the social, legalistic, and government effects of access to the past.


Visitors. 1980.
Enigmatic black boxes land in Lone Pine, Minnesota, and consume trees for the cellulose. The town Lone Pine is fictional, but Simak mentions the real cities of Minneapolis and Bemidji. Perhaps Lone Pine may be a fictionalized Pine City, Minnesota.

Characters include Kathy Foster (newspaper reporter), her significant other Jerry Conklin (graduate student in forestry), various other reporters, the president's press secretary and the president himself. I felt this was one of Clifford's weaker efforts, since most of the narrative (press and political response) seemed to be removed from the actual action (aliens have landed!).

Some interesting commentary (p. 186 of my paperback version) regarding the citizen's call to have a day of prayer:
It stems from all the religious fervor this business has strired up," said Porter. "When people don't know what else to do, they suddenly turn to religion, or what for them may pass as religion. It constitutes a mystic retreat into unreality. It is a search for an understanding, a seeking for some symbol that will bridge the gap to understanding."

Other commentary touches on the socio-economic impact of the Visitors, who begin manufacturing anti-gravity automobiles and homes. Will it ruin our economy? Or perhaps we got off on the wrong foot at some point and free transportation would be a good thing after all...


Project Pope. 1981.
A group of robots who are working on the ultimate computer, omniscient, a sort of digital Pope. Simak makes heavy use of robots as main characters, and again repeats the theme of an intergalactic project. Characters of various backgrounds are brought together in helping to complete the project.

Of interest is the implication that robots are capable of religious practice, the ultimate nature of technology, and the relationships between it and religion.


Special Deliverance. 1982.
Protagonist Professor Edward Lansing discovers that a slot machine on campus has the capability to transport users to different worlds. He finds himself on a strange planet with assorted travelers: a brigadier, parson, engineer, poet, and a robot. The group must complete a life-or-death challenge to be guaranteed a role in the development of a galatic society, a common theme in Clifford Simak's work. I was distantly reminded of a high-tech version of the pilgrimage in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.


Highway of Eternity. 1986.
Simak's last published novel before his death in 1988, it is also one of his best. The full array of servile robots, ethereal time travelers, and alternate realities is present. There's alot of philosophy here, most likely including the author's own viewpoint on major issues (p. 221 of hard cover Ballantine Del Rey edition):

"They rejected technology, which in many ways, had served them in good stead and could have served them better if they had bothered to develop a stronger ethical code. They walked away from progress. In all fairness, I must say that progress, in certain instances, was detrimental. Yet it lifted us from beasts to a fairly reasonable and decent society. We scrapped nationalism, we conquered almost every disease, and we arrived at an equitable economic policy."

Simak's life period included two World Wars, the atom bomb, many other conflicts, the earliest airplanes to the moon landings and the Space Shuttle. Also there is the invention of television, computers, and the general transitions from a simpler time (particularly in rural areas) to a fully technological society. I think the above quote may well be Clifford himself speaking -- about the need to develop ethics in technology, the potential dangers of technology, but the possibility (if used correctly) for technology to bring great positive change.



Last updated: September 25, 2005
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