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Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) - psedonym Paul French |
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Highly prolific American writer, one of the three grand masters of science fiction with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. For five decades Isaac Asimov was one of the central figures of science fiction. His popular books include Nightfall (1941), Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), Second Foundation (1953), The Caves of Steel (1954), The End of Eternity (1955), The Naked Sun (1957), and The Gods Themselves (1972), which won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. "I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got out of the public library. For an impoverished child whose family could not afford to buy books, the library was the open door to wonder and achievement, and I can never be sufficiently grateful that I had the wit to charge through that door and make the most of it." (from I. Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov, 1995, p. 29) Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, the son of Judah Asimov
and Anna Rachel Berman Asimov. His father was educated within the
limits of Orthodox Judaism, but religion did not play a central role in
Isaac's childhood. "He didn't even bother to have me bar mitzvahed at
the ago of thirteen," Asimov remarked later. (I. Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov, 1995, p. 12) Judah
Asimov was well read
in Russian literature, but especially he loved Sholem Aleichem's
Yiddish stories. During World War I he served in the Russian Army. In
1923 the family moved to the United States, and settled in New York.
Before opening a sweet-shop, Judah took odd jobs to support his family,
and along the way learned to speak English. When he retired to Florida,
he became
Orthodox again. Asimov himself never learned Russian, and the culture
of his parents' native country remained him distant. Nevertheless, in
1962 the Collier Books asked him to write an introduction to the
collection of stories by Soviet science fiction writers. Other
collections followed. "Obviously, there is
such a thing as Soviet science firction. Now, with the wisdom of
hindsight, we can see that it had to be so and that the Soviet
condemnation of science fiction could only have been intended for American science fiction." (Asimov on Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, 1984, pp. 186-187) Asimov could read before he entered the first grade. Moreover, he had "a near-photographic memory." At school Asimov finished books in a few days. His father got him a library card, but did not supervise the books his son read. A classic "bookworm", Asimov devoured early works on Greek mythology, the Iliad, William Shakespeare plays, history books, all kinds of miscellaneous reading. One library was not enough - he used to go to every one within reach. After leaving Boys High School in Brooklyn, an elite school in those days, Asimov studied chemistry at Columbia University, New York, where he graduated in 1939 and received his M.A. in 1941. In 1942 Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman; they had two children. The marriage was not easy -
"sex didn't work out too well", recalled Asimov, "with neither of us
possessing experience." (I. Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov, 1995, p. 106) She also smoked. During WW II Asimov worked in
the US Naval Air Experimental Station alongside such science fiction
writers as L. Sprague de Camp, who, according to Asimov, had "something
very British about his appearance", and Robert A. Heinlein, who made
Asimov feel "particularly gauche" with his courtly way. Asimov's
relationship with Heinlein became later somewhat strained. He believed
that Heinlein, a liberal during the war, adopted "rock-ribbed far-right
conservative" attitudes afterwards under the influence of his wife. At
the NAES Asimov remained from 1942 to 1945. After the end of the war
Asimov served in the army as a corporal -
he received his draft notice in September 1945. Asimov served eight
months and twenty-six days. In 1948 he received his Ph. in
biochemistry from Columbia University. Asimov's pseudo-dissertation,
'The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline', was
published in 1948 in Astounding Science Fiction. In 1949 Asimov joined the Boston University School of Medicine,
where he was made an associate professor of biochemistry in 1955. Although Asimov was one of the best lecturers at the university, after 1958 he taught only from time to time. Research did not interest him much. "As far as I know, not a single research paper to which my name was attached ever proved of the slightest importance," Asimov said. (I. Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov, 1995, p. 165) He devoted himself to writing and focused mostly on non-fiction, publishing such works as The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science (1960), and books on history and literary topics. Asimov remained an associate professor until 1979, and subsequently held the title of professor. In the wake of the Cold War paranoia about Communism, an
anonymous tipster told the FBI in a letter, that Asimov had been born
in Russia. "Asimov may be quite all right. On the other hand, . . . .
