Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov in 1956
Born	January 2, 1920 ("Allowing for the uncertainties of the times, of the lack of records, of the Jewish and Julian calendars, it might have been as early as October 4, 1919. Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar A civil registry or population registry is a repository or Database maintained by a State listing Vital statistics about all of its Citizens The Hebrew calendar (הלוח העברי ha'luach ha'ivri) or Jewish calendar is a Lunisolar calendar used by Jews for predominantly religious The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita There is, however, no way of finding out. My parents were always uncertain and it really doesn't matter. I celebrate January 2, 1920, so let it be. ") Petrovichi, RSFSR
Died	April 6, 1992 (aged 72) New York, New York, USA
Occupation	Novelist, Short-story Writer, Essayist, Historian, Biochemist, Textbook Writer, Humorist
Genres	Science fiction (hard SF), popular science, mystery fiction, essays, literary criticism
Literary movement	Golden Age of Science Fiction
Notable work(s)	Foundation Trilogy, Nightfall
Influences Clifford D. Simak, H.G. Wells, Stanley G. Weinbaum

Isaac Asimov (c. Petrovichi (Петро́вичи is a village in Shumyachsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located about 400 kilometers Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato in the Battle of Thapsus Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) The City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms This article is an abbreviated list of Essayists - individuals notable for writing essays on various topics See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms A textbook is a manual of instruction or a standard book in any branch of study A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms A humorist is a person who writes or performs humorous material A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Hard science fiction is a category of Science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail or on scientific accuracy or on both For the 1935-1949 film series see Popular Science (film. Popular Science is an American monthly Magazine founded in 1872 An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. This is a list of modern literary movements: that is movements after the Renaissance. The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized as a period from the late 1930s or early 1940s through to the 1950s was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. " Nightfall " is an influential Science fiction Short story by author Isaac Asimov, about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily Clifford Donald Simak ( August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was a major American Science fiction writer Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 &ndash 13 August 1946 He was an outspoken socialist and a pacifist, his later works becoming increasingly political Stanley Grauman Weinbaum ( April 4, 1902 - December 14, 1935) was a Jewish American Science fiction author January 2, 1920^[1] – April 6, 1992), pronounced /ˈaɪzək ˈæzɪmʌv/,^[2] originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов, was a Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato in the Battle of Thapsus Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living Organisms It deals with the Structure and function of cellular components such as For the 1935-1949 film series see Popular Science (film. Popular Science is an American monthly Magazine founded in 1872

Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards^[3]. A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick Paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an Envelope and His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (all except the 100s, Philosophy). The Dewey Decimal Classification ( DDC, also called the Dewey Decimal System) is a Proprietary system of Library classification developed ^[4]

Asimov is widely considered a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, was considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime. A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (16 December 1917–19 March 2008 was a British Science fiction Author, Inventor, and ^[5] Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series^[6]; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series, both of which he later tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson^[7]. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. The Galactic Empire Series contains three of Isaac Asimov 's earliest Novels and one short story Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of Short stories and Novels Short stories This article focuses on future histories in general For Robert A Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. Cordwainer Smith — pronounced CORDwainer — was the Pseudonym used by American Author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger ( July Poul William Anderson ( November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American Science fiction author who wrote during a Golden He penned numerous short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time, a title many still honor. " Nightfall " is an influential Science fiction Short story by author Isaac Asimov, about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily Science Fiction Writers of America, or SFWA (ˈsɪfwə or /ˈsɛfwə/ was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight. He also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as a great amount of nonfiction. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French. Lucky Starr is the Hero of a series of Science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the Pen name "Paul French" Children's literature is an age category of literature written for published for or marketed to Children roughly through age 12 A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity

Most of Asimov's popularized science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Examples include his Guide to Science, the three volume set Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery.

Asimov was a long-time member and Vice President of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". Mensa is the largest oldest and most famous high-IQ society in the world ^[8] He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association^[9]. The American Humanist Association (AHA is an educational organization in the United States that advances Humanism. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, a Brooklyn, NY elementary school, and two different Isaac Asimov Awards are named in his honor. Asteroids, sometimes called Minor planets or planetoids', are bodies—primarily of the inner Solar System —that are smaller than planets but 5020 Asimov is an Asteroid discovered March 2, 1981 by Schelte J Asimov's Science Fiction (ISSN 1065-2698 is an American Science fiction magazine which publishes Science fiction and Fantasy and Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. Two distinct awards have been named for writer and humanist Isaac Asimov.

