I, Robot
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Welcome to Big Bill's
Stuff!
(He wrote "Fantastic Voyage", don't you know!)
If you were to take a census amongst non-SF readers to name a science-fiction writer, the chances are that you'd end up with a two-horse race. Without conducting such a survey, I could still guarantee that the two names heading the list would be Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. There would certainly be other names on the list, but these two are far and above the best-known science-fiction writers in the world. We'll leave Arthur Clarke for another day and this time concentrate on that prolific powerhouse, Isaac Asimov.
Isaac Asimov - and do please note the spelling: it's not Issac or Azimov, as has so often appeared in print, even on his stories - must be ranked among the world's most prolific writers. His book total now exceeds 300 (and this was written in 1986 - BB).
Recently he's taken to co-editing a range of science-fiction and fantasy anthologies which helps shortcut the process, but his output is no less impressive for that. The bulk of his books are non-fiction, dealing with subjects ranging through all of the physical sciences and on to and including geography, mythology, history and the Bible, Shakespeare and even such titles as "The Sensuous Dirty Old man" (Walker, 1971) and "Lecherous Limericks" (Walker, 1975).
But it was as a SF writer that Isaac Asimov first came to fame, and how he is best known today, and it's this career that I would like to concentrate on.
Although now an American national, Isaac Asimov was Russian by birth. He was born in the village of Petrovitch near Smolensk on January 2nd 1920. At least, that's the day he celebrates, although the exact date was never recorded. It is further confused by the period when Russia was at last phasing out the old Julian calendar and adopting the Gregorian. Perhaps it was all this that gave Isaac Asimov his fascination for dates and his delight in recording facts.
The Asimovs emigrated to America in 1923. After a variety
of jobs, Isaac Asimov's father established a small confectionery
and newsagents - remembered affectionately as 'the candy store'.
It was through this store that young Isaac Asimov, who had
already become aware of the pulp magazines, and in particular the
'gosh-wow-wonder' of the SF pulps published by Hugo Gernsback,
such as 'Amazing Stories' and later 'Wonder Stories'. Isaac
Asimov totally fell in love with science fiction and was soon
trying to write it. He discovered SF fandom and became a member
of the astonishing fan group known as the Futurians. This
included such future writers and editors as Frederik Pohl, Cyril
Kornbluth, James Blish and Daniel Wollheim, and has to be
regarded as one of the most talented of all SF groups.
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The leading science fiction magazine of the mid-thirties (and for the next two decades) was 'Astounding Stories' (later 'Astounding Science Fiction' and later still 'Analog'). In 1938 'Astounding' had a new editor in the shape of John W. Campbell, JR. and Isaac Asimov has never stinted in his praise of how Campbell encouraged him as a writer: "my literary father" he calls him in the first volume of his autobiography, "In Memory Yet Green" (Doubleday, 1979). Nevertheless, Campbell had to have something to work with and Isaac Asimov was a born writer. The need to express himself in writing on any subject flowed naturally and the ability to express himself personably attracted a ready readership. It only needed someone in authority to briefly hold the reins on the exuberant youth, to steer a natural writer into a professional one.
By chance Isaac Asimov's first fiction sale was not to Campbell. He had sent a manuscript already rejected by Campbell to 'Amazing Stories'. "Marooned off Vesta", a rather straightforward scientific problem story, appeared in the March 1939 issue, and thus launched Isaac Asimov the writer. Isaac Asimov, however, would not feel he had been really launched until he had sold to Campbell, and it would be six months after his first sale before Campbell bought "Trends", which was published in the July 1939 'Astounding'.
Isaac Asimov had made it. Although he contributed to many other SF magazines during the 1940s, it was his stories in 'Astounding' that established him and in doing so contributed towards the creation of modern science fiction.
From those early days Isaac Asimov rapidly established an
enviable reputation and there were three areas specially his own.
Firstly, if Isaac Asimov is known for anything by the non-SF
reader, it is for his robot stories. He is even credited with
having coined the term 'robotics'. It was Isaac Asimov who
formulated the three laws of robotics (although he claims they
were Campbell's idea) which now seem so central to any
consideration of artificial intelligence. The story that really
started the series was "Reason" ('Astounding' April 1941)
followed rapidly by "Liar!" (May, 1941) and "Runaround" (March
1942). The early robot stories were later collected together in
Isaac Asimov's second book, "I, Robot" (1950).
