Petrovichi
Petrovichi (russian: Петро́вичи) is a rural locality (a village) in Shumyachsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located about '' In Memory Yet Green'' by Isaac Asimov, 1979, p.4 southwest of Moscow, south of St Petersburg, ...
,
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, U.S.
, nationality = Russian (1920–1922) Soviet (1922–1928) American (1928–1992)
, occupation = Writer, professor of
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
popular science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
, subject =
Popular science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
, science
textbooks
A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...
, essays,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
, education =
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
)
, movement =
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized in the United States as the period from 1938 to 1946, was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published. ...
, module =
, signature = Isaac Asimov signature.svg
Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...
. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three"
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
writers, along with
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
and
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as woo ...
s. Best known for his
hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
, as well as much nonfiction.
Asimov's most famous work is the ''
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
'' series, the first three books of which won the one-time
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the ''
Galactic Empire
Galactic empires are a common trope used in science fantasy and science fiction, particularly in works known as 'space operas'. Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning empire as background or written about the growth and/or decline of ...
'' series and the ''
Robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...
'' series. The ''Galactic Empire'' novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the ''Foundation'' series. Later, with '' Foundation and Earth'' (1986), he linked this distant future to the Robot stories, creating a unified "
future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, whil ...
social science fiction
Social science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually (but not necessarily) soft science fiction, concerned less with technology/space opera and more with speculation about society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropol ...
novelette " Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the
Science Fiction Writers of America
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy
Fantas ...
. Asimov wrote the '' Lucky Starr'' series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.
Most of his popular science books explain concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. Examples include '' Guide to Science'', the three-volume '' Understanding Physics'', and ''Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery''. He wrote on numerous other scientific and non-scientific topics, such as
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...
,
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
,
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
, biblical
exegesis
Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...
, and
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
.
He was president of the
American Humanist Association
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.
The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constituti ...
. Several entities have been named in his honor, including the
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
(5020) Asimov,Minor Planet Center (retrieved October 22, 2017). a
crater
Crater may refer to:
Landforms
* Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet
* Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surf ...
on
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
, a
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
elementary school,
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...
Asimov's family name derives from the first part of (), meaning ' winter grain' (specifically rye) in which his great-great-great-grandfather dealt, with the Russian
patronymic
A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor.
Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...
. When the family arrived in the United States in 1923 and their name had to be spelled in the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
, Asimov's father spelled it with an S, believing this letter to be pronounced like Z (as in German), and so it became Asimov. This later inspired one of Asimov's short stories, "
Spell My Name with an S
"Spell My Name with an S" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the January 1958 (and only) issue of ''Star Science Fiction'' under the title "S as in Zebatinsky", and was reprinted in the ...
".
Asimov refused early suggestions of using a more common name as a pseudonym, and believed that its recognizability helped his career. After becoming famous, he often met readers who believed that "Isaac Asimov" was a distinctive pseudonym created by an author with a common name.
Life
Early life
Asimov was born in
Petrovichi
Petrovichi (russian: Петро́вичи) is a rural locality (a village) in Shumyachsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located about '' In Memory Yet Green'' by Isaac Asimov, 1979, p.4 southwest of Moscow, south of St Petersburg, ...
,
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
, on an unknown date between October 4, 1919, and January 2, 1920, inclusive. Asimov celebrated his birthday on January 2.
Asimov's parents were Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, a family of
Russian Jewish
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
miller
A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalent ...
s. He was named Isaac after his mother's father, Isaac Berman. Asimov wrote of his father, "My father, for all his education as an
Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...
, was not Orthodox in his heart", noting that "he didn't recite the myriad prayers prescribed for every action, and he never made any attempt to teach them to me".
In 1921, Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed
double pneumonia
Pneumonia can be classified in several ways, most commonly by where it was acquired (hospital versus community), but may also by the area of lung affected or by the causative organism. There is also a combined clinical classification, which combi ...
. Only Asimov survived. He later had two younger siblings: a sister, Marcia (born Manya; June 17, 1922 – April 2, 2011), and a brother, Stanley (July 25, 1929 – August 16, 1995), who was vice-president of the '' Long Island Newsday''.
Asimov's family travelled to the United States via Liverpool on the RMS ''Baltic'', arriving on February 3, 1923 when he was three years old. His parents spoke
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
and English with him, and he remained fluent in those; he never learned Russian. Growing up in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five (and later taught his sister to read as well, enabling her to enter school in the
second grade
Second grade (also called grade two, corresponding to Year 3 in the United Kingdom) is a year of primary education in Canada and the United States. Second grade is the second year of primary school. Children are usually aged 7–8 at this gr ...
). His mother got him into
first grade
First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade.
Examples by ...
a year early by claiming he was born on September 7, 1919. In third grade he learned about the "error" and insisted on an official correction of the date to January 2. He became a
naturalized
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
U.S. citizen in 1928 at the age of eight.
After becoming established in the U.S., his parents owned a succession of candy stores in which everyone in the family was expected to work. The candy stores sold newspapers and magazines, which Asimov credited as a major influence in his lifelong love of the written word, as it presented him with an unending supply of new reading material (including pulp
science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet.
Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nove ...
s) as a child that he could not have otherwise afforded. Asimov began reading science fiction at age nine, at the time that the genre was becoming more science-centered. Asimov was also a frequent patron of the
Brooklyn Public Library
The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...
during his formative years.
Education and career
Asimov attended New York City public schools from age five, including Boys High School in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. Graduating at 15, he attended the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
for several days before accepting a scholarship at
Seth Low Junior College
The School of General Studies, Columbia University (GS) is a liberal arts college and one of the undergraduate colleges of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights, New York City. GS is known prim ...
. This was a branch of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in
Downtown Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City after Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and r ...
designed to absorb some of the academically qualified Jewish and
Italian-American
Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
students who applied to the more prestigious Columbia College, but exceeded the unwritten ethnic admission quotas which were common at the time. Originally a
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...
major, Asimov switched to
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...
after his first semester because he disapproved of "dissecting an alley cat". After Seth Low Junior College closed in 1936, Asimov finished his
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree at Columbia's Morningside Heights campus (later the Columbia University School of General Studies) in 1939.
After two rounds of rejections by medical schools, Asimov applied to the graduate program in chemistry at Columbia in 1939; initially he was rejected and then only accepted on a probationary basis, he completed his
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
degree in chemistry in 1941 and earned a
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
degree in chemistry in 1948.Asimov, I. (1969) ''
Opus 100
''Opus 100'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin on 16 October 1969. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his hundredth book by writing about his previous 99 books, includin ...
'', Dell, pp. 143–144. During his chemistry studies, he also learned French and German.
In between earning these two degrees, Asimov spent three years during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
working as a civilian chemist at the
Philadelphia Navy Yard
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries.
Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the ci ...
's Naval Air Experimental Station, living in the Walnut Hill section of
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...
from 1942 to 1945. In September 1945, he was drafted into the post-war
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
; if he had not had his birth date corrected while at school, he would have been officially 26 years old and ineligible. In 1946, a bureaucratic error caused his military allotment to be stopped, and he was removed from a task force days before it sailed to participate in
Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the ...
nuclear weapons tests at
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Seco ...
. He served for almost nine months before receiving an
honorable discharge
A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...
on July 26, 1946. He had been promoted to
corporal
Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...
on July 11.
After completing his doctorate and a
postdoc
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...
associate professor
Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''.
Overview
In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...
of
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
at the
Boston University School of Medicine
The Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, formerly the Boston University School of Medicine, is one of the graduate schools of Boston University. Founded in 1848, the medical school was the first institution in the world t ...
. This was in large part due to his years-long correspondence with Dr. William Boyd, a former associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University, who first reached out to compliment Asimov on his story '' Nightfall''. Upon receiving a promotion to professor of
immunochemistry
Immunochemistry is the study of the chemistry of the immune system. This involves the study of the properties, functions, interactions and production of the chemical components (antibodies/immunoglobulins, toxin, epitopes of proteins like CD4, a ...
, Boyd reached out to Asimov, requesting him to be his replacement.Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green''. p. 546. Unfortunately, the initial offer of professorship was withdrawn and Asimov was offered the position of instructor of biochemistry instead, which he accepted. He began work in 1949 with a $5,000 salary (), maintaining this position for several years.Isaac Asimov Interview with Don Swaim (1987) By 1952, however, he was making more money as a writer than from the university, and he eventually stopped doing research, confining his university role to lecturing students. In 1955, he was promoted to
tenured
Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...
associate professor. In December 1957, Asimov was dismissed from his teaching post, with effect from June 30, 1958, because he had stopped doing research. After a struggle which lasted for two years, he kept his title, he gave the opening lecture each year for a biochemistry class, and on October 18, 1979, the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry. Asimov's personal papers from 1965 onward are archived at the university's
Mugar Memorial Library
The Mugar Memorial Library is the primary library for study, teaching, and research in the humanities and social sciences for Boston University. It was opened in 1966. Stephen P. Mugar, an Armenian immigrant who was successful in the grocery b ...
, to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gotlieb.
In 1959, after a recommendation from
Arthur Obermayer
Arthur S. Obermayer (July 17, 1931 – January 10, 2016) was an American chemist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the founder and president of the Moleculon Research Corporation. He was a co-founder of Partners for Progressive Israel a ...
, Asimov's friend and a scientist on the U.S. missile defense project, Asimov was approached by
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
to join Obermayer's team. Asimov declined on the grounds that his ability to write freely would be impaired should he receive
classified information
Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...
, but submitted a paper to DARPA titled "On Creativity" containing ideas on how government-based science projects could encourage team members to think more creatively.
Personal life
Asimov met his first wife, Gertrude Blugerman (1917,
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Canada – 1990,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, U.S.), on a
blind date
A blind date is a social engagement between two people who have not met, usually arranged by a mutual acquaintance.
Structure
A blind date is arranged for by a mutual acquaintance of both participants. The two people who take part in the blind ...
on February 14, 1942, and married her on July 26. The couple lived in an apartment in
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...
while Asimov was employed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard (where two of his co-workers were L. Sprague de Camp and
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
). Gertrude returned to Brooklyn while he was in the army, and they both lived there from July 1946 before moving to
Stuyvesant Town Stuyvesant may refer to:
People
* Peter Stuyvesant (1592–1672), the last governor of New Netherland
* Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778–1847), lawyer, landowner and philanthropist.
* Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1843–1909), socialite and land develope ...
,
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, in July 1948. They moved to
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
in May 1949, then to nearby suburbs Somerville in July 1949, Waltham in May 1951, and, finally, West Newton in 1956. They had two children, David (born 1951) and Robyn Joan (born 1955). In 1970, they separated and Asimov moved back to New York, this time to the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
of Manhattan where he lived for the rest of his life. He began seeing Janet O. Jeppson, a psychiatrist and science-fiction writer, and married her on November 30, 1973, two weeks after his divorce from Gertrude.