Biography

Contents 1 Biography 2 Intellectual positions 3 Writing 3.1 Overview 3.2 Science fiction 3.3 Popular science 3.4 Other writing 3.5 Literary themes 3.6 Awards 4 Criticisms 5 Selected bibliography 5.1 Science fiction 5.1.1 Fantastic Voyage series 5.1.2 "Greater Foundation" series 5.1.3 Lucky Starr series 5.1.4 Norby Chronicles 5.1.5 Novels not part of a series 5.1.6 Short story collections 5.2 Mysteries 5.2.1 Novels 5.2.2 Short story collections 5.2.2.1 Black Widowers series 5.2.3 Other mysteries 5.3 Nonfiction 5.3.1 Popular science 5.3.2 Annotations 5.3.3 Guides 5.3.4 Autobiography 5.3.5 Other nonfiction 6 TV and film appearances 7 References 7.1 Print media 8 Further reading 8.1 Print media 9 External links

Asimov was born sometime between October 4, 1919 and January 2, 1920 in Petrovichi in Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR (now Russia) to Anna Rachel Berman Asimov and Judah Asimov, a Jewish family of millers. Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar Petrovichi (Петро́вичи is a village in Shumyachsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located about 400 kilometers Smolensk Oblast (Смол́енская о́бласть Smolenskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an Oblast) Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ For other uses see Miller (disambiguation A miller usually refers to a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a Cereal His exact date of birth is uncertain because of differences in the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars and a lack of records. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today The Hebrew calendar (הלוח העברי ha'luach ha'ivri) or Jewish calendar is a Lunisolar calendar used by Jews for predominantly religious Asimov himself celebrated it on January 2nd. ^[1] The family name derives from озимые (ozimiye), a Russian word for a winter grain in which his great-grandfather dealt, to which a patronymic suffix was added. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages A patronym, is a component of a Personal name based on the name of one's father

His family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Since his parents always spoke Yiddish and English with him, he never learned Russian. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages ^[10] Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five, and remained fluent in Yiddish as well as English. Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. His parents owned a succession of candy stores, and everyone in the family was expected to work in them. A confectionery store (more commonly referred to as a sweet shop in the United Kingdom or a candy store in the US sells Confectionery and is usually targeted

Science fiction pulp magazines were sold in the stores, and he began reading them. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines Around the age of eleven, he began to write his own stories, and by age nineteen, having discovered science fiction fandom, he was selling them to the science fiction magazines. Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in Science fiction and Fantasy literature, and in contact with one another John W. Campbell, then editor of Astounding Science Fiction, was a strong formative influence and eventually became a personal friend. John Wood Campbell Jr (June 8 1910 – July 11 1971 was an important Science fiction editor and writer Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. ^[11]

Asimov attended New York City Public Schools, including Boys' High School, in Brooklyn, New York. The New York City Department of Education ( NYCDOE) is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system From there he went on to Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1939, eventually returning to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1948. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. In between, he spent three years during World War II working as a civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental Station. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, formerly Navy Yard, was the first Naval shipyard of the United States. After the war ended, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving for just under nine months before receiving an honorable discharge. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. In the course of his brief military career, he rose to the rank of corporal on the basis of his typing skills, and narrowly avoided participating in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and also by some police forces or other uniformed organizations A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an Atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall

After completing his doctorate, Asimov joined the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine, with which he remained associated thereafter. For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. From 1958, this was in a non-teaching capacity, as he turned to writing full-time (his writing income had already exceeded his academic salary). Being tenured meant that he retained the title of associate professor, and in 1979 the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry. Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior Academic 's Contractual right not to have their position terminated The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies Asimov's personal papers from 1965 are archived at the university's Mugar Memorial Library, to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gottlieb. Mugar Memorial Library is the primary library for study teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences for Boston University. Curator (from Latin cura care means manager overseer. A curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e The collection fills 464 boxes, on seventy-one metres of shelf space. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International

Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman (1917, Canada–1990, Boston) on July 26, 1942. They had two children, David (b. 1951) and Robyn Joan (b. Robyn Joan Asimov (born 1955 is the daughter of Isaac Asimov and his first wife Gertrude 1955). After a separation in 1970, he and Gertrude divorced in 1973, and Asimov married Janet O. Jeppson later that year. Janet Asimov (maiden name Janet Opal Jeppson) (born August 6 1926 in Ashland, Pennsylvania) is an American Science fiction Author

Asimov was a claustrophile; he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces^[12]. In the first volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in a New York City Subway station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading. The New York City Subway is a Rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency ^[13]

Asimov was afraid of flying^[14], only doing so twice in his entire life (once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station, and once returning home from the army base in Oahu in 1946)^[14]. Fear of flying is a fear of being on a plane while in flight It is also sometimes referred to as aerophobia, aviatophobia, aviophobia or pteromechanophobia Oahu (usually Oahu outside Hawaiian and Hawaiian English) known as ''"The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the He seldom traveled great distances, partly because his aversion to aircraft complicated the logistics of long-distance travel. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as the Wendell Urth mystery stories and the Robot novels featuring Elijah Baley. Asimov's Mysteries, published in 1968 is a collection of 14 short stories by Isaac Asimov, all of them Science fiction mysteries Elijah Baley is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov 's Robot series. In his later years, he found he enjoyed traveling on cruise ships, and on several occasions he became part of the cruises' "entertainment," giving science-themed talks on ships such as the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2^[14]. A cruise ship or cruise liner is a Passenger ship used for pleasure voyages where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience Characteristics The ship has a and is 963 ft (294 m long She had a top speed of using her original steam turbine powerplant which was increased to when she was re-engined Asimov was an able public speaker, and enjoyed speaking. ^[14]