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At the time the robot series was taking shape, Campbell asked Isaac Asimov, "What do you think would happen if men were to see the stars for the first time in a thousand years?" "I don't know", Isaac Asimov replied blankly. "I think they would go mad," Campbell returned. "I want you to write a story about that."
And Isaac Asimov went home and wrote "Nightfall". Published
in 'Astounding' in September 1941, it has since gone down in the
annals of science fiction as the best SF story ever written. Even
Isaac Asimov, not known for his modesty, regards this as an
exaggeration and it is, of course, absurd to be absolute. But
it's one of those stories that history has done its best to
elevate, and the reality has long since lost out to the
legend.
Isaac Asimov now posed an idea to Campbell: that of the fall of a Galactic Empire and its subsequent revival. Campbell enthused and Isaac Asimov wrote "Foundation" ('Astounding' May 1942). Thus appeared the first of Isaac Asimov's continuing foundation series. They all appeared in 'Astounding' during the 1940s and were at length published in book form by Gnome Press in three volumes as "Foundation" (1951), Foundation and Empire" (152) and "Second Foundation" (1953). The books have been known ever since as "The Foundation Trilogy" (and were collected as such by Doubleday NY in 1963). But it was never planned as a trilogy and, as it stood, the sequence was unfinished. By the time the books appeared, Isaac Asimov had grown tired of the series. Even when they won a retrospective Hugo award at the 1966 world Science fiction convention as the Best All-Time series, Isaac Asimov still could not be cajoled into continuing it. It would be thirty years before he returned to the now classic books and, at the insistence of his publisher, completed "Foundation's Edge" in 1982. It became an instant best-seller and went on to win the 1983 Hugo award as best novel.
Whilst it is gratifying to a young writer to achieve such greatness when barely into his twenties in time it becomes a considerable yoke to bear, especially when so many people consider that his best work was done at this time. But Isaac Asimov was not content to rest on the success of his early work. Quite simply, he is never content to rest at all. His first book appeared in 1950. Originally written in 1947 as a lead novel for another pulp but not published due to a policy change, "Pebble in the Sky" was also the start of Isaac Asimov's long association with Doubleday & Co. It is not the most collectable of his books, though.. that honour falls to the early Gnome Press editions.
Gnome Press was one of a small umber of publishing houses run by SF fans that flourished in America in the post-war years, when demobbed fans invested their GI funds. Martin Greenberg and David Kyle (an ex-Futurian) formed Gnome Press in 1948 and it had become reasonably well established when they selected "I, Robot" as their ninth book. It was published in an edition of 5,000 copies, with a special run of 1,000 copies as an army paperback. This is far more attractive to collectors than Isaac Asimov's first book.
It was also Gnome Press that brought out the three foundation volumes. Astonishingly these three editions fetched $950 at an auction in 1983, although most catalogues listed them at around $200 each. Interestingly "Foundation's Edge" appeared not only in a trade cloth edition from Doubleday, but also in a special limited edition of 1,000 copies from Whispers Press, one of the many small press publishers now proliferating in the States. All four Foundation books are thus available in small press editions.
In 1951 Isaac Asimov began a series of science fiction novels for young readers, recounting the adventures of David 'Lucky' Starr. Originally hoping to have a television tie-in (which never occurred) Isaac Asimov opted for the books to appear pseudonymously, and thus the first editions (and some of the reprints) bore the name of Paul French. All published by Doubleday, the series began with "David Starr: Space Ranger" (1952).
1952 also saw Isaac Asimov's name on his first non-fiction book, "Biochemistry and Human Metabolism" (Williams & Wilkins), a text book for medical students written with Burnham S. Walker and William C. Boyd. His first solo non-fiction book, "The Chemicals of Life" appeared from Abelard-Schuman in 1956.
