Isaac Asimov 1920 - 1992
The Essential SF Library -- 100 Writers To Read Before You Die # 2
A Russian-born writer of Golden Age Science Fiction whose novels such as I, Robot and The Bicentennial Man have been filmed with Will Smith and Robin Williams.
Isaac Asimov was born on January 2nd, 1920, although he admitted to suspecting that he may have been born in 1919, due to differences between the Gregorianis parents immigrated to the US when he was three and Hebrew calendars, and a lack of records. H
Much of his character was established by his upbringing, as Asimov noted, first in his notes to Before the Golden Age, his anthology of 1930s Science Fiction, and later in The Early Asimov, his collection of his earliest stories.
Their tiny apartment was overcrowded, and Isaac credited the frequent interruptions with his ability to write anywhere. His parents ran a candy store that sold pulp magazines, and it was here that young Isaac developed his taste for science fiction, while their ethos of hard work being led to his prolific output. Isaac admitted that he loved enclosed spaces and loathed to fly, characteristics that he used in his depiction of his detective Lije Bailey.
His first story, ‘Marooned off Vesta’ was published in Amazing Stories for March 1939. Many of the classic stories that made up the Foundation Trilogy and I, Robot appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in the 1940s, as did ‘Nightfall,’ Asimov’s novelette that was voted the greatest story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
The early 1950s were golden ones for Asimov; his first novel Pebble in the Sky was published in 1950, an earlier version having been written for and rejected by Startling Stories. The revision to the rejection was picked up by Doubleday, the start of a long association.
Earlier that same year Gnome Press published the fix-up novel of I, Robot; little of that sequence was retained for the film starring Will Smith, and the reader should treat them as two stories sharing only a title.
In 1951, Gnome Press also published Foundation, which they followed in consecutive years with Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. In 1967, Asimov received his first Hugo award for fiction, as the Foundation trilogy was voted “best all-time series.”
1951 also saw the publication by Doubleday of The Stars, Like Dust, another ‘Trantorian Empire’ novel continuing the series started by Pebble in the Sky. The sequence was completed the following year with The Currents of Space.
Asimov’s golden years were rounded off by the appearance of his novella ‘The Martian Way,’ which appeared in the November 1952 issue of Galaxy, and the following year the same magazine serialized his novel The Caves of Steel.
The Caves of Steel is a mystery featuring Lije Bayley, human, and his robot counterpart, R. Daneel Olivaw. The title is drawn from a reference to the extended, enclosed urbanizations of the future, when Earth is covered by one giant megapolis. A sequel, The Naked Sun, was published in 1957, and was to be Asimov’s last major novel for fifteen years.
Asimov spent little time on SF in the 1960s. A short story for the fifteenth anniversary of Galaxy, and the novelisation of the film Fantastic Voyage were his major achievements, but paled compared to earlier works.
After his triumphant return with The Gods Themselves, Asimov then returned to his robot stories with the Hugo and Nebula Award winning novelette ‘The Bicentennial Man,’ later filmed with Robin Williams.
Asimov won another Hugo for his 1982 novel Foundation’s Edge, marking a return to the series of thirty years earlier, and the following year he published The Robots of Dawn, seeing the return of Bayley and Oilvaw. In 1985, he began to link his various series through Robots and Empire.
Asimov died in 1992, of HIV caused by infected blood infused in an earlier heart bypass operation.