Asimov was a frequent fixture at science fiction conventions, where he remained friendly and approachable. Science fiction conventions are gatherings of the community of fans (called Science fiction fandom) of various forms of Speculative fiction including Science ^[14] 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 muttonchop whiskers and a distinct Brooklyn accent. His physical dexterity was very poor. He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle; however, he did learn to drive a car after he moved to Boston. The bicycle, cycle, or bike is a pedal-driven, human-powered vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind 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 operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan^[14] and in The Wolfe Pack [1], a group of devotees of the Nero Wolfe mysteries written by Rex Stout. Operetta is a genre of light Opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of Librettist W Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective created by the American Mystery writer Rex Stout, who made his debut in 1934 Rex Todhunter Stout ( December 1 1886 - October 27 1975) was an American Crime writer, best known as the creator of He was a prominent member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the leading Sherlock Holmes society. The Baker Street Irregulars are any of several different groups all named after the original from various Sherlock Holmes stories Sherlock Holmes is a famous fictional detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in Publication in 1887 ^[14] From 1985 until his death in 1992, he was president of the American Humanist Association; his successor was his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut. The American Humanist Association (AHA is an educational organization in the United States that advances Humanism. Kurt Vonnegut Jr (November 11 1922 – April 11 2007 (ˈvɒnəgət was a prolific and genre-bending American Novelist known for works blending Satire, Black He was also a close friend of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and earned a screen credit on Star Trek: The Motion Picture for advice he gave during production (generally, confirming to Paramount Pictures that Roddenberry's ideas were legitimate science-fictional extrapolation). Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry (August 19 1921 &ndash October 24 1991 was an American Screenwriter and producer. Star Trek The Motion Picture is a 1979 Science fiction film from Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and Distribution company, based in Hollywood California.

Asimov died on April 6, 1992. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato in the Battle of Thapsus Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) He was survived by his second wife, Janet, and his children from his first marriage. Ten years after his death, Janet Asimov's edition of Asimov's autobiography, It's Been a Good Life, revealed that his death was caused by AIDS; he had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion received during a heart bypass operation in December 1983. It's Been a Good Life ( 2002) is a book edited by Janet Asimov. Human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV) is a Lentivirus (a member of the Retrovirus family that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome ^[15] The specific cause of death was heart and renal failure as complications of HIV infection. Janet Asimov wrote in the epilogue of It's Been a Good Life that Asimov had wanted to "go public," but his doctors convinced him to remain silent, warning that anti-AIDS prejudice would extend to his family members. The word prejudice refers to prejudgment making a decision before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case or event Asimov's family considered disclosing his condition after he died, but the controversy which erupted when Arthur Ashe announced his own AIDS infection convinced them otherwise. Arthur Robert Ashe Jr ( July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an African American Tennis player who was born and raised Ten years later, after Asimov's doctors had died, Janet and Robyn agreed that the AIDS story could be made public. ^[16]

Intellectual positions

Isaac Asimov was a Humanist and a rationalist. See also philosophical Humanism For the Renaissance liberal arts movement see Renaissance humanism Humanism is The modern rationalist movement is a philosophical doctrine that asserts that the Truth can best be discovered by reason and factual analysis rather than Faith ^[17] He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against superstitious and pseudoscientific beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. Superstition ( Latin superstitio, literally "standing over" derived perhaps from standing in awe used in Latin as a unreasonable or excessive belief Pseudoscience is defined as a body of knowledge methodology belief or practice that is claimed to be Scientific or made to appear scientific but does not adhere to the During his childhood, his father and mother observed Orthodox Jewish traditions, though not as stringently as they had in Petrovichi; they did not, however, force their beliefs upon young Isaac. Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized Petrovichi (Петро́вичи is a village in Shumyachsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located about 400 kilometers Thus he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the Bible represented Hebrew mythology in the same way that the Iliad recorded Greek mythology (for a brief while his father worked in the local synagogue to enjoy the familiar surroundings and "shine as a learned scholar" versed in the sacred writings. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin The Iliad ( Greek: Ἰλιάς (Ancient Ιλιάδα (Modern is together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance A synagogue (from Greek: grc συναγωγή transliterated synagogē, "assembly" he בית כנסת beit knesset, "house of This experience had little effect upon Isaac beyond teaching him the Hebrew alphabet). The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. For many years, Asimov called himself an atheist; however, he considered the term somewhat inadequate, as it described what he did not believe rather than what he did. Atheism Eventually, he described himself as a "humanist" and considered that term more practical. See also philosophical Humanism For the Renaissance liberal arts movement see Renaissance humanism Humanism is