." Moreover, the FBI's Boston office considered the possibility that he
was the Soviet
informant, a microbiologist, codenamed RONPROF. Asimov was a
biochemist and no evidence was found to support this
hypothesis. (Scientists Under Surveillance: The FBI Files, edited by JPat Brown, B. C. D. Lipton, Michael Morisy, 2019) In
the Soviet Union, Asimov was a popular writer, but it was not until his
earlier autobiographic books appeared there, that Asimov began to
receive letters from his Russian relativies. Asimov married in 1973 the writer and psychoanalyst Janet Opal Jeppson. He had met her already in the 1950s. During the following years, Asimov saw her from time to time on his visits to New York. Correspondence with her convinced Asimov that she was the kind of person that suited him perfectly. Janet Jeppson began to publish science fiction in the 1970, most of it for children. Her early works she published under the name J.O. Jeppson. Among her books are The Second Experiment (1974), The Last Immortal (1980), Laughing Space (anthology, 1982), The Mysterious Cure, and Other Stories of Pshrinks Anonymous (1985), and Mind Transfer (1988). For young readers she created in collaboration with Isaac Asimov the Norby Chronicles, which depicted the adventures of a robot. "Since I am an atheist and do not believe that either God or Satan, Heaven or Hell, exists, I can only suppose that when I die, there will only be an eternity of nothingness to follow." (I. Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov, 1995, p. 337) Asimov had in 1977 a heart attack and in 1983 he had triple bypass surgery. Given a blood transfusion, he contracted the HIV virus, which was not discovered until 1990. The doctors adviced against going public on this; Janet Asimov tested negative. The winter of 1989-90 Asimov spent in a hospital due to a congenital weakness of the mitral valve in the heart. In Forward the Foundation (1993) Asimov said farewell to Hari Seldon. Asimov's heart and kidney failure worsened and he died at New York University Hospital on April 6, 1992. Asimov began to write at the age of eleven. When he worked at his father's store, he became interested in pulp magazines, and imitated their language in his early works. At the age of 18 Asimov sold his first story, 'Marooned Off Vesta'. One of the magazines, which printed his tales, was Astounding Science Fiction. It was edited by John W. Campbell Jr, who encouraged and trained many of the field's rising writers. Fredrik Pohl, a few weeks older than Asimov, edited Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories, both of which bought several of Asimov's stories. Asimov's first novel, Pebble in the Sky (1950), was published by Doubleday. The first nonfiction book Asimov wrote for the general public, The Chemicals of Life (1954), was published by Abelard-Schuman. 'Nightfall' (1941), Asimov's breakthrough work, is acclaimed to be the best science
fiction story ever written -
an overstatement of course. The poetic story depicts a world which has
six suns, at least one of which is always shining. The world have
experienced a universal eclipse every two millennia, and lost its
social organization as a result. When the darkness falls the reason for
this cyclical development is revealed: suddenly the thousands of stars
are visible. Most of Asimov's books are pure adventure, and good
entertainment, often giving solutions to all kinds of problems of human
society and technology. Among his most popular works are the Foundation
novels - based very very loosely on Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - and Robot novels and stories. The first Foundation trilogy is perhaps the most impressive of Asimov's achievements. Set in the far future,
the space opera depicts the period between the fall and the rise a new Galactic Empire. Hari Seldon, the mysterious
inventor of psychohistory, has established two Foundations to control this development. The first 'Foundation'
is public and based on the physical sciences. But there is also a second Foundation, which is secret. It copes
with the unknown factors, which Hari Seldon could not have anticipated. The grand scheme is thrown away when
the "Mule", a mutant warlord, comes on the scene to take over the galaxy. Using his ability to manipulate minds by direct
force, the Mule gives history a new direction. According to the science of psychohistory, the behaviour of humans in the mass can be predicted by purely statistical means - if the human conglomerate is unaware of the psychohistoric analysis and act randomly. The third part of the trilogy concerns the efforts of the Second Foundation both to get history back on course and to avoid detection and destruction by the First, which perceives it as a rival. Nathaniel Goldberg has argued that there are similarities between Hari Seldon and Plato's Socrates, who in Republic constructs in theory an ideal city resistant to decay, while Sheldon constructs an ideal galaxy resistant to decay. ('Socrates's City and Seldon's Galaxy' by Nathaniel Goldberg, in Asimov's Foundation and Philosophy: Psychohistory and Its Discontents, edited by Joshua Heter and Josef Thomas Simpson, 2023) Outside this epic future history Asimov wrote The End of Eternity, which examined the paradoxes of time travel. In the 1960s Asimov abandoned science fiction - he felt it had passed beyond him. The "New Wave" was more experimental and radical compared to the Golden Age tradition, but Asimov was one of its representatives whose stories continued to sell well. An extraordinarily prolific and versatile writer, he published science fact, mysteries, histories, short stories, guides to the Bible and Shakespeare, and discussions of myth, humorous books, poems, limericks, as well as annotations of literary works. Despite being outdated in some respects, the three-volume Understanding Physics (1966) and The Collapsing Universe: The Story of the Black Holes (1977) are still useful introductions to their subjects. Asimov returned to novels in 1980s. He started the ambitious project to amalgamate the Robot and Foundation sequences into one huge tale. The new books included Foundation's Edge (1982), The Robots of Dawn (1983), Robots and Empire (1985), Foundation and Earth (1986), Prelude to Foundation (1988), and Forward the Foundation (1993), in which Hari Seldon struggles to create his twin foundations, to preserve human civilization in the future of the Galaxy. In Robots and Empire (1985) R. Daneel Olivaw learns the tricks of telepathy, a step toward the Foundation. The Second Foundations Trilogy was a homage to Asimov's grand vision, beginning with Foundation's Fear (1977) by Gregory Benford, and continuing with Foundation and Chaos (1998) by Greg Bear, and Foundation's Triumph (1999) by David Brin. Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine was founded by Davis Magazines. It started to appear quaterly from 1977, monthly from 1979 and 4-weekly from 1981. IASFM was a success from the start and its stories have won an extraordinary high number of awards. Its title changed in 1992 to Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, when the magazine was sold to a new publisher. The actual editorial work was done first by George Scithers and then by a succession of other editors. Asimov himself contributed a 1,500-word editorial in every issue, and answered letters. Robot stories drew on the Three Laws of
Robotics, a set of programmed instructions, introduced in the 'Liar!'