Back in the fiction field Isaac Asimov now turned an eye to the mystery genre. Horace Gold, the editor of 'Galaxy' asked Isaac Asimov for a robot novel. Isaac Asimov was none too smitten with the idea, having hitherto written only robot short stories, but at length he capitulated, and the result was "The Caves of Steel" (1954). "What pleased me most about "The Caves of Steel" ", Isaac Asimov would later write, "was that it was pure murder mystery set against a science fiction background. As far as I was concerned it was a perfect fusion of the two genres, and the first such perfect fusion."
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To many, Isaac Asimov's robot mystery novels are his most satisfactory and accomplished works. The first was followed by "The Naked Sun" (1957), but after that other commitments intervened and enthusiasm flagged. It would be twenty-five years before he completed the third robot novel, "The Robots of Dawn" (1983). This also went on to become a best seller and has been regarded by many as Isaac Asimov's best novel. Since then he has managed to produce a further novel linking together the relatively near future world of the robots and the distant world of Foundation in "Robots and Empire" (1985).
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Between these books Isaac Asimov wrote a number of non-SF mystery novels starting with "The Death Dealers" (1958). His short mystery tales about the Black Widowers began being collected into book form with "Tales of the Black Widowers" (1974). Isaac Asimov has also progressively collected together all of his short SF work into book form, the stories interlinked by his delightful egotistical chatter, starting with "The Early Asimov" (1972).
The pressure of his non-fiction writing meant that by 1960 Isaac Asimov was writing less and less SF. One odd exception arose in 1966 when he agreed to write the novelisation of the film "Fantastic Voyage" (1966) which had stared Donald Pleasance and Raquel Welch. It does not strictly classify as an original Isaac Asimov novel, although he did not follow the film's screenplay but rather the original story outline by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. Isaac Asimov did not return to full length SF until 1972 with probably his most ambitious novel "The Gods themselves" (1972), which went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards as best novel.
Many of the statistics relating to Isaac Asimov are impressive. Apart from the sheer volume of his output, he also contributed a regular monthly science column to the 'Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'. It first appeared in November 1958 and is now in its twenty-eight year (remember, this was 1986 - BB) with over 330 essays published. The October 1966 edition of that magazine was a special Isaac Asimov issue.
Isaac Asimov is also the only living writer in the SF world with a magazine named after him. 'Isaac Asimov's Science fiction Magazine' appeared in December 1976 (dated Spring 1977) and rapidly became the best selling SF magazine, overtaking the then field leader, 'Analog'. 'Analog' was the name by which, since 1960, 'Astounding' had been known, so the magazine that had nurtured Isaac Asimov in his youth, now had to make way for the Master.
In 1983, Isaac Asimov underwent a triple bypass heart
operation. He survived it "with all flags flying", as he
reported, and is now writing more SF than ever, intending to
write at least three more Foundation novels to form a complete
sixteen book sequence from "I, Robot" to the latest, "Foundation
and Earth" (working title), in progress as this article is
written (this was back in 1986 - if anyone has more up to date
information, please let me know; BB). It needs a dedicated
collector to acquire every one of Isaac Asimov's books, but a
library of his fiction alone will present the collector with much
of the best of that genre.
A brief word on how this works. If you click on any of the links below, you'll be taken to the page at Amazon.com/.co.uk where you can buy the book. Because you've linked to there from my site, I get commission on the sale. It's not a lot, but it helps to keep this and my other sites afloat.
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Where can you get all those old, out of print books? Here!
You might wonder, in these the days of Digg, Wikis and About.com, why I bother listing these links to Isaac Asimov resources.
It's because sometimes you'll learn more by NOT simply following the crowd.
http://www.angelfire.com/wy/year2001/
http://www.allscifi.com/Topic.asp?TopicID=12
http://perso.orange.fr/monot.jc/divers/accueil.htm
http://www.abelard.org/asimov.htm
http://www.hycyber.com/SF/asimov_isaac.html
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/asimov.htm
http://www.geocities.com/ckmer/
http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/cafe/html/reviews/robot.htm
http://kaedrin.com/fun/asimov/asimov.html
This article was taken from one written by Mike Ashley in the December 1986 edition of Book and Magazine Collector magazine.
Philip K Dick Isaac Asimov Edith Wharton Angela Brazil
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