In his last autobiography, Asimov wrote, "If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. " The same memoir states his belief that 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. Hell, according to many Religious beliefs, is a location in the Afterlife, which may be described as a place of suffering Sadism and masochism, in the sense describe Psychiatric disorders characterized by feelings of Sexual pleasure or gratification when inflicting suffering If an afterlife of just deserts existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell". As his Treasury of Humor and Asimov Laughs Again record, he was willing to tell jokes involving the Judeo-Christian God, Satan, the Garden of Eden, and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion. See also Mathematics of humor A joke is a short story or ironic depiction of a situation communicated with the intent of being humorous. Judeo-Christian (or Judaeo-Christian, sometimes written as Judæo-Christian) is a term used to describe the body of concepts and values which are thought to be held Satan, ( Standard Hebrew Satan'el, English accuser) is a term that originates from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally Not to be confused with Eden Gardens.The Garden of Eden ( Hebrew "pleasure" גַּן עֵדֶן Arabic: جنات عدن,

Asimov became a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party during the New Deal, and thereafter remained a political liberal. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. The New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and, in a television interview during the early 1970s, he publicly endorsed George McGovern. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia George Stanley McGovern He was unhappy about what he considered an "irrationalist" viewpoint taken by many liberal political activists from the late 1960s and onwards. In his autobiography In Joy Still Felt, he recalls meeting the counterculture figure Abbie Hoffman; 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 (this attitude is echoed by The Wave Speech in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30 1936 &ndash April 12 1989 was a radical social and political activist in the United States who co-founded the The Counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s refers to a period between 1960 and 1973 that began in the United States as a reaction against Hunter Stockton Thompson ( July 18, 1937 &ndash February 20, 2005) was an American Journalist and Author, most His defense of civil applications of nuclear power even after the Three Mile Island incident damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. Nuclear power is any Nuclear technology designed to extract usable Energy from atomic nuclei via controlled Nuclear reactions Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is a civilian Nuclear power plant located on an island (Three Mile Island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg In a letter reprinted in Yours, Isaac 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" (referring to the Bhopal disaster). Love Canal is a Neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States of America (USA which became the subject of national and international Union Carbide Corporation ( Union Carbide) is one of the oldest chemical and polymers companies in the United States, currently employing more than 3800 people Methyl isocyanate (MIC is an organic compound with the molecular formula C2H3NO arranged as H3C-N=C=O The Bhopal disaster was an Industrial disaster that occurred in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, resulting in the immediate deaths He issued many appeals for population control, reflecting a perspective articulated by people from Thomas Malthus through Paul R. Ehrlich. Population control is the practice of limiting population increase usually by reducing the Birth rate. Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834 was an English political economist and demographer who expressed views Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29 1932 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania) is a renowned Entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera (butterflies Asimov considered himself a feminist even before Women's Liberation became a widespread movement; he joked that he wished women to be free "because I hate it when they charge". Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate The feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement or Women's Liberation) is a series of campaigns on issues such as Reproductive rights (sometimes More seriously, he argued that the issue of women's rights was closely connected to that of population control. Furthermore, he believed that homosexuality must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction (Yours, Isaac Asimov). Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Informed consent is a legal condition whereby a person can be said to have given Consent based upon an appreciation and understanding of the facts implications

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 middle class flight to the suburbs. The City of New York The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. His last non-fiction 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 global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer. Our Angry Earth: A Ticking Ecological Bomb, (1991 is a non-fiction book and polemic against the effects humankind is having on the environment by the science fiction writers Frederik George Pohl Jr (born November 26, 1919) is a American Science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career See also Natural environment The '''biophysical''' environment is the symbiosis between the physical environment and the Biological Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the The photochemical mechanisms that give rise to the ozone layer were worked out by the British physicist Sidney Chapman in 1930

Writing

Overview

Asimov's career can be divided into several time periods. Rowena A Morrill (born 1944 is well known in the world of Science-fiction and fantasy Illustration. 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 the second Novel in Isaac Asimov 's Robot series. He began publishing nonfiction in 1952, co-authoring a college-level textbook called Biochemistry and Human Metabolism. Following the brief orbit of the first man-made satellite Sputnik I by the USSR in 1957, his production of nonfiction, particularly popular science books, greatly increased, with a consequent drop in his science fiction output. Sputnik 1 ( "Спутник-1", "Satellite-1" ПС-1 ( PS-1, i The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 For the 1935-1949 film series see Popular Science (film. Popular Science is an American monthly Magazine founded in 1872 Over the next quarter century, he wrote only four science fiction novels. Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with the publication of Foundation's Edge. Foundation's Edge is a novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. 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 however many inconsistencies in this unification, especially in his earlier stories.