(1941), about a telepathic robot. Asimov formulated the laws with John
W. Campbell, Jr.: 1) a robot may not injure a human being or, through
inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2) a robot must obey the
orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict
the First Law; 3) a robot must protect its own existence as long as
such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Unlike a number of other writers of his genre, Asimov did not believe that robots are monsters that will destroy their creators. Most of Asimov's Robot stories, collected as I, Robot (1950) and The Rest of the Robots (1964), revolve around various interpretations of his laws of robotics. They are also basis for the novels The Caves of Steel (1954) and The Naked Sun (1957), featuring the detective team of Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw, a humaniform robot. They illustrate the differences and similarities between human and AI thought patterns. Asimov makes fun with Daneel's inability to interpret figurative language. The books were set respectively on an overpopulated Earth and barely populated colony world. Although Asimov authored nearly 500 works, and many of them were
adapted for film and television, he never wrote a screenplay for a
major film. Several attempts were made to adapt Foundation trilogy for the screen.
TriStar Pictures purchased its rights in 1994, but then sold them to New Line. Dennis Feldman was assigned to work on
a script, which would cover the first novel. It was never realized. The first season of the TV series Foundation,
created by Josh Friedman and David S. Goyer, starring Jared Harris
(Hari Seldon), Lou Llobell (Gaal Dornick) and Leah Harvey (Salvor
Hardin), premiered in September 2021. As a fiction writer, Asimov's strength was in his great skill to
develop logically interesting ideas within a dialogue-driven style. Less attention is paid to descriptive details. The
characters approach problems with a rational and logical mindset. "Even
his wizards were logicians; even his dragons obeyed the Laws of
Thermodynamics." ('Introduction' by The Publishers, in Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection by Isaac Asimov, 1996) Critics have noted
that Asimov's Empire resembled "a diagram on a blackboard, not a living, developing entity." (Trillion Year Spree: A History of Science Fiction, by Brian Aldiss with David Wingrove, 2001, p. 457). "I make no effort to write poetically or in a high literary style," Asimov admitted in 1984. "I try only to write clearly and I have the very good fortune to think clearly so that the writing comes out as I think, in satisfactory shape.'' ('Asimov is Celebrating 300th Book's Publication' by Edwin McDowell, The New York Times, December 17, 1984) Usually Asimov sat down at his old Selectronic III IBM typewriter from 7:30 until 10 P.M. - the word processor he used only for the preparation of manuscripts. H Asimov's autobiographies, In Memory Yet Green (1979) and In Joy Still Felt (1980), give a detailed picture of the enormously popular author. I. Asimov (1994) was a collection of vivid sketches of important people and events in his life. Asimov had ended the manuscript with hope that he would see it published before his death. It appeared posthumously. The completed manuscript was edited by Janet Asimov. For further reading: Asimov Analyzed by Neil Goble (1972); The Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov by Joseph F. Patrouch, Jr. (1974); Isaac Asimov, ed. by Joseph D. Olander and Martin H. Greenberg (1977); Asimov: The Foundations of His Science Fiction by George Edgar Slusser (1980); Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction by James Gunn (1982); Isaac Asimov by Jean Fiedler and Jim Mele (1982); St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, ed. by Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast (1999); Trillion Year Spree by Brian Aldiss & David Wingrove (2001); It's Been a Good Life, by Janet Jeppson Asimov (2002); Conversations with Isaac Asimov, edited by Carl Freedman (2005); Notes for a Memoir: on Isaac Asimov, Life, and Writing by Janet Jeppson Asimov (2006); Rhetoric and Representation: Exploring the Cultural Meaning of the Natural Sciences in Contemporary Popular Science Writing and Literature by Juuso Aarnio (dissertation, 2008); An Asimov Companion: Characters, Places and Terms in the Robot/Empire/Foundation Metaseries by Donald E. Palumbo (2016); Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee (2018); Science Fiction and Narrative Form by Andrew Milner, Peter Murphy and David Roberts (2023); Asimov's Foundation and Philosophy: Psychohistory and Its Discontents, edited by Joshua Heter and Josef Thomas Simpson (2023) Selected bibliography / novels, poetry, and short stories:
Memoirs:
Non-fiction and other:
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