Asimov was a claustrophile: he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces. In the third volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in a
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading.
Asimov was afraid of flying, doing so only twice: once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station and once returning home from
Oahu
Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O ...
in 1946. Consequently, he seldom traveled great distances. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as the
Wendell Urth
''Asimov's Mysteries'', published in 1968, is a collection of 14 short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, almost all of them science fiction mysteries (although, as Asimov admits in the introduction, some are only borderline). The stories w ...
mystery stories and the ''Robot'' novels featuring Elijah Baley. In his later years, Asimov found enjoyment traveling on
cruise ship
Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...
s, beginning in 1972 when he viewed the
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walke ...
launch from a
cruise ship
Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...
. On several cruises, he was part of the entertainment program, giving science-themed talks aboard ships such as the ''
Queen Elizabeth 2
''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named ''Queen Elizabeth'', was operated by Cunard as both a transatlant ...
''. He sailed to England in June 1974 on the for a trip mostly devoted to lectures in London and Birmingham, though he also found time to visit
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...
.
Asimov was an able public speaker and was regularly hired to give talks about science. He was a frequent participant at
science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...
s, where he was friendly and approachable. He patiently answered tens of thousands of questions and other mail with postcards and was pleased to give autographs. He was of medium height (), stocky, with—in his later years—"mutton-chop"
sideburns
Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term ''sideburns'' is a 19th-century corruption of the original ''burnsides'', named ...
, and a distinct
New York accent
The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan area, New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accent (sociolinguistics), accents of the United States, ...
. He took to wearing
bolo tie
A bolo tie (sometimes bola tie or shoestring necktie) is a type of necktie consisting of a piece of cord or braided leather with decorative metal tips (called aiguillettes) and secured with an ornamental clasp or slide.
Popularity
In the United ...
s after his wife Janet objected to his clip-on bow ties. He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle, but learned to drive a car after he moved to Boston. In his humor book ''Asimov Laughs Again'', he describes Boston driving as "anarchy on wheels".
Asimov's wide interests included his participation in his later years in organizations devoted to the
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a n ...
s of
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
and in The Wolfe Pack, a group of devotees of the
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in ...
mysteries written by
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...
. Many of his short stories mention or quote Gilbert and Sullivan. He was a prominent member of
The Baker Street Irregulars
The Baker Street Irregulars is an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley. The nonprofit organization currently numbers some 300 individuals worldwide. The group has published '' The Baker Street Journa ...
, the leading
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
society, for whom he wrote an essay arguing that Professor Moriarty's work "The Dynamics of An Asteroid" involved the willful destruction of an ancient, civilized planet. He was also a member of the male-only literary banqueting club the
Trap Door Spiders
The Trap Door Spiders are a literary male-only eating, drinking, and arguing society in New York City, with a membership historically composed of notable science fiction personalities. The name is a reference to the reclusive habits of the trapdo ...
, which served as the basis of his fictional group of mystery solvers, the
Black Widowers The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories that he started writing in 1971. Most of the stories were first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', though a few ...
.Asimov, Isaac. ''I. Asimov, a Memoir'', New York, Doubleday, 1994, pp. 376–377. He later used his essay on Moriarty's work as the basis for a Black Widowers story, "
The Ultimate Crime
"The Ultimate Crime" is a short story by Isaac Asimov, dealing with a minor aspect of one of the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the 24th of Asimov's Black Widowers mystery stories, and it appeared in his anthology ''More ...
", which appeared in ''
More Tales of the Black Widowers
''More Tales of the Black Widowers'' is a collection of mystery short stories by American author Isaac Asimov, featuring his fictional club of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in October 1976 ...
''.
In 1984, the
American Humanist Association
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.
The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constituti ...
(AHA) named him the Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of the
Humanist Manifesto
''Humanist Manifesto'' is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original '' Humanist Manifesto'' (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the ''Humanist Manifesto II'' (1973), and ''Humanism and I ...
. From 1985 until his death in 1992, he served as president of the AHA, an honorary appointment. His successor was his friend and fellow writer
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
. He was also a close friend of ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' creator
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of '' Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and '' ...
, and earned a screen credit as "special science consultant" on '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' for advice he gave during production.
Asimov was a founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP (now the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "pro ...
) and is listed in its Pantheon of Skeptics. In a discussion with
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010 ...
Kendrick Frazier
Kendrick Crosby Frazier (March 19, 1942 – November 7, 2022) was an American science writer and longtime editor of '' Skeptical Inquirer'' magazine. He was also a former editor of ''Science News'', author or editor of ten books, and a Fellow of ...
said that Asimov was "a key figure in the
Skeptical movement
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...
who is less well known and appreciated today, but was very much in the public eye back then." He said that Asimov being associated with CSICOP "gave it immense status and authority" in his eyes.
Asimov described
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ex ...
as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...
and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...
expert
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory ...
. Asimov was a long-time member and vice president of
Mensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa formally com ...
, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs".
After his father died in 1969, Asimov annually contributed to a Judah Asimov Scholarship Fund at
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, p ...
.
Illness and death
In 1977, Asimov suffered a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
. In December 1983, he had
triple bypass surgery
Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage") is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest pai ...
at NYU Medical Center, during which he contracted HIV from a
blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...
. His HIV status was kept secret out of concern that the anti-AIDS prejudice might extend to his family members.
He died in Manhattan on April 6, 1992, and was cremated. The cause of death was reported as heart and
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
. Ten years following Asimov's death, Janet and Robyn Asimov agreed that the HIV story should be made public; Janet revealed it in her edition of his autobiography, '' It's Been a Good Life''."Widow reveals Isaac Asimov died from Aids", ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', March 17, 2002.
Writings
Overview
Asimov's career can be divided into several periods. His early career, dominated by science fiction, began with short stories in 1939 and novels in 1950. This lasted until about 1958, all but ending after publication of ''
The Naked Sun
''The Naked Sun'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his ''Robot'' series. Like its predecessor, '' The Caves of Steel'', this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after bein ...
'' (1957). He began publishing nonfiction as co-author of a college-level textbook called ''Biochemistry and Human Metabolism''. Following the brief orbit of the first man-made satellite
Sputnik I
Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
by the USSR in 1957, he wrote more nonfiction, particularly
popular science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
books, and less science fiction. Over the next quarter-century, he wrote only four science fiction novels, and 120 nonfiction books.
Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with the publication of ''
Foundation's Edge
''Foundation's Edge'' (1982) is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the ''Foundation'' Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original ''Foundation'' trilogy, due to years o ...
''. From then until his death, Asimov published several more sequels and prequels to his existing novels, tying them together in a way he had not originally anticipated, making a unified series. There are many inconsistencies in this unification, especially in his earlier stories. Doubleday and
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
published about 60% of his work as of 1969, Asimov stating that "both represent a father image".
Asimov believed his most enduring contributions would be his "
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story " Runaround" (included in the 1950 colle ...
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'' credits his science fiction for introducing into the English language the words "
robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...
", "
positronic
A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for robots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form of consciou ...
" (an entirely fictional technology), and " psychohistory" (which is also used for a different study on historical motivations). Asimov coined the term "robotics" without suspecting that it might be an original word; at the time, he believed it was simply the natural analogue of words such as
mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objec ...
and
hydraulics
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...
, but for
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...
s. Unlike his word "psychohistory", the word "robotics" continues in mainstream technical use with Asimov's original definition. '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' featured
androids
An android is a humanoid robot or other artificial being often made from a flesh-like material. Historically, androids were completely within the domain of science fiction and frequently seen in film and television, but advances in robot techno ...
with "
positronic brain
A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for robots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form of consciou ...
s" and the first-season episode "
Datalore
"Datalore" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', originally aired on January 18, 1988, in broadcast syndication. The story was created by Robert Lewi ...
" called the positronic brain "Asimov's dream".
Asimov was so prolific and diverse in his writing that his books span all major categories of the
Dewey Decimal Classification
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject.
Section 4.1 ...
except for category 100,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
and
psychology
Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
. He wrote several essays about psychology, and forewords for the books ''The Humanist Way'' (1988) and ''In Pursuit of Truth'' (1982), which were classified in the 100s category, but none of his own books were classified in that category.
According to
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
's ''Index Translationum database'', Asimov is the world's 24th-most-translated author.
Science fiction
Asimov became a science fiction fan in 1929, when he began reading the
pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
s sold in his family's candy store. At first his father forbade reading pulps until Asimov persuaded him that because the
science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet.
Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nove ...
s had "Science" in the title, they must be educational. At age 18 he joined the Futuriansscience fiction fan club, where he made friends who went on to become science fiction writers or editors.
Asimov began writing at the age of 11, imitating ''
The Rover Boys
The Rover Boys, or The Rover Boys Series for Young Americans, was a popular juvenile series written by Arthur M. Winfield, a pseudonym for Edward Stratemeyer. Thirty titles were published between 1899 and 1926 and the books remained in print fo ...
'' with eight chapters of ''The Greenville Chums at College''. His father bought him a used typewriter at age 16. His first published work was a humorous item on the birth of his brother for Boys High School's literary journal in 1934. In May 1937 he first thought of writing professionally, and began writing his first science fiction story, "Cosmic Corkscrew" (now lost), that year. On May 17, 1938, puzzled by a change in the schedule of ''
Astounding Science Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'', Asimov visited its publisher
Street & Smith Publications
Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among th ...
. Inspired by the visit, he finished the story on June 19, 1938, and personally submitted it to ''Astounding'' editor
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...
two days later. Campbell met with Asimov for more than an hour and promised to read the story himself. Two days later he received a detailed rejection letter. This was the first of what became almost weekly meetings with the editor while Asimov lived in New York, until moving to Boston in 1949; Campbell had a strong formative influence on Asimov and became a personal friend.
By the end of the month, Asimov completed a second story, "
Stowaway
A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, cargo truck or bus.
Sometimes, the purpose is to get from one place to another without paying for transportation. In other ...
". Campbell rejected it on July 22 but—in "the nicest possible letter you could imagine"—encouraged him to continue writing, promising that Asimov might sell his work after another year and a dozen stories of practice. On October 21, 1938, he sold the third story he finished, " Marooned Off Vesta", to ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances ...
'', edited by Raymond A. Palmer, and it appeared in the March 1939 issue. Asimov was paid $64 (), or one cent a word. Two more stories appeared that year, "
The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use
"The Weapon Too Dreadful To Use" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the May 1939 issue of ''Amazing Stories'' and reprinted in the August 1965 issue of ''Amazing'' and the 1972 collection '' ...
" in the May ''Amazing'' and " Trends" in the July ''Astounding'', the issue fans later selected as the start of the
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized in the United States as the period from 1938 to 1946, was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published. ...
. For 1940, ISFDB catalogs seven stories in four different pulp magazines, including one in ''Astounding''. His earnings became enough to pay for his education, but not yet enough for him to become a full-time writer.