Asimov believed that his most enduring contributions would be his "Three Laws of Robotics" and the Foundation Series (see Yours, Isaac Asimov, p. In Science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. 329). Furthermore, the Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing the words positronic (an entirely fictional technology), psychohistory (frequently used in a different sense than the imaginary one Asimov employed) and robotics into the English language. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English The positrons or antielectron is the Antiparticle or the Antimatter counterpart of the Electron. Psychohistory, a fictional science in Isaac Asimov 's ''Foundation'' universe combines History, Sociology, and mathematical Statistics See also Robot Robotics is the science and technology of Robots and their design manufacture and application 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 mechanics, hydraulics, and so forth. Mechanics ( Greek) is the branch of Physics concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to Forces or displacements For the mechanical technology see Hydraulic machinery and Hydraulic cylinder Hydraulics is a topic of science and Engineering (The original word robot derives from the Czech word for "forced labor", robotovat, robota and was first employed by the playwright Karel Čapek in R.U.R. [Rossum's Universal Robots]. A robot is a mechanical or Virtual Artificial agent In practice it is usually an electro-mechanical system which by its appearance or movements Czech (ˈʧɛk čeština ˈʧɛʃcɪna in Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers it is the majority language in the Karel Čapek ( pronounced) ( January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938 was one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots is a Science fiction play by Karel Čapek. ) Unlike his word psychohistory, the word robotics continues in mainstream technical use with Asimov's original definition. Star Trek: The Next Generation featured androids with "positronic brains", namely Data, Lore, Lal, and B-4 , giving Asimov full credit for 'inventing' this fictional technology. Star Trek The Next Generation ( STTNG or TNG) is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning science fiction television program created by Gene Roddenberry An android is a Robot designed to resemble a human usually both in appearance and behavior A positronic brain is a fictional technological device originally conceived by Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Lieutenant Commander Data, played by actor Brent Spiner, is a character in the Star Trek Fictional universe. This is a list of minor characters from the Science fiction television series Star Trek The Next Generation. " The Offspring " is a third-season Star Trek The Next Generation episode in which the android Data creates a "child" of his This article lists characters in the various canonical incarnations of Star Trek. Ironically (or, given Asimov's sense of humor, perhaps not so ironically), Asimov disliked the word "positron" as the term for the electron's antiparticle. The positrons or antielectron is the Antiparticle or the Antimatter counterpart of the Electron. As he explained in the nonfiction work "Atom: Journey across the Subatomic Cosmos," the proper suffix is "-on," as in proton and muon, not "-ron," as in electron and neutron, these two terms inheriting their r's from their root words.

Science fiction

Asimov first began reading the science fiction pulp magazines sold in his family's confectionery store in 1929. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines He came into contact with science fiction fandom in the mid-1930s, particularly the circle which became the Futurians. Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in Science fiction and Fantasy literature, and in contact with one another The Futurians were an influential group of Science fiction fans, many of whom became editors and writers as well He began writing his first science fiction story, "Cosmic Corkscrew", in 1937, but failed to finish it until June 1938, when he was inspired to do so after a visit to the offices of Astounding Science Fiction. Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. He finished "Cosmic Corkscrew" on 19 June, and submitted the story in person to Astounding editor John W. Campbell two days later. John Wood Campbell Jr (June 8 1910 – July 11 1971 was an important Science fiction editor and writer Campbell rejected "Cosmic Corkscrew", but encouraged Asimov to keep trying, and Asimov did so. Asimov sold his third story, "Marooned Off Vesta", to Amazing Stories magazine in October, and it appeared in the March 1939 issue. " Marooned Off Vesta " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. Amazing Stories was an American Science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback 's Experimenter Publishing. He continued writing and sometimes selling stories to the science fiction pulps.

In 1941, he published his 32nd story, "Nightfall", which has been described as one of "the most famous science-fiction stories of all time". " Nightfall " is an influential Science fiction Short story by author Isaac Asimov, about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily ^[18] In 1968 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story ever written. ^[19] In his short story collection Nightfall and Other Stories he wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career . Nightfall and Other Stories (1969 is a book collecting previously published Science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. . . 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, a term coined by Asimov to describe a new trend in the 1940s, led by authors including Asimov and Heinlein, away from gadgets and space opera and toward speculation about the human condition. Social science fiction is a term used to describe a subgenre of Science fiction concerned less with technology and Space opera and more with Sociological Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. GADGET is a freely available code for cosmological N-body/SPH simulations written by Volker Springel at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. Space opera is a subgenre of Speculative fiction or Science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often Melodramatic adventure set mainly or entirely The human condition encompasses all of the Experience of being Human.

By 1941 Asimov began selling regularly to Astounding, which was then the field's leading magazine. From 1943 to 1949, all of his published science fiction appeared in Astounding.

In 1942 he published the first of his Foundation stories—later collected in the Foundation Trilogy: Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953)—which recount the collapse and rebirth of a vast interstellar empire in a universe of the future. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. Foundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov 's Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into The Foundation Series) Foundation and Empire is a novel written by Isaac Asimov that was published by Gnome Press in 1952. Second Foundation is the third novel published of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, and the fifth in the in-universe chronology In Isaac Asimov 's Robot / Empire / Foundation series of novels the Galactic Empire is an empire consisting of planets settled by humans across the Taken together, they are his most famous work of science fiction, along with the Robot Series. Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of Short stories and Novels Short stories Many years later, he continued the series with Foundation's Edge (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1986), and then went back to before the original trilogy with Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1992). Foundation's Edge is a novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. Foundation and Earth is a Science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in Prelude to Foundation is a 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. Forward the Foundation ( 1993) is a novel written by Isaac Asimov. The series features his fictional science of Psychohistory in which the future course of the history of large populations can be predicted. Psychohistory, a fictional science in Isaac Asimov 's ''Foundation'' universe combines History, Sociology, and mathematical Statistics

