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Clifford D. Simak (b. Clifford David Simak on August 3, 1904 in Millville, Wisconsin – d. April 24, 1988) worked as a newspaperman for most of his life, but wrote fiction on the side from 1931 forward, full time after his retirement. Although his earliest work was unabashed space opera, his fiction would grow increasingly thoughtful and un-melodramatic with the passage of time, and much of his work was set in rural settings, not surprising given that his best known early work was the cycle of stories that were eventually collected as City (1952), in which humanity matures beyond the need for urban centers, thanks in part to the assistance of genetically enhanced dogs and self-aware robots. "Desertion," probably his best known story, was part of this series.

Although Simak wrote several very fine novels, his short fiction is generally of higher and certainly more consistent quality. Unfortunately it became a progressively smaller portion of his output. The best of his early novels is Time Is the Simplest Thing (1961) in which faster than light travel is determined to be impossible, so humanity travels to the stars by mental projection. Way Station (1963), a Hugo winner, is probably his most satisfying novel, the story of a lone human who secretly guards a transfer point for aliens traveling among the worlds.

The books that followed were of uneven quality. Among the better ones are The Werewolf Principle (1967) which mixes suspended animation with alien possession and The Goblin Reservation (1968), wherein a man confronts his own doppelganger. Why Call Them Back from Heaven? (1987) is an ambitious and thought provoking look at the potential consequences of significant increases in the human lifespan, and a good example of Simak's concentration on the need for personal choices and their effects on society rather than society's choices and their effects on the individual. Some of his later fiction was scientifically implausible, but he wrote only three outright fantasies, of which The Fellowship of the Talisman (1978) is the best. Of his later SF novels, A Choice of Gods (1972), Mastodonia (1978), The Visitors (1980), and Project Pope (1981) are the most interesting.

Simak's short stories are generally superior to his novels. "The Big Front Yard" (1959) won a Hugo and "Grotto of the Dancing Deer" (1980) won both the Hugo and the Nebula. "Good Night, Mr. James" (1951), "Skirmish" (1953), "Over the River and Into the Woods" (1965), and "The Marathon Photograph" (1974) are also exceptional. Simak almost always avoided literary pyrotechnics and concentrated on creating characters who might be friends or neighbors rather than larger than life heroes.

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