Asimov later said that unlike other Golden Age writers
Robert Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
and A. E. van Vogt—also first published in 1939, and whose talent and stardom were immediately obvious—he "(this is not false modesty) came up only gradually". Through July 29, 1940, Asimov wrote 22 stories in 25 months, of which 13 were published; he wrote in 1972 that from that date he never wrote a science fiction story that was not published (except for two "special cases"). By 1941 Asimov was famous enough that
Donald Wollheim
Donald Allen Wollheim (October 1, 1914 – November 2, 1990) was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell, Martin Pears ...
told him that he purchased " The Secret Sense" for a new magazine only because of his name, and the December 1940 issue of ''Astonishing''—featuring Asimov's name in bold—was the first magazine to base
cover art
Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper (tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ...
on his work, but Asimov later said that neither he nor anyone else—except perhaps Campbell—considered him better than an often published "third rater".
Based on a conversation with Campbell, Asimov wrote " Nightfall", his 32nd story, in March and April 1941, and ''Astounding'' published it in September 1941. In 1968 the
Science Fiction Writers of America
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy
Fantas ...
voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story ever written. In ''
Nightfall and Other Stories
''Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969) is a collection of 20 previously published science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. Asimov added a brief introduction to each story, explaining some aspect of the story's history and/or how it came to ...
'' Asimov wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'." "Nightfall" is an archetypal example of
social science fiction
Social science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually (but not necessarily) soft science fiction, concerned less with technology/space opera and more with speculation about society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropol ...
, a term he created to describe a new trend in the 1940s, led by authors including him and Heinlein, away from
gadget
A gadget is a mechanical device or any ingenious article. Gadgets are sometimes referred to as ''gizmos''.
History
The etymology of the word is disputed. The word first appears as reference to an 18th-century tool in glassmaking that was develop ...
s and
space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soc ...
and toward speculation about the
human condition
The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed f ...
.
After writing "
Victory Unintentional
"Victory Unintentional" is a humorous science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in the August 1942 issue of ''Super Science Stories'' and included in the collections ''The Rest of the Robots'' (1964) and ''The Complet ...
" in January and February 1942, Asimov did not write another story for a year. Asimov expected to make chemistry his career, and was paid $2,600 annually at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, enough to marry his girlfriend; he did not expect to make much more from writing than the $1,788.50 he had earned from 28 stories sold over four years. Asimov left science fiction fandom and no longer read new magazines, and might have left the industry had not Heinlein and de Camp been coworkers and previously sold stories continued to appear. In 1942, Asimov published the first of his ''Foundation'' stories—later collected in the ''Foundation'' trilogy: ''
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
'' (1951), ''
Foundation and Empire
''Foundation and Empire'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov originally published by Gnome Press in 1952. It is the second book in the ''Foundation'' Series, and the fourth in the in-universe chronology. It takes place in ...
'' (1952), and '' Second Foundation'' (1953). The books describe the fall of a vast interstellar empire and the establishment of its eventual successor. They also feature his fictional science of psychohistory, in which the future course of the history of large populations can be predicted.
The trilogy and ''Robot'' series are his most famous science fiction. In 1966 they won the
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
for the all-time best series of science fiction and fantasy novels. Campbell raised his rate per word,
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
purchased rights to "
Evidence
Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field.
In epistemology, evidenc ...
", and anthologies reprinted his stories. By the end of the war Asimov was earning as a writer an amount equal to half of his Navy Yard salary, even after a raise, but Asimov still did not believe that writing could support him, his wife, and future children.
His "positronic" robot stories—many of which were collected in ''
I, Robot
''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' be ...
'' (1950)—were begun at about the same time. They promulgated a set of rules of
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
for robots (see
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story " Runaround" (included in the 1950 colle ...
) and intelligent machines that greatly influenced other writers and thinkers in their treatment of the subject. Asimov notes in his introduction to the short story collection ''
The Complete Robot
''The Complete Robot'' (1982) is a collection of 31 of the 37 science fiction short stories about robots by American writer Isaac Asimov, written between 1939 and 1977.Introduction, ''The Complete Robot'', Isaac Asimov Most of the stories had be ...
'' (1982) that he was largely inspired by the tendency of robots up to that time to fall consistently into a
Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...
plot in which they destroyed their creators.
The ''Robot'' series has led to film adaptations. With Asimov's collaboration, in about 1977,
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
wrote a screenplay of ''I, Robot'' that Asimov hoped would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstel ...
ever made". The screenplay has never been filmed and was eventually published in book form in 1994. The 2004 movie ''
I, Robot
''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' be ...
'', starring
Will Smith
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...
, was based on an unrelated script by Jeff Vintar titled ''Hardwired'', with Asimov's ideas incorporated later after the rights to Asimov's title were acquired. (The title was not original to Asimov but had previously been used for
a story
''A Story'' is an album by Yoko Ono, recorded in 1974, during the "lost weekend" sessions in which John Lennon produced '' Walls and Bridges''. It was unreleased until the 1992 box set ''Onobox'', which featured material from ''A Story'' on d ...
by
Eando Binder
Eando Binder is a pen name used by two mid-20th-century science fiction authors, Earl Andrew Binder (1904–1965) and his brother Otto Binder (1911–1974). The name is derived from their first initials ''(E and O Binder).''
Under the Eando nam ...
.) Also, one of Asimov's robot short stories, "
The Bicentennial Man
''The Bicentennial Man'' is a novelette in the ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same ...
", was expanded into a novel ''
The Positronic Man
''The Positronic Man'' is a 1992 novel by American writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette "The Bicentennial Man".
It is about a robot that begins to display characteristics, such as creativity, tradition ...
'' by Asimov and
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Gran ...
, and this was adapted into the 1999 movie '' Bicentennial Man'', starring
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
.
Besides movies, his ''Foundation'' and ''Robot'' stories have inspired other derivative works of science fiction literature, many by well-known and established authors such as
Roger MacBride Allen
Roger MacBride Allen (born September 26, 1957) is an American science fiction author. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and grew up outside of Washington, D.C., graduating from Walt Whitman High School. He graduated from Boston University i ...
,
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict ('' Forge of God'' books), parallel universes ('' The Way'' series), c ...
,
Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reas ...
,
David Brin
Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has won the Hugo,Donald Kingsbury. At least some of these appear to have been done with the blessing of, or at the request of, Asimov's widow,
Janet Asimov
Janet Opal Asimov (née Jeppson; August 6, 1926 – February 25, 2019), usually written as J. O. Jeppson, was an American science fiction writer, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst.
She started writing children's science fiction in the 1970s. She w ...
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, Asimov asked his editor that it be released under a pseudonym, yet it appeared under his own name. Asimov grew concerned at the scrutiny he would receive at his oral examination, in case the examiners thought he wasn't taking science seriously. At the end of the examination, one evaluator turned to him, smiling, and said, "What can you tell us, Mr. Asimov, about the thermodynamic properties of the compound known as thiotimoline". Laughing hysterically with relief, Asimov had to be led out of the room. After a five-minute wait, he was summoned back into the room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov".
Demand for science fiction greatly increased during the 1950s. It became possible for a genre author to write full-time. In 1949, book publisher Doubleday's science fiction editor Walter I. Bradbury accepted Asimov's unpublished "Grow Old with Me" (40,000 words), but requested that it be extended to a full novel of 70,000 words. The book appeared under the Doubleday imprint in January 1950 with the title of ''
Pebble in the Sky
''Pebble in the Sky'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the ''Foundation'' series had appeared from 1942 onwards in magazines, but ''Foundation'' was not pub ...
''. Doubleday published five more original science fiction novels by Asimov in the 1950s, along with the six juvenile Lucky Starr novels, the latter under the pseudonym of "Paul French". Doubleday also published collections of Asimov's short stories, beginning with ''
The Martian Way and Other Stories
''The Martian Way and Other Stories'' is a 1955 collection of four science fiction stories (3 Novella, novelettes and one novella by American writer Isaac Asimov, previously published in 1952 and 1954. Although single-author story collections ge ...
'' in 1955. The early 1950s also saw
Gnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classic ...
publish one collection of Asimov's positronic robot stories as ''
I, Robot
''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' be ...
'' and his ''
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
'' stories and novelettes as the three books of the ''Foundation trilogy''. More positronic robot stories were republished in book form as ''
The Rest of the Robots
''The Rest of the Robots'' is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1964. The stories, centred on positronic robots, are all part of the ''Robot'' series, most of which t ...
''.
Books and the magazines ''
Galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...
'' and ''
Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...
'' ended Asimov's dependence on ''Astounding''. He later described the era as his "'mature' period". Asimov's "
The Last Question
"The Last Question" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and was anthologized in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959), The Best of Isaac A ...
" (1956), on the ability of humankind to cope with and potentially reverse the process of
entropy
Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodyna ...
, was his personal favorite story.
In 1972, his novel '' The Gods Themselves'' (which was not part of a series) was published to general acclaim, and it won the
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 ...
,Asimov (1975) ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'', VGSF (1988 ed.), p. 174. the
Nebula Award for Best Novel
The Nebula Award for Best Novel is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novels. A work of fiction is considered a novel by the organization if it is 40,000 words or longer; a ...
, and the
Locus Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Locus Award for Best Novel, awarded by ''Locus'' magazine. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year.
The award for Best Novel was presented from 1971 (when the awards began) to 1979. S ...
.
In December 1974, former
Beatle
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development ...
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
approached Asimov and asked him if he could write the screenplay for a science-fiction movie musical. McCartney had a vague idea for the plot and a small scrap of dialogue; he wished to make a film about a rock band whose members discover they are being impersonated by a group of extraterrestrials. The band and their impostors would likely be played by McCartney's group
Wings
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...
, then at the height of their career. Intrigued by the idea, although he was not generally a fan of rock music, Asimov quickly produced a "treatment" or brief outline of the story. He adhered to McCartney's overall idea, producing a story he felt to be moving and dramatic, but did not use McCartney's brief scrap of dialogue. McCartney rejected the story. The treatment now exists only in the Boston University archives.
Asimov said in 1969 that he had "the happiest of all my associations with science fiction magazines" with ''Fantasy & Science Fiction''; "I have no complaints about ''Astounding'', ''Galaxy'', or any of the rest, heaven knows, but ''F&SF'' has become something special to me". Beginning in 1977, Asimov lent his name to ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (now ''
Asimov's Science Fiction
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publicatio ...
'') and wrote an editorial for each issue. There was also a short-lived ''
Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine
''Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine'' was a science fiction magazine which lasted from late 1978 to late 1979. It was published by Davis Publications out of New York City and was edited by George H. Scithers. After releasing only four issues, a ...
'' and a companion ''Asimov's Science Fiction Anthology'' reprint series, published as magazines (in the same manner as the stablemates ''
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fict ...
''s and ''
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
''Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine'' (AHMM) is a bi-monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. ''AHMM'' is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.
History
''AHMM' ...