His positronic robot stories—many of which were collected in I, Robot (1950)—were begun at about the same time. A positronic brain is a fictional technological device originally conceived by Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. I Robot is a collection of nine Science fiction Short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an They promulgated a set of rules of ethics for robots (see Three Laws of Robotics) and intelligent machines that greatly influenced other writers and thinkers in their treatment of the subject. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In Science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction One such short story, "The Bicentennial Man", was made into a film starring Robin Williams. The Bicentennial Man is a Novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. Robin McLaurim Williams (born July 21 1951 or 1952 is an American television stage and film actor and Comedian who has won an Academy Award for his performance

The 2004 film I, Robot, starring Will Smith, was based on a script by Jeff Vintar entitled Hardwired, with Asimov's ideas incorporated later after acquiring the rights to the I, Robot title. I Robot is a Science fiction film set in a world where humans and Humanoid robots interact ( Chicago in the year 2035) Jeff Vintar ( 1964 in Oak Park Illinois) is an American Screenwriter. ^[20] It is not related to the I, Robot script by Harlan Ellison, who collaborated with Asimov himself to create a version that captured the spirit of the original. Harlan Jay Ellison (born May 27, 1934) is a prolific American Writer of Short stories, Novellas, Teleplays Asimov is quoted as saying that Ellison's screenplay would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction movie ever made". The screenplay was published in book form in 1994, after hopes of seeing it in film form were becoming slim.

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, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford and David Brin. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of Short stories and Novels Short stories Roger MacBride Allen is a US Science fiction author He was born on September 26, 1957 in Bridgeport Connecticut. Gregory Dale Bear (born August 20, 1951) is an American Science fiction and mainstream author Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941 in Mobile Alabama) is an American science fiction author and Astrophysicist who is on the Glen David Brin, PhD (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and award-winning author of Science fiction. These appear to have been done with the blessing, and often at the request of, Asimov's widow Janet Asimov. Janet Asimov (maiden name Janet Opal Jeppson) (born August 6 1926 in Ashland, Pennsylvania) is an American Science fiction Author

In 1948 he also wrote a spoof science article, "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline". A false document is a form of Verisimilitude that attempts to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected Suspension of disbelief for a Work Thiotimoline is a fictitious chemical compound conceived by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov and first described in a spoof scientific paper titled At the time, Asimov was preparing for his own doctoral dissertation. A dissertation (also called thesis or disquisition) is a document that presents the author's Research and findings and is submitted in support of candidature Fearing a prejudicial reaction from his Ph. D. evaluation board, he asked his editor that it be released under a pseudonym, yet it appeared under his own name. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) During his oral examination shortly thereafter, Asimov grew concerned at the scrutiny he received. At the end of the examination, one evaluator turned to him, smiling, and said "Mr. Asimov, tell us something about the thermodynamic properties of the compound thiotimoline". After a 20-minute wait, he was summoned back into the Examination Room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov. "

In 1949, book publisher Doubleday's science fiction editor Walter I. The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world Bradbury accepted Asimov's unpublished novel "Grow Old Along With Me" for publication, and it appeared under the Doubleday imprint in January 1950 as Pebble in the Sky. Pebble in the Sky is a Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. Doubleday went on to publish four more original science fiction novels by Asimov in the 1950s, along with the six juvenile Lucky Starr novels under the pseudonym Paul French. Lucky Starr is the Hero of a series of Science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the Pen name "Paul French" Doubleday also published collections of Asimov's short stories, beginning with The Martian Way and Other Stories in 1955. The Martian Way and Other Stories is a 1955 collection of four Science fiction novellas previously published by Isaac Asimov in 1952 The early 1950s also saw Gnome Press publish Asimov's positronic robot stories as I, Robot and his Foundation stories as the three books of the Foundation Trilogy. Gnome Press was an American small-press Publishing company primarily known for publishing many Science fiction classics I Robot is a collection of nine Science fiction Short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov.

When new science fiction magazines, notably Galaxy Magazine and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, appeared in the 1950s, Asimov began publishing short stories in them as well. Galaxy Science Fiction was a digest-size Science fiction magazine, the creation of noted editor H The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (later Fantasy & Science Fiction and usually referred to as just F&SF) is a digest-size He would later refer to the 1950s as his "golden decade". A number of these stories are included in his Best of anthology, including "The Last Question" (1956), on the ability of humankind to cope with and potentially reverse the process of entropy. The Best of Isaac Asimov, published in 1973, is a collection of 12 short stories by Isaac Asimov, chosen by Asimov himself "The Last Question" is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. In Thermodynamics (a branch of Physics) entropy, symbolized by S, is a measure of the unavailability of a system ’s Energy It was his personal favorite and considered by many to be equal to "Nightfall". Asimov wrote of it in 1973:

Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn't have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer.

Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they think I may have written, and tell them where to find it. They don't remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably "The Last Question". This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, "Dr. Asimov, there's a story I think you wrote, whose title I can't remember—" at which point I interrupted to tell him it was "The Last Question" and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles.

In December 1974, the former Beatle Paul McCartney approached Asimov and asked him if he could write the screenplay for a science-fiction movie musical. The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942 is an English rock Singer, Bass guitarist songwriter Composer, 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, then at the height of their career. Wings were a rock supergroup formed in August 1971 after the breakup of the Beatles, by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. 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. Rock music is a genre of Popular music often though not necessarily employing Electric guitar, Bass guitar, and Drums. He adhered to McCartney's overall idea, producing a story he felt to be moving and dramatic. However, he did not make use of McCartney's brief scrap of dialogue, and probably in consequence, McCartney rejected the story. The treatment now exists only in Boston University's archives.

Beginning in 1977, he lent his name to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (now Asimov's Science Fiction) and penned an editorial for each issue. Asimov's Science Fiction (ISSN 1065-2698 is an American Science fiction magazine which publishes Science fiction and Fantasy and Asimov's Science Fiction (ISSN 1065-2698 is an American Science fiction magazine which publishes Science fiction and Fantasy and There was also a short-lived Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine and a companion Asimov's Science Fiction Anthology reprint series, published as magazines (in the same manner as stablemates Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine's "anthologies"). Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is a monthly Digest size fiction magazine specializing in Crime fiction, particularly Detective fiction. Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM is a monthly Digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction

Popular science

During the late 1950s and 1960s, Asimov shifted gears somewhat, and substantially decreased his fiction output (he published only four adult novels between 1957's The Naked Sun and 1982's Foundation's Edge, two of which were mysteries). The Naked Sun is the second Novel in Isaac Asimov 's Robot series. Foundation's Edge is a novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. At the same time, he greatly increased his non-fiction production, writing mostly on science topics; the launch of Sputnik in 1957 engendered public concern over a "science gap", which Asimov's publishers were eager to fill with as much material as he could write.

Meanwhile, the monthly Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction invited him to continue his regular non-fiction column, begun in the now-folded bimonthly companion magazine Venture Science Fiction Magazine, ostensibly dedicated to popular science, but with Asimov having complete editorial freedom. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (later Fantasy & Science Fiction and usually referred to as just F&SF) is a digest-size Venture Science Fiction Magazine was a digest -sized US Science fiction magazine published from 1957 to 1958 and revived for a brief run in 1969 and For the 1935-1949 film series see Popular Science (film. Popular Science is an American monthly Magazine founded in 1872 The first of the F&SF columns appeared in November of 1958, and they followed uninterrupted thereafter, with 399 entries, until Asimov's terminal illness. These columns, periodically collected into books by his principal publisher, Doubleday, helped make Asimov's reputation as a "Great Explainer" of science, and were referred to by him as his only pop-science writing in which he never had to assume complete ignorance of the subjects at hand on the part of his readers. The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world The popularity of his first wide-ranging reference work, The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science, also allowed him to give up most of his academic responsibilities and become essentially a full-time freelance writer. The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science is a general guide to the sciences written by Isaac Asimov. A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer

Asimov wrote several essays on the social contentions of his time, including "Thinking About Thinking" and "Science: Knock Plastic" (1967).

The great variety of information covered in Asimov's writings once prompted Kurt Vonnegut 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". Kurt Vonnegut Jr (November 11 1922 – April 11 2007 (ˈvɒnəgət was a prolific and genre-bending American Novelist known for works blending Satire, Black (See In Joy Still Felt, chapter 30. ) In the introduction to his story collection Slow Learner, Thomas Pynchon admitted that he relied upon Asimov's science popularizations (and the Oxford English Dictionary) to provide his knowledge of entropy. Slow Learner is the 1984 published collection of six early Novellas by the American Novelist Thomas Pynchon. Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr (born May 8 1937 is an American writer based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of Fiction. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English In Thermodynamics (a branch of Physics) entropy, symbolized by S, is a measure of the unavailability of a system ’s Energy

It is a mark of the friendship and respect accorded Asimov by Arthur C. Clarke that the so-called "Asimov-Clarke Treaty of Park Avenue", put together as they shared a cab ride along Park Avenue in New York, 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). Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (16 December 1917–19 March 2008 was a British Science fiction Author, Inventor, and Park Avenue (formerly Fourth Avenue) is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City Borough of Manhattan New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous ^[21] 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. "

Other writing

In addition to his interest in science, Asimov was also greatly interested in history. Starting in the 1960s, he wrote 14 popular history books, most notably The Greeks: A Great Adventure (1965), The Roman Republic (1966), The Roman Empire (1967), The Egyptians (1967) and The Near East: 10,000 Years of History (1968). The Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a Republican form of government a period which began with the overthrow of the The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial

He published Asimov's Guide to the Bible in two volumes— covering the Old Testament in 1967 and the New Testament in 1969— and then combined them into one 1,300-page volume in 1981. Asimov's Guide to the Bible is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes covering the Old Testament (including the Apocrypha In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. 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. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin His interest in literature manifested itself in several annotations of literary works, including Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare (1970), Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost (1974), and The Annotated Gulliver's Travels (1980). Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, by Isaac Asimov, vols I and II (1970 ISBN 0-517-26825-6 This work gives a short guide to every Shakespeare play and