''s "anthologies").
Due to pressure by fans on Asimov to write another book in his ''Foundation'' series, he did so with ''
Foundation's Edge
''Foundation's Edge'' (1982) is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the ''Foundation'' Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original ''Foundation'' trilogy, due to years o ...
'' (1982) and '' Foundation and Earth'' (1986), and then went back to before the original trilogy with ''
Prelude to Foundation
''Prelude to Foundation'' is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1988. It is one of two prequels to the ''Foundation'' series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psy ...
'' (1988) and ''
Forward the Foundation
''Forward the Foundation'' is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published posthumously in 1993. It is the second of two prequels to the ''Foundation'' Series. It is written in a format similar to that of the original book, ''Foundation'', ...
'' (1992), his last novel.
Popular science
Asimov and two colleagues published a textbook in 1949, with two more editions by 1969. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Asimov substantially decreased his fiction output (he published only four adult novels between 1957's ''
The Naked Sun
''The Naked Sun'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his ''Robot'' series. Like its predecessor, '' The Caves of Steel'', this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after bein ...
'' and 1982's ''
Foundation's Edge
''Foundation's Edge'' (1982) is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the ''Foundation'' Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original ''Foundation'' trilogy, due to years o ...
'', two of which were mysteries). He greatly increased his nonfiction production, writing mostly on science topics; the launch of Sputnik in 1957 engendered public concern over a "science gap". Asimov explained in ''The Rest of the Robots'' that he had been unable to write substantial fiction since the summer of 1958, and observers understood him as saying that his fiction career had ended, or was permanently interrupted. Asimov recalled in 1969 that "the United States went into a kind of tizzy, and so did I. I was overcome by the ardent desire to write popular science for an America that might be in great danger through its neglect of science, and a number of publishers got an equally ardent desire to publish popular science for the same reason".
''Fantasy and Science Fiction'' invited Asimov to continue his regular nonfiction column, begun in the now-folded bimonthly companion magazine ''
Venture Science Fiction Magazine
''Venture Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, first published from 1957 to 1958, and revived for a brief run in 1969 and 1970. Ten issues were published of the 1950s version, with another six in the second ru ...
''. The first of 399 monthly ''F&SF'' columns appeared in November 1958 and they continued until his terminal illness. These columns, periodically collected into books by Doubleday, gave Asimov a reputation as a "Great Explainer" of science; he described them as his only popular science writing in which he never had to assume complete ignorance of the subjects on the part of his readers. The column was ostensibly dedicated to popular science but Asimov had complete editorial freedom, and wrote about contemporary social issues in essays such as "Thinking About Thinking" and "Knock Plastic!". In 1975 he wrote of these essays: "I get more pleasure out of them than out of any other writing assignment."
Asimov's first wide-ranging reference work, '' The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'' (1960), was nominated for a
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors.
The Nat ...
, and in 1963 he won a
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
—his first—for his essays for ''F&SF''.1963 Hugo Award winners at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017). The popularity of his science books and the income he derived from them allowed him to give up most academic responsibilities and become a full-time
freelance writer
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...
. He encouraged other science fiction writers to write popular science, stating in 1967 that "the knowledgeable, skillful science writer is worth his weight in contracts", with "twice as much work as he can possibly handle".
The great variety of information covered in Asimov's writings prompted
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
to ask, "How does it feel to know everything?" Asimov replied that he only knew how it felt to have the 'reputation' of omniscience: "Uneasy".
Floyd C. Gale
''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Edit ...
said that "Asimov has a rare talent. He can make your mental mouth water over dry facts", and "science fiction's loss has been science popularization's gain". Asimov said that "Of all the writing I do, fiction, non-fiction, adult, or juvenile, these ''F & SF'' articles are by far the most fun". He regretted, however, that he had less time for fiction—causing dissatisfied readers to send him letters of complaint—stating in 1969 that "In the last ten years, I've done a couple of novels, some collections, a dozen or so stories, but that's ''nothing''".
In his essay "To Tell a Chemist" (1965), Asimov proposed a simple
shibboleth
A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any Convention (norm), custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many s ...
for distinguishing chemists from non-chemists: ask the person to read the word "unionized". Chemists, he noted, will read ''un''-''
ionized
Ionization, or Ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule ...
'' (electrically neutral), while non-chemists will read '' union-ized'' (belonging to a trade union).
Coined terms
Asimov coined the term "
robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...
" in his 1941 story " Liar!", though he later remarked that he believed then that he was merely using an existing word, as he stated in ''
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
'' ("The Robot Chronicles"). While acknowledging the Oxford Dictionary reference, he incorrectly states that the word was first printed about one third of the way down the first column of page 100, ''
Astounding Science Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'', March 1942 printing of his short story " Runaround".
In the same story, Asimov also coined the term "positronic" (the counterpart to "electronic" for
positron
The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. It has an electric charge of +1 '' e'', a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. When a positron collide ...
s).
Asimov coined the term " psychohistory" in his ''Foundation'' stories to name a fictional branch of science which combines
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
, and
mathematical statistics
Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory, a branch of mathematics, to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques which are used for this include mathematical an ...
to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the
Galactic Empire
Galactic empires are a common trope used in science fantasy and science fiction, particularly in works known as 'space operas'. Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning empire as background or written about the growth and/or decline of ...
. Asimov said later that he should have called it psychosociology. It was first introduced in the five short stories (1942–1944) which would later be collected as the 1951
fix-up
A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame s ...
novel ''
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
''. Somewhat later, the term " psychohistory" was applied by others to research of the effects of psychology on history.
Other writings
In addition to his interest in science, Asimov was interested in history. Starting in the 1960s, he wrote 14 popular history books, including ''The Greeks: A Great Adventure'' (1965), ''The Roman Republic'' (1966), ''The Roman Empire'' (1967), ''The Egyptians'' (1967) ''The Near East: 10,000 Years of History'' (1968), and ''
Asimov's Chronology of the World
''Asimov's Chronology of the World'' is a 1991 book by Isaac Asimov, in which the author explains in chronological order important events that happened from the Big Bang until the end of World War II. Each chapter covers a certain time period. T ...
'' (1991).
He published ''
Asimov's Guide to the Bible
''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'' is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes in 1968 and 1969, covering the Old Testament and the New Testament (including the Catholic Old Testament, or deuterocanonical, books (see Catholic ...
'' in two volumes—covering the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
in 1967 and the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
in 1969—and then combined them into one 1,300-page volume in 1981. Complete with maps and tables, the guide goes through the books of the Bible in order, explaining the history of each one and the political influences that affected it, as well as biographical information about the important characters. His interest in literature manifested itself in several annotations of literary works, including ''
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare
''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' (1970) by Isaac Asimov is a two-volume guide to the works of the celebrated English writer William Shakespeare. The numerous maps were drafted by the artist Rafael Palacios.
Structure
The work gives a short gu ...
'' (1970), ''Asimov's Annotated Don Juan'' (1972), ''Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost'' (1974), and ''The Annotated Gulliver's Travels'' (1980).
Asimov was also a noted mystery author and a frequent contributor to ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. He began by writing science fiction mysteries such as his Wendell Urth stories, but soon moved on to writing "pure" mysteries. He published two full-length mystery novels, and wrote 66 stories about the
Black Widowers The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories that he started writing in 1971. Most of the stories were first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', though a few ...
, a group of men who met monthly for dinner, conversation, and a puzzle. He got the idea for the Widowers from his own association in a stag group called the Trap Door Spiders, and all of the main characters (with the exception of the waiter, Henry, who he admitted resembled Wodehouse's Jeeves) were modeled after his closest friends. A parody of the Black Widowers, "An Evening with the White Divorcés," was written by author, critic, and librarian Jon L. Breen. Asimov joked, "all I can do ... is to wait until I catch him in a dark alley, someday."
Toward the end of his life, Asimov published a series of collections of limericks, mostly written by himself, starting with ''
Lecherous Limericks
''Lecherous Limericks'' is the first of several compilations of dirty limerick (poetry), limericks by celebrated author Isaac Asimov (1920–1992). The book contains 100 limericks. The first limerick in the collection is:
Asimov comments i ...
'', which appeared in 1975. ''Limericks: Too Gross'', whose title displays Asimov's love of
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s, contains 144 limericks by Asimov and an equal number by
John Ciardi
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
. He even created a slim volume of
Sherlockian
Sherlock Holmes fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The fans are known as Sherlockians or Holmesians. Many fans of Sherlock Holmes participa ...
limericks. Asimov featured
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
humor in '' Azazel, The Two Centimeter Demon''. The two main characters, both Jewish, talk over dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, about anecdotes of "George" and his friend Azazel. Asimov's '' Treasury of Humor'' is both a working joke book and a treatise propounding his views on humor theory. According to Asimov, the most essential element of humor is an abrupt change in point of view, one that suddenly shifts focus from the important to the trivial, or from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Particularly in his later years, Asimov to some extent cultivated an image of himself as an amiable lecher. In 1971, as a response to the popularity of sexual guidebooks such as ''
The Sensuous Woman
''The Sensuous Woman'' is a book written by Terry Garrity and issued by Lyle Stuart. Published first during 1969 with the pseudonym "J", it is a detailed instruction manual concerning sexuality for women. It is notable for greater frankness in di ...
'' (by "J") and ''
The Sensuous Man
''The Sensuous Man'' is a book written by an author initially known as "M", later revealed to be Joan (Terry) Garrity, John Garrity, and Len Forman. First published in 1971 by both L. Stuart and W. H. Allen, by Corgi in 1972 and again in 1982 b ...
'' (by "M"), Asimov published ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'' under the byline "Dr. 'A (although his full name was printed on the paperback edition, first published 1972). However, by 2016, some of Asimov's behavior towards women was described as
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fr ...
and cited as an example of historically problematic behavior by men in science fiction communities.
Asimov published three volumes of autobiography. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979) and ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980) cover his life up to 1978. The third volume, ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994), covered his whole life (rather than following on from where the second volume left off). The epilogue was written by his widow
Janet Asimov
Janet Opal Asimov (née Jeppson; August 6, 1926 – February 25, 2019), usually written as J. O. Jeppson, was an American science fiction writer, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst.
She started writing children's science fiction in the 1970s. She w ...
after his death. The book won a
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
in 1995. Janet Asimov edited '' It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), a condensed version of his three autobiographies. He also published three volumes of retrospectives of his writing, ''
Opus 100
''Opus 100'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin on 16 October 1969. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his hundredth book by writing about his previous 99 books, includin ...
'' (1969), ''
Opus 200
''Opus 200'' is Isaac Asimov's joint two-hundredth book, along with his autobiography ''In Memory Yet Green'' (both books were published on the same day, following his 199th book). It was published by Houghton Mifflin in March 1979. Asimov chose to ...
'' (1979), and ''
Opus 300
''Opus 300'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States in 1984, and by Robert Hale Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1985. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his ...
'' (1984).
In 1987, the Asimovs co-wrote ''How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort''. In it they offer advice on how to maintain a positive attitude and stay productive when dealing with discouragement, distractions, rejection, and thick-headed editors. The book includes many quotations, essays, anecdotes, and husband-wife dialogues about the ups and downs of being an author.
Asimov and ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' creator
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of '' Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and '' ...
developed a unique relationship during ''Star Trek''s initial launch in the late 1960s. Asimov wrote a critical essay on ''Star Trek''s scientific accuracy for ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corporat ...
'' magazine. Roddenberry retorted respectfully with a personal letter explaining the limitations of accuracy when writing a weekly series. Asimov corrected himself with a follow-up essay to ''TV Guide'' claiming that despite its inaccuracies, ''Star Trek'' was a fresh and intellectually challenging
science fiction television
Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...
show. The two remained friends to the point where Asimov even served as an advisor on a number of ''Star Trek'' projects.
In 1973, Asimov published a proposal for
calendar reform
Calendar reform or calendrical reform is any significant revision of a calendar system. The term sometimes is used instead for a proposal to switch to a different calendar design.
Principles
The prime objective of a calendar is to unambiguo ...
, called the World Season Calendar. It divides the year into four seasons (named A–D) of 13 weeks (91 days) each. This allows days to be named, e.g., "D-73" instead of December 1 (due to December 1 being the 73rd day of the 4th quarter). An extra 'year day' is added for a total of 365 days.
Awards and recognition
Asimov won more than a dozen annual awards for particular works of science fiction and a half-dozen lifetime awards."Asimov, Isaac" . ''The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees''.
Locus Publications
''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction and fantasy fields ...
. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
He also received 14
honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
degrees from universities.
* 1955 – Guest of Honor at the 13th
World Science Fiction Convention
Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, durin ...
* 1957 –
Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
Foundation Award for best science book for youth, for ''Building Blocks of the Universe''
* 1960 – Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deat ...
for ''The Living River''
* 1962 –
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...
's Publication Merit Award
* 1963 – A special
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
for "adding science to science fiction," for essays published in ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...
''
* 1963 – Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
* 1964 – The
Science Fiction Writers of America
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy
Fantas ...
voted "Nightfall" (1941) the all-time best science fiction short story
* 1965 – James T. Grady Award of the
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
'' trilogy
* 1967 –
Edward E. Smith Memorial Award The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction, or Skylark, annually recognizes someone for lifetime contributions to science fiction, "both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late 'Doc' ...
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
'')
* 1972 –
Nebula Award for Best Novel
The Nebula Award for Best Novel is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novels. A work of fiction is considered a novel by the organization if it is 40,000 words or longer; a ...
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 ...
for ''The Gods Themselves''
* 1973 –
Locus Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Locus Award for Best Novel, awarded by ''Locus'' magazine. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year.
The award for Best Novel was presented from 1971 (when the awards began) to 1979. S ...
for ''The Gods Themselves''
* 1975 – Golden Plate Award of the American
Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
* 1975 –
Klumpke-Roberts Award
The Klumpke-Roberts Award, one of seven international and national awards for service to astronomy and astronomy education given by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, was established from a bequest by astronomer Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts to ...
"for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy"
* 1975 –
Locus Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the p ...
for Best Reprint Anthology for ''
Before the Golden Age
''Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s'' is an anthology of 25 science fiction stories from 1930s pulp magazines, edited by American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It also includes " Big Game", a short story writt ...
''
* 1977 –
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...
for ''
The Bicentennial Man
''The Bicentennial Man'' is a novelette in the ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same ...
''
* 1977 –
Nebula Award for Best Novelette
The Nebula Award for Best Novelette is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to a science fiction or fantasy novelette. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novelette if it is between 7,50 ...
for ''The Bicentennial Man''
* 1977 –
Locus Award for Best Novelette The Locus Award for Best Novelette is one of a series of Locus Awards given annually by Locus Magazine
''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, Califor ...
for ''The Bicentennial Man''
* 1981 – An asteroid,
5020 Asimov
5 (five) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typ ...
, was named in his honor
* 1981 –
Locus Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the p ...
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 ...
for ''
Foundation's Edge
''Foundation's Edge'' (1982) is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the ''Foundation'' Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original ''Foundation'' trilogy, due to years o ...
''
* 1983 – Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for ''Foundation's Edge''
* 1984 –
Humanist of the Year
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.
The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constitutiona ...
* 1986 – The
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a Non-profit organization, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction an ...
Locus Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the p ...
for Best Short Story for "
Robot Dreams
''Robot Dreams'' (1986) is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, illustrated by Ralph McQuarrie. The title story is about Susan Calvin's discovery of a robot with rather disturbing dreams. It was written ...
"
* 1992 –
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...
for "
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
"
* 1995 –
Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book
The Hugo Award for Best Related Work is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for primarily non-fiction works related to science fiction or fantasy, published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The Hugo Awards have bee ...
Locus Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the p ...
for Best Non-Fiction Book for '' I. Asimov: A Memoir''
* 1996 – A 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 was given at the 1996 WorldCon for " The Mule", the 7th Foundation story, published in ''Astounding Science Fiction''
* 1997 – The
Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame
The Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP is a nonprofit museum in Seattle, Washington, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Since then MoPOP has organ ...
inducted Asimov in its second class of two deceased and two living persons, along with H. G. Wells."Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame" . Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc. Retrieved March 24, 2013. This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004.
* 2000 – Asimov was featured on a stamp in Israel
* 2001 – Th Isaac Asimov Memorial Debates at the
Hayden Planetarium
The Rose Center for Earth and Space is a part of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Center's complete name is The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. The main entrance is located on the no ...
in New York were inaugurated
* 2009 – A crater on the planet Mars, Asimov, was named in his honor
* 2010 – In the US Congress bill about the designation of the National Robotics Week as an annual event, a tribute to Isaac Asimov is as follows:
** "Whereas the second week in April each year is designated as 'National Robotics Week', recognizing the accomplishments of Isaac Asimov, who immigrated to America, taught science, wrote science books for children and adults, first used the term robotics, developed the Three Laws of Robotics, and died in April 1992: Now, therefore, be it resolved ..."
* 2015 – Selected as a member of the
New York State Writers Hall of Fame
The New York State Writers Hall of Fame or NYS Writers Hall of Fame is a project established in 2010 by the Empire State Center for the Book, which is the New York State affiliate of the U.S. Library of Congress's Center for the Book, and the E ...
.
* 2016 – A 1941
Retro-Hugo
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
for Best Short Story of 1940 was given at the 2016 WorldCon for '' Robbie'', his first positronic robot story, published in ''
Super Science Stories
''Super Science Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 to 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their Fictioneers imprint, which they used for magazines, payin ...
'', September 1940
* 2018 – A 1943
Retro-Hugo
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
for Best Short Story of 1942 was given at the 2018 WorldCon for ''
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
index
Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index''
* The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...
er,
proofreader
Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or an electronic copy of a publication to find and correct reproduction errors of text or art. Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication.
Professional
Traditiona ...
, and
literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwrit ...
. He wrote a typed first draft composed at the keyboard at 90 words per minute; he imagined an ending first, then a beginning, then "let everything in-between work itself out as I come to it". (Asimov used an outline only once, later describing it as "like trying to play the piano from inside a straitjacket".) After correcting a draft by hand, he retyped the document as the final copy and only made one revision with minor editor-requested changes; a
word processor
A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current ...
did not save him much time, Asimov said, because 95% of the first draft was unchanged.
After disliking making multiple revisions of " Black Friar of the Flame", Asimov refused to make major, second, or non-editorial revisions ("like chewing used gum"), stating that "too large a revision, or too many revisions, indicate that the piece of writing is a failure. In the time it would take to salvage such a failure, I could write a new piece altogether and have infinitely more fun in the process". He submitted "failures" to another editor.
Asimov's fiction style is extremely unornamented. In 1980, science fiction scholar
James Gunn
James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a directo ...
wrote of ''I, Robot'':
Asimov addressed such criticism in 1989 at the beginning of ''
Nemesis
In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ( grc, Ῥαμνουσία, Rhamnousía, the goddess of Rhamnous), was the goddess who personifies retribution, a central concept in the Greek world view.
Etymology
The ...
'':
Gunn cited examples of a more complex style, such as the climax of "Liar!". Sharply drawn characters occur at key junctures of his storylines:
Susan Calvin
Dr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character appearing in Isaac Asimov's ''Robot'' series of science fiction short stories. According to I, Robot, Susan Calvin was born in the year 1982 and died at the age of 82, either in 2064 or 2065.
She was t ...
in "Liar!" and "Evidence",
Arkady Darell
This is a list of characters in Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series.
Through the centuries-spanning nature of the ''Foundation'' series, the lives of its various characters are limited to one or two of its nine episodes. In spite of the great s ...
Hari Seldon
Hari Seldon is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series. In his capacity as mathematics professor at Streeling University on the planet Trantor, Seldon develops psychohistory, an algorithmic science that allows him to predi ...
in the ''Foundation'' prequels.
Other than books by Gunn and Joseph Patrouch, there is relatively little literary criticism on Asimov (particularly when compared to the sheer volume of his output). Cowart and Wymer's ''
Dictionary of Literary Biography
The ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' is a specialist biographical dictionary dedicated to literature. Published by Gale, the 375-volume setRogers, 106. covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres, with a focus on American ...
'' (1981) gives a possible reason:
Gunn's and Patrouch's studies of Asimov both state that a clear, direct prose style is still a style. Gunn's 1982 book comments in detail on each of Asimov's novels. He does not praise all of Asimov's fiction (nor does Patrouch), but calls some passages in ''The Caves of Steel'' "reminiscent of
Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...
". When discussing how that novel depicts night falling over futuristic New York City, Gunn says that Asimov's prose "need not be ashamed anywhere in literary society".
Although he prided himself on his unornamented prose style (for which he credited
Clifford D. Simak
Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Wr ...
as an early influence), and said in 1973 that his style had not changed, Asimov also enjoyed giving his longer stories complicated narrative structures, often by arranging chapters in non
chronological
Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , '' -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. ...
ways. Some readers have been put off by this, complaining that the nonlinearity is not worth the trouble and adversely affects the clarity of the story. For example, the first third of ''The Gods Themselves'' begins with Chapter 6, then backtracks to fill in earlier material. (John Campbell advised Asimov to begin his stories as late in the plot as possible. This advice helped Asimov create "
Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...
", one of the early ''Robot'' stories). Patrouch found that the interwoven and nested flashbacks of ''
The Currents of Space
''The Currents of Space'' is a science fiction novel by the American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1952. It is the second (by internal series chronology) of three books labeled the ''Galactic Empire'' series, but it was the last of the thr ...
'' did serious harm to that novel, to such an extent that only a "dyed-in-the-kyrt Asimov fan" could enjoy it. In his later novel ''Nemesis'' one group of characters lives in the "present" and another group starts in the "past", beginning 15 years earlier and gradually moving toward the time of the first group.
Alien life
Asimov once explained that his reluctance to write about aliens came from an incident early in his career when ''Astounding''s editor John Campbell rejected one of his science fiction stories because the alien characters were portrayed as superior to the humans. The nature of the rejection led him to believe that Campbell may have based his bias towards humans in stories on a real-world racial bias. Unwilling to write only weak alien races, and concerned that a confrontation would jeopardize his and Campbell's friendship, he decided he would not write about aliens at all. Nevertheless, in response to these criticisms, he wrote '' The Gods Themselves'', which contains aliens and alien sex. The book won the
Nebula Award for Best Novel
The Nebula Award for Best Novel is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novels. A work of fiction is considered a novel by the organization if it is 40,000 words or longer; a ...
in 1972, and the
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 ...
in 1973. Asimov said that of all his writings, he was most proud of the middle section of ''The Gods Themselves'', the part that deals with those themes.
In the
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...
-winning novelette "
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
", Asimov describes an author, based on himself, who has one of his books (''The Gods Themselves'') adapted into a "compu-drama", essentially photo-realistic
computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images ( moving images), while computer animation re ...
. The director criticizes the fictionalized Asimov ("Gregory Laborian") for having an extremely nonvisual style, making it difficult to adapt his work, and the author explains that he relies on ideas and dialogue rather than description to get his points across.
Romance and women
In the early days of science fiction some authors and critics felt that the romantic elements were inappropriate in science fiction stories, which were supposedly to be focused on science and technology. Isaac Asimov was a supporter of this point of view, expressed in his 1938-1939 letters to ''
Astounding
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'', where he described such elements as "mush" and "slop". To his dismay, these letters were met with a strong opposition.Eric Leif Davin, ''Partners in Wonder. Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965'', 2006, pp. 3–4 /ref>
Asimov attributed the lack of romance and sex in his fiction to the "early imprinting" from starting his writing career when he had never been on a date and "didn't know anything about girls". He was sometimes criticized for the general absence of sex (and of
extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...
) in his science fiction. He claimed he wrote '' The Gods Themselves'' to respond to these criticisms, which often came from
New Wave science fiction
The New Wave was a science fiction (SF) style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of trendy non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis ...
(and often British) writers. The second part (of three) of the novel is set on an alien world with three sexes, and the sexual behavior of these creatures is extensively depicted.
Views
Religion
Asimov was an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, a
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
, and a rationalist.Isaac Asimov, "The Way of Reason", in ''In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday,,'' ed. Paul Levinson, Humanities Press, 1982, pp. ix–x. He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against
superstitious
A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and ...
and
pseudoscientific
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. During his childhood, his father and mother observed the traditions of
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses o ...
less stringently than they had in Petrovichi; they did not force their beliefs upon young Isaac, and he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the ''
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...
'' recorded
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
. When he was 13, he chose not to have a bar mitzvah. As his books '' Treasury of Humor'' and ''Asimov Laughs Again'' record, Asimov was willing to tell jokes involving God,
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...
, the
Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan- Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28 ...
,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion.
For a brief while, his father worked in the local
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...
to enjoy the familiar surroundings and, as Isaac put it, "shine as a learned scholar" versed in the sacred writings. This scholarship was a seed for his later authorship and publication of ''
Asimov's Guide to the Bible
''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'' is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes in 1968 and 1969, covering the Old Testament and the New Testament (including the Catholic Old Testament, or deuterocanonical, books (see Catholic ...
'', an analysis of the historic foundations for the Old and New Testaments. For many years, Asimov called himself an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
; he considered the term somewhat inadequate, as it described what he did not believe rather than what he did. Eventually, he described himself as a "
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
" and considered that term more practical. Asimov continued to identify himself as a secular Jew, as stated in his introduction to
Jack Dann
Jack Dann (born February 15, 1945) is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-edit ...
's anthology of Jewish science fiction, '' Wandering Stars'': "I attend no services and follow no ritual and have never undergone that curious puberty rite, the Bar Mitzvah. It doesn't matter. I am Jewish."
When asked in an interview in 1982 if he was an atheist, Asimov replied,
Likewise, he said about religious education: "I would not be satisfied to have my kids choose to be religious without trying to argue them out of it, just as I would not be satisfied to have them decide to smoke regularly or engage in any other practice I consider detrimental to mind or body."
In his last volume of autobiography, Asimov wrote,
The same memoir states his belief that
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
is "the drooling dream of a sadist" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell".
Asimov said about using religious motifs in his writing:
Politics
Asimov became a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party during the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
, and thereafter remained a political liberal. He was a vocal opponent of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
in the 1960s and in a television interview during the early 1970s he publicly endorsed
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pr ...
. He was unhappy about what he considered an "irrationalist" viewpoint taken by many radical political activists from the late 1960s and onwards. In his second volume of autobiography, ''In Joy Still Felt'', Asimov recalled meeting the counterculture figure
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...
. Asimov's impression was that the 1960s' counterculture heroes had ridden an emotional wave which, in the end, left them stranded in a "no-man's land of the spirit" from which he wondered if they would ever return.
Asimov vehemently opposed
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
, considering him "a crook and a liar". He closely followed
Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continu ...
, and was pleased when the president was forced to resign. Asimov was dismayed over the pardon extended to Nixon by his successor: "I was not impressed by the argument that it has spared the nation an ordeal. To my way of thinking, the ordeal was necessary to make certain it would never happen again."
After Asimov's name appeared in the mid-1960s on a list of people the
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Rev ...
"considered amenable" to its goals, the FBI investigated him. Because of his academic background, the bureau briefly considered Asimov as a possible candidate for known Soviet spy ROBPROF, but found nothing suspicious in his life or background.
Asimov appeared to hold an equivocal attitude towards
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. In his first autobiography, he indicates his support for the safety of Israel, though insisting that he was not a
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
. In his third autobiography, Asimov stated his opposition to the creation of a Jewish state, on the grounds that he was opposed to having nation-states in general, and supported the notion of a single humanity. Asimov especially worried about the safety of Israel given that it had been created among hostile Muslim neighbors, and said that Jews had merely created for themselves another "Jewish ghetto".
Social issues
Asimov believed that "''science'' fiction ... serve the good of humanity". He considered himself a feminist even before women's liberation became a widespread movement; he argued that the issue of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countri ...
was closely connected to that of population control. Furthermore, he believed that
homosexuality
Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...
must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction. He issued many appeals for
population control
Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from ...
, reflecting a perspective articulated by people from
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography.
In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...
through
Paul R. Ehrlich
Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of St ...
.
In a 1988 interview by
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
, Asimov proposed computer-aided learning, where people would use computers to find information on subjects in which they were interested. He thought this would make learning more interesting, since people would have the freedom to choose what to learn, and would help spread knowledge around the world. Also, the One to one computing, one-to-one model would let students learn at their own pace. Asimov thought that people would live in space by 2019.
In 1983 Asimov wrote:
He continues on education:
Sexual harassment
Asimov would often fondle, kiss and pinch women at conventions and elsewhere without regard for their consent. According to Alec Nevala-Lee, author of an Asimov biography and writer on the history of science fiction, he often defended himself by saying that far from showing objections, these women cooperated. In a 1971 satirical piece, ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'', Asimov wrote: "The question then is not whether or not a girl should be touched. The question is merely where, when, and how she should be touched."
According to Nevala-Lee, however, "many of these encounters were clearly nonconsensual." He wrote that Asimov's behaviour, as a leading science-fiction author and personality, contributed to an undesirable atmosphere for women in the male-dominated science fiction community. In support of this, he quoted some of Asimov's contemporary fellow-authors such as Judith Merril,
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
and Frederik Pohl, as well as editors such as Timothy Seldes. Additional specific incidents were reported by other people including Edward L. Ferman, long-time editor of ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', who wrote "... instead of shaking my date's hand, he shook her ''left breast''".
Environment and population
Asimov's defense of civil applications of nuclear power, even after the Three Mile Island accident, Three Mile Island nuclear power plant incident, damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. In a letter reprinted in ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'',Asimov, Isaac (1996). ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'', edited by Stanley Asimov. . he states that although he would prefer living in "no danger whatsoever" than near a nuclear reactor, he would still prefer a home near a nuclear power plant than in a slum on Love Canal or near "a Union Carbide plant producing methyl isocyanate", the latter being a reference to the Bhopal disaster.
In the closing years of his life, Asimov blamed the deterioration of the quality of life that he perceived in New York City on the shrinking tax base caused by the white flight, middle-class flight to the suburbs, though he continued to support high taxes on the middle class to pay for social programs. His last nonfiction book, ''Our Angry Earth'' (1991, co-written with his long-time friend, science fiction author Frederik Pohl), deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as human overpopulation, overpopulation, oil dependence, war, global warming, and the destruction of the ozone layer. In response to being presented by
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
with the question "What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate?", Asimov responded:
Other authors
Asimov enjoyed the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, and used ''The Lord of the Rings'' as a plot point in a
Black Widowers The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories that he started writing in 1971. Most of the stories were first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', though a few ...
story, titled ''Nothing like Murder''. In the essay "All or Nothing" (for ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,'' Jan 1981), Asimov said that he admired Tolkien and that he had read ''The Lord of the Rings'' five times. (The feelings were mutual, with Tolkien saying that he had enjoyed Asimov's science fiction. This would make Asimov an exception to Tolkien's earlier claim that he rarely found "any modern books" that were interesting to him.)
He acknowledged other writers as superior to himself in talent, saying of
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
, "He is (in my opinion) one of the best writers in the world, far more skilled at the art than I am." Asimov disapproved of the New Wave science fiction, New Wave's growing influence, stating in 1967 "I want science fiction. I think science fiction isn't really science fiction if it lacks science. And I think the better and truer the science, the better and truer the science fiction".
The feelings of friendship and respect between Asimov and
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
were demonstrated by the so-called "Clarke–Asimov Treaty of Park Avenue", negotiated as they shared a cab in New York. This stated that Asimov was required to insist that Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself). Thus, the dedication in Clarke's book ''Report on Planet Three'' (1972) reads: "In accordance with the terms of the Clarke–Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer."
Asimov became a fan of mystery stories at the same time as science fiction. He preferred to read the former because "I read every [science fiction] story keenly aware that it might be worse than mine, in which case I had no patience with it, or that it might be better, in which case I felt miserable". Asimov wrote "I make no secret of the fact that in my mysteries I use Agatha Christie as my model. In my opinion, her mysteries are the best ever written, far better than the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Hercule Poirot is the best detective fiction has seen. Why should I not use as my model what I consider the best?" He enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, but considered Arthur Conan Doyle to be "a slapdash and sloppy writer."
Asimov also enjoyed humorous stories, particularly those of P. G. Wodehouse.
In non-fiction writing, Asimov particularly admired the writing style of Martin Gardner, and tried to emulate it in his own science books. On meeting Gardner for the first time in 1965, Asimov told him this, to which Gardner answered that he had based his own style on Asimov's.
Influence
Paul Krugman, holder of a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Nobel Prize in Economics, stated Asimov's concept of psychohistory inspired him to become an economist.
John Jenkins, who has reviewed the vast majority of Asimov's written output, once observed, "It has been pointed out that most science fiction writers since the 1950s have been affected by Asimov, either modeling their style on his or deliberately avoiding anything like his style." Along with such figures as Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, Asimov left his mark as one of the most distinguished Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinarians of the 20th century. "Few individuals", writes Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering, James L. Christian, "understood better than Isaac Asimov what synoptic thinking is all about. His almost 500 books—which he wrote as a specialist, a knowledgeable authority, or just an excited layman—range over almost all conceivable subjects: the sciences, history, literature, religion, and of course, science fiction."
Bibliography
Depending on the counting convention used, and including all titles, charts, and edited collections, there may be currently over 500 books in Asimov's bibliography—as well as his individual short stories, individual essays, and criticism. For his 100th, 200th, and 300th books (based on his personal count), Asimov published ''
Opus 100
''Opus 100'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin on 16 October 1969. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his hundredth book by writing about his previous 99 books, includin ...
'' (1969), ''
Opus 200
''Opus 200'' is Isaac Asimov's joint two-hundredth book, along with his autobiography ''In Memory Yet Green'' (both books were published on the same day, following his 199th book). It was published by Houghton Mifflin in March 1979. Asimov chose to ...
'' (1979), and ''
Opus 300
''Opus 300'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States in 1984, and by Robert Hale Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1985. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his ...
'' (1984), celebrating his writing. An extensive bibliography of Isaac Asimov's works has been compiled by Ed Seiler. He published enough that his book writing rate could be analysed, showing that the writing became faster as he wrote more.
An online exhibit in West Virginia University Libraries' virtually complete Asimov Collection displays features, visuals, and descriptions of some of his over 600 books, games, audio recordings, videos, and wall charts. Many first, rare, and autographed editions are in the Libraries' Rare Book Room. Book jackets and autographs are presented online along with descriptions and images of children's books, science fiction art, multimedia, and other materials in the collection.
Science fiction
"Greater Foundation" series
The ''Robot'' series was originally separate from the ''Foundation'' series. The Galactic Empire novels were published as independent stories, set earlier in the same future as ''Foundation''. Later in life, Asimov synthesized the ''Robot'' series into a single coherent "history" that appeared in the extension of the ''Foundation'' series.
All of these books were published by Doubleday (publisher), Doubleday & Co, except the original Foundation trilogy which was originally published by Gnome Books before being bought and republished by Doubleday.
* The Robot series:
** (first Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
** (second Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
** (third Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
** (sequel to the Elijah Baley trilogy)
* Galactic Empire novels:
** (early Galactic Empire)
** (long before the Empire)
** (Republic of Trantor still expanding)
* Foundation prequels:
**
**
* Original ''Foundation'' trilogy:
**
** (also published with the title 'The Man Who Upset the Universe' as a 35¢ Ace paperback, D-125, in about 1952)
**
* Extended Foundation series:
**
**
Lucky Starr series (as Paul French)
All published by Doubleday (publisher), Doubleday & Co
* ''David Starr, Space Ranger'' (1952)
* ''Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids'' (1953)
* ''Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus'' (1954)
* ''Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury'' (1956)
* ''Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter'' (1957)
* ''Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn'' (1958)
Norby Chronicles (with Janet Asimov)
All published by Walker & Company
* ''Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot'' (1983)
* ''Norby's Other Secret'' (1984)
* ''Norby and the Lost Princess'' (1985)
* ''Norby and the Invaders'' (1985)
* ''Norby and the Queen's Necklace'' (1986)
* ''Norby Finds a Villain'' (1987)
* ''Norby Down to Earth'' (1988)
* ''Norby and Yobo's Great Adventure'' (1989)
* ''Norby and the Oldest Dragon'' (1990)
* ''Norby and the Court Jester'' (1991)
Novels not part of a series
Novels marked with an asterisk (*) have minor connections to Foundation universe, ''Foundation'' universe.
* ''The End of Eternity'' (1955), Doubleday (*)
* ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), Bantam Books (paperback) and
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
(hardback) (a novelization of the movie)
* '' The Gods Themselves'' (1972), Doubleday
* ''Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain'' (1987), Doubleday (not a sequel to ''Fantastic Voyage,'' but a similar, independent story)
* ''Nemesis (Asimov), Nemesis'' (1989), Bantam Doubleday Dell (*)
* '' Nightfall'' (1990), Doubleday, with
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Gran ...
(based on "Nightfall", a 1941 short story written by Asimov)
* ''Child of Time'' (1992), Bantam Doubleday Dell, with Robert Silverberg (based on "The Ugly Little Boy", a 1958 short story written by Asimov)
* ''
The Positronic Man
''The Positronic Man'' is a 1992 novel by American writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette "The Bicentennial Man".
It is about a robot that begins to display characteristics, such as creativity, tradition ...
'' (1992), Bantam Doubleday Dell, with Robert Silverberg (*) (based on ''
The Bicentennial Man
''The Bicentennial Man'' is a novelette in the ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same ...
'', a 1976 novella written by Asimov)
Short-story collections
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Mysteries
Novels
* ''The Death Dealers'' (1958), Avon Books, republished as ''A Whiff of Death'' by Walker & Company
* ''Murder at the ABA'' (1976), Doubleday, also published as ''Authorized Murder''
Short-story collections
= Black Widowers series
=
* ''Tales of the Black Widowers'' (1974), Doubleday
* ''
More Tales of the Black Widowers
''More Tales of the Black Widowers'' is a collection of mystery short stories by American author Isaac Asimov, featuring his fictional club of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in October 1976 ...
'' (1976), Doubleday
* ''Casebook of the Black Widowers'' (1980), Doubleday
* ''Banquets of the Black Widowers'' (1984), Doubleday
* ''Puzzles of the Black Widowers'' (1990), Doubleday
* ''The Return of the Black Widowers'' (2003), Carroll & Graf
= Other mysteries
=
* ''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968), Doubleday
* ''The Key Word and Other Mysteries'' (1977), Walker
* ''The Union Club Mysteries'' (1983), Doubleday
* ''The Disappearing Man and Other Mysteries'' (1985), Walker
* ''The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov'' (1986), Doubleday
Nonfiction
Popular science
=Collections of Asimov's essays for ''F&SF''
=
The following books collected essays which were originally published as monthly columns in ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...
'' and collected by Doubleday (publisher), Doubleday & Co
# ''Fact and Fancy'' (1962)
# ''View from a Height'' (1963)
# ''Adding a Dimension'' (1964)
# ''Of Time and Space and Other Things'' (1965)
# ''From Earth to Heaven'' (1966)
# ''Science, Numbers, and I'' (1968)
# ''The Solar System and Back'' (1970)
# ''The Stars in Their Courses'' (1971)
# ''The Left Hand of the Electron'' (1972)
# ''The Tragedy of the Moon'' (1973)
# ''Asimov On Astronomy'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1974)
# ''Asimov On Chemistry'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1974)
# ''Of Matters Great and Small'' (1975)
# ''Asimov On Physics'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1976)
# ''The Planet That Wasn't'' (1976)
# ''Asimov On Numbers'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1976)
# ''Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright'' (1977)
# ''The Road to Infinity'' (1979)
# ''The Sun Shines Bright (book), The Sun Shines Bright'' (1981)
# ''Counting the Eons'' (1983)
# ''X Stands for Unknown'' (1984)
# ''The Subatomic Monster'' (1985)
# ''Far as Human Eye Could See'' (1987)
# ''The Relativity of Wrong'' (1988)
# ''Asimov on Science: A 30 Year Retrospective 1959–1989'' (1989) (features the first essay in the introduction)
# ''Out of the Everywhere'' (1990)
# ''The Secret of the Universe'' (1991)
=Other general science essay collections
=
* ''Only a Trillion'' (1957), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''Is Anyone There?'' (1967), Doubleday, (which includes the article in which he coined the term "spome")
* ''Today and Tomorrow and—'' (1973), Doubleday
* ''Science Past, Science Future'' (1975), Doubleday,
* ''Please Explain'' (1975), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Life and Time'' (1978), Doubleday
* ''The Roving Mind'' (1983), Prometheus Books, new edition 1997,
* ''The Dangers of Intelligence'' (1986), Houghton Mifflin
* ''Past, Present and Future'' (1987), Prometheus Books,
* ''The Tyrannosaurus Prescription'' (1989), Prometheus Books
* ''Frontiers'' (1990), Dutton
* ''Frontiers II'' (1993), Dutton
=Other science books by Asimov
=
* ''The Chemicals of Life (book), The Chemicals of Life'' (1954), Abelard-Schuman
* ''Inside the Atom'' (1956), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''Building Blocks of the Universe'' (1957; revised 1974), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''The World of Carbon (book), The World of Carbon'' (1958), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''The World of Nitrogen (book), The World of Nitrogen'' (1958), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''Words of Science and the History Behind Them'' (1959),
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
* ''The Clock We Live On (book), The Clock We Live On'' (1959), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''Breakthroughs in Science'' (1959), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Realm of Numbers'' (1959), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Realm of Measure'' (1960), Houghton Mifflin
* ''The Wellsprings of Life'' (1960), Abelard-Schuman,
* ''Life and Energy'' (1962), Doubleday,
* ''The Genetic Code'' (1962), The Orion Press
* ''The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation'' (1963), Houghton Mifflin, , (revised)
* ''The Human Brain: Its Capacities and Functions (book), The Human Brain: Its Capacities and Functions'' (1963), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Planets for Man'' (with Stephen H. Dole) (1964), Random House, reprinted by RAND in 2007
* ''An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule'' (1965), Houghton Mifflin,
* '' The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'' (1965), Basic Books
** The title varied with each of the four editions, the last being ''Asimov's New Guide to Science'' (1984)
* ''The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar (book), The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar'' (1966), Walker,
* ''The Neutrino (book), The Neutrino'' (1966), Doubleday, ASIN B002JK525W
* ''Understanding Physics Vol. I, Motion, Sound, and Heat'' (1966), Walker,
* ''Understanding Physics Vol. II, Light, Magnetism, and Electricity'' (1966), Walker,
* ''Understanding Physics Vol. III, The Electron, Proton, and Neutron'' (1966), Walker,
* ''Photosynthesis (book), Photosynthesis'' (1969), Basic Books,
* ''Our World in Space (book), Our World in Space'' (1974), New York Graphic,
* ''Eyes on the Universe: A History of the Telescope'' (1976), Andre Deutsch Limited,
* ''The Collapsing Universe (book), The Collapsing Universe'' (1977), Walker,
* ''Extraterrestrial Civilizations'' (1979), Crown,
* ''A Choice of Catastrophes'' (1979), Simon & Schuster,
* ''Visions of the Universe'' with illustrations by Kazuaki Iwasaki (1981), Cosmos Store,
* ''Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos'' (1982), Crown,
* ''The Measure of the Universe'' (1983), Harper & Row
* ''Think About Space: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?'' with co-author Frank White (1989), Walker
* ''Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery'' (1989), Harper & Row, second edition adds content thru 1993,
* ''Beginnings: The Story of Origins'' (1989), Walker
* ''Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space'' (1991), Random House,
* ''Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos'' (1991), Dutton,
* ''Mysteries of Deep Space: Quasars, Pulsars and Black Holes'' (1994)
* ''Earth's Moon (Asimov), Earth's Moon'' (1988), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2003 by Richard Hantula
* ''The Sun (Asimov), The Sun'' (1988), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2003 by Richard Hantula
* ''The Earth (Asimov), The Earth'' (1988), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2004 by Richard Hantula
* ''Jupiter (Asimov), Jupiter'' (1989), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2004 by Richard Hantula
* ''Venus (Asimov), Venus'' (1990), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2004 by Richard Hantula
Literary works
All published by Doubleday
* ''
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare
''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' (1970) by Isaac Asimov is a two-volume guide to the works of the celebrated English writer William Shakespeare. The numerous maps were drafted by the artist Rafael Palacios.
Structure
The work gives a short gu ...
'', vols I and II (1970),
* ''Asimov's Annotated "Don Juan (Byron), Don Juan"'' (1972)
* ''Asimov's Annotated "Paradise Lost"'' (1974)
* ''Familiar Poems, Annotated'' (1976)
* ''Asimov's The Annotated "Gulliver's Travels"'' (1980)
* ''Asimov's Annotated "
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
"'' (1988)
The Bible
* ''Words from Genesis'' (1962),
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
* ''Words from the Exodus'' (1963), Houghton Mifflin
* ''
Asimov's Guide to the Bible
''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'' is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes in 1968 and 1969, covering the Old Testament and the New Testament (including the Catholic Old Testament, or deuterocanonical, books (see Catholic ...
'', vols I and II (1967 and 1969, one-volume ed. 1981), Doubleday,
* ''The Story of Ruth'' (1972), Doubleday,
* ''In the Beginning'' (1981), Crown
Autobiography
* ''In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954'' (1979, Doubleday)
* ''In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978'' (1980, Doubleday)
* ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994, Doubleday)
* '' It's Been a Good Life'' (2002, Prometheus Books), condensation of Asimov's three volumes of autobiography, edited by his widow, Janet Asimov, Janet Jeppson Asimov
History
All published by
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
except where otherwise stated
* ''The Kite That Won the Revolution'' (1963),
* ''The Greeks'' (1965)
* ''The Roman Republic'' (1966)
* ''The Roman Empire'' (1967)
* ''The Egyptians'' (1967)
* ''The Near East'' (1968)
* ''The Dark Ages'' (1968)
* ''Words from History'' (1968)
* ''The Shaping of England'' (1969)
* ''Constantinople: The Forgotten Empire'' (1970)
* ''The Land of Canaan'' (1971)
* ''The Shaping of France'' (1972)
* ''The Shaping of North America: From Earliest Times to 1763'' (1973)
* ''The Birth of the United States: 1763–1816'' (1974)
* ''Our Federal Union: The United States from 1816 to 1865'' (1975),
* ''The Golden Door: The United States from 1865 to 1918'' (1977)
* ''
Asimov's Chronology of the World
''Asimov's Chronology of the World'' is a 1991 book by Isaac Asimov, in which the author explains in chronological order important events that happened from the Big Bang until the end of World War II. Each chapter covers a certain time period. T ...
'' (1991), HarperCollins,
* ''The March of the Millennia'' (1991), with co-author Frank White, Walker & Company,
Humor
* ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'' (1971) (As Dr. A), Walker & Company,
* ''Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor'' (1971),
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
* ''
Lecherous Limericks
''Lecherous Limericks'' is the first of several compilations of dirty limerick (poetry), limericks by celebrated author Isaac Asimov (1920–1992). The book contains 100 limericks. The first limerick in the collection is:
Asimov comments i ...
'' (1975), Walker,
* ''More Lecherous Limericks'' (1976), Walker,
* ''Still More Lecherous Limericks'' (1977), Walker,
* ''Limericks, Two Gross'', with John Ciardi (1978), Norton,
* ''A Grossery of Limericks'', with
John Ciardi
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
Opus 100
''Opus 100'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin on 16 October 1969. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his hundredth book by writing about his previous 99 books, includin ...
'' (1969), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology'' (1964), Doubleday (revised edition 1972, )
* ''
Opus 200
''Opus 200'' is Isaac Asimov's joint two-hundredth book, along with his autobiography ''In Memory Yet Green'' (both books were published on the same day, following his 199th book). It was published by Houghton Mifflin in March 1979. Asimov chose to ...
'' (1979), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts'' (1979), Grosset & Dunlap,
* ''
Opus 300
''Opus 300'' is a collection by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States in 1984, and by Robert Hale Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1985. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his ...
'' (1984), Houghton Mifflin,
* ''Our Angry Earth: A Ticking Ecological Bomb'' (1991), with co-author Frederik Pohl, Tor, .
Television, music, and film appearances
* ''I Robot (album), I Robot'', a concept album by the Alan Parsons Project that examined some of Asimov's work
* ''The Last Word'' (1959)
* ''The Dick Cavett Show'', four appearances 1968–71
* ''The Nature of Things'' (1969)
* ABC News coverage of Apollo 11, 1969, with Fred Pohl, interviewed by Rod Serling
* David Frost interview program, August 1969. Frost asked Asimov if he had ever tried to find God and, after some initial evasion, Asimov answered, "God is much more intelligent than I am—let him try to find me."
* BBC Horizon "It's About Time" (1979), show hosted by Dudley Moore
* ''Target ... Earth?'' (1980)
* ''The David Letterman Show'' (1980)
* NBC TV ''Speaking Freely'', interviewed by Edwin Newman (1982)
* ARTS Network talk show hosted by Studs Terkel and Calvin Trillin, approximately (1982)
* ''Oltre New York'' (1986)
* ''Voyage to the Outer Planets and Beyond'' (1986)
* ''Gandahar (film), Gandahar'' (1987), a French animated science-fiction film by René Laloux. Asimov wrote the English translation for the film.
*
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
interview (1988)
* ''Stranieri in America'' (1988)
Adaptations
* Several of his stories ("The Dead Past", "Sucker Bait", "Satisfaction Guaranteed (short story), Satisfaction Guaranteed", "Reason (short story), Reason", " Liar!", and "
The Naked Sun
''The Naked Sun'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his ''Robot'' series. Like its predecessor, '' The Caves of Steel'', this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after bein ...
") were adapted as television plays for the first three series of the science-fiction (later horror) anthology series ''Out of the Unknown'' between 1965 and 1969. Only ''The Dead Past'' and ''Sucker Bait'' (both from series one) are known to still exist entirely as 16mm telerecordings. Tele-snaps, brief audio recordings and video clips exist for ''Satisfaction Guaranteed'' and ''The Prophet'' (adapted from "Reason"), while only production stills, brief audio recordings and video clips exist for ''Liar!''. Production stills and an almost complete audio recording exist for ''The Naked Sun''.
* ''El robot embustero'' (1966), short film directed by Antonio Lara de Gavilán, based on short story " Liar!"
* ''A halhatatlanság halála'' (1977), TV movie directed by András Rajnai, based on novel ''The End of Eternity''
* ''The Ugly Little Boy'' (1977), short film directed by Barry Morse and Donald W. Thompson, based on novelette ''The Ugly Little Boy''
* ''All the Troubles of the World'' (1978), short film directed by Dianne Haak-Edson, based on short story "All the Troubles of the World"
* ''The End of Eternity (film), The End of Eternity'' (1987), film directed by Andrei Yermash, based on novel ''The End of Eternity''
* ''Nightfall (1988 film), Nightfall'' (1988), film directed by Paul Mayersberg, based on novelette "Nightfall"
* ''Robots (1988 film), Robots'' (1988), film directed by Doug Smith and Kim Takal, based on the ''Robot'' series
* ''Feeling 109'' (1988), short film directed by Richard Kletter, based on a story of Asimov
* ''Teach 109'' (1989), TV movie directed by Richard Kletter, based on a story of Asimov (the same as ''The Android Affair'')
* ''The Android Affair'' (1995), TV movie directed by Richard Kletter, based on a story of Asimov (the same as ''Teach 109'')
* '' Bicentennial Man'' (1999), film directed by Chris Columbus (filmmaker), Chris Columbus, based on novelette "
The Bicentennial Man
''The Bicentennial Man'' is a novelette in the ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same ...
" and on novel ''
The Positronic Man
''The Positronic Man'' is a 1992 novel by American writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette "The Bicentennial Man".
It is about a robot that begins to display characteristics, such as creativity, tradition ...
''
* ''Nightfall (2000 film), Nightfall'' (2000), film directed by Gwyneth Gibby, based on novelette "Nightfall"
* ''
I, Robot
''I, Robot'' is a fixup (compilation) novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' be ...
'' (2004), film directed by Alex Proyas, based on ideas of short stories of the ''Robot'' series
* ''Formula of Death'' (2012), TV movie directed by Behdad Avand Amini, based on novel ''The Death Dealers''
* ''Spell My Name with an S'' (2014), short film directed by Samuel Ali, based on short story "
Spell My Name with an S
"Spell My Name with an S" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the January 1958 (and only) issue of ''Star Science Fiction'' under the title "S as in Zebatinsky", and was reprinted in the ...
"
* ''Foundation (TV series), Foundation'' (2021), series created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman, based on the ''
Foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
'' series
Novelizations
* Novel ''Fantastic Voyage'', novelization of film ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966)
References
Explanatory footnotes
Citations
General and cited sources
* Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979), New York: Avon, .
: ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980), New York: Avon .
: ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994), (hc), (pb).
: ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'' (1996), edited by Stanley Asimov. New York: Doubleday .
: ''It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), edited by Janet Asimov. .
* Goldman, Stephen H., "Isaac Asimov", in ''Dictionary of Literary Biography,'' Vol. 8, Cowart and Wymer eds. (Gale Research, 1981), pp. 15–29.
* Gunn, James. "On Variations on a Robot", ''Asimov's Science Fiction, IASFM'', July 1980, pp. 56–81.
: ''Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction'' (1982). .
: ''The Science of Science-Fiction Writing'' (2000). .
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Further reading
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External links
Asimov Online a vast repository of information about Asimov, maintained by Asimov enthusiast Edward Seiler
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Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov reviews of all of Asimov's books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asimov, Isaac
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