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 Wendall Urth stories but soon moved on to writing "pure" mysteries. He only published two full-length mystery novels but he wrote several stories about the Black Widowers, 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. ^[22]

Toward the end of his life, Asimov published a series of collections of limericks, mostly written by himself, starting with Lecherous Limericks, which appeared in 1975. A limerick is a five-line Poem with a strict form originally popularized in English by Edward Lear. Lecherous Limericks is the first of Isaac Asimov 's several compilations of dirty limericks published in 1975. Limericks: Too Gross, whose title displays Asimov's love of puns, contains 144 limericks by Asimov and an equal number by John Ciardi. A pun (or paronomasia) is a Phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding Words for humorous or Rhetorical John Anthony Ciardi ( June 24, 1916 - March 30, 1986) was an American Poet, translator, and Etymologist He even created a slim volume of Sherlockian limericks (and embarrassed one fan by autographing her copy with an impromptu limerick that rhymed 'Nancy' with 'romancy'). Sherlock Holmes is a famous fictional detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in Publication in 1887 Asimov featured Yiddish humor in Azazel, The Two Centimeter Demon. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High Azazel is Fantasy Short story collection by Isaac Asimov first published in 1988. 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 (by "J") and The Sensuous Man (by "M"), Asimov published The Sensuous Dirty Old Man under the byline "Dr. The Sensuous Woman is book by Joan Garrity. First published in 1969 under the pseudonym "J" it is a book that is a detailed instruction manual on sexuality 'A'", but with his full name prominently displayed on the cover.

Asimov published two volumes of autobiography: In Memory Yet Green (1979) and In Joy Still Felt (1980). In Memory Yet Green is the first volume of Isaac Asimov 's two-volume autobiography In Memory Yet Green is the first volume of Isaac Asimov 's two-volume autobiography A third autobiography, I. Asimov: A Memoir, was published in April 1994. The epilogue was written by his widow Janet Asimov a decade after his death. Janet Asimov (maiden name Janet Opal Jeppson) (born August 6 1926 in Ashland, Pennsylvania) is an American Science fiction Author It's Been a Good Life (2002), edited by Janet, is a condensed version of his three autobiographies. It's Been a Good Life ( 2002) is a book edited by Janet Asimov. He also published three volumes of retrospectives of his writing, Opus 100 (1969), Opus 200 (1979), and Opus 300 (1984). Opus 100 is Isaac Asimov 's one hundredth book It was published by Houghton Mifflin on 16 October 1969

Asimov and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry developed a unique relationship during Star Trek's initial launch in the late 60s. Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry (August 19 1921 &ndash October 24 1991 was an American Screenwriter and producer. Asimov wrote a critical essay on Star Trek's scientific accuracy for TV Guide magazine. TV Guide is the name of a North American weekly magazine about television programming 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 despite its inaccuracies, that Star Trek was a fresh and intellectually challenging science fiction television show. The two remained friends to the point where Asimov even served as an advisor on a number of Star Trek projects.

Literary themes

Much of Asimov's fiction dealt with themes of paternalism. Paternalism refers usually to an attitude or a policy stemming from the hierarchic pattern of a Family based on Patriarchy, that is there is a figurehead His first robot story, " Robbie", concerned a robotic nanny. " Robbie " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. A nanny is a person who looks after the child or children of one family in the child's home "Lenny" deals with the capacity of robopsychologist Susan Calvin to feel maternal love towards a robot whose positronic brain capacities are those of a 3-year-old. Robopsychology is the fictional study of the personalities of intelligent machines. "Mom" "Mum" and "Mommy" redirect here As the robots grew more sophisticated, their interventions became more wide-reaching and subtle. In "Evidence", the story revolves around a candidate who successfully runs for office who may be a robot masquerading as a human. " Evidence " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. In "The Evitable Conflict", the robots run humanity from behind the scenes, acting as nannies to the whole species. " The Evitable Conflict " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov.

Later, in The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, a robot develops what he calls the Zeroth Law of Robotics, which states that: "A robot may not injure humanity, nor, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm". The Robots of Dawn is a " Whodunit " Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. Robots and Empire is a 1985 Science fiction Novel written by Isaac Asimov. In Science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction He also decides that robotic presence is stifling humanity's freedom, and that the best course of action is for the robots to phase themselves out. A non-robot, time travel novel, The End of Eternity, features a similar conflict and resolution. This article details time travel itself For other uses see Time Traveler. The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a Science fiction novel with mystery and thriller elements on the subjects of Time The significance of the Zeroth Law is that it outweighs and supersedes all other Laws of Robotics: if a robot finds himself in a situation whereby he must murder one or more humans (a direct violation of the First Law of Robotics) in order to protect all of humanity (and preserve the Zeroth Law), then the robot's positronic programming will require him to commit murder for humanity's sake. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human person with Malice aforethought, as defined in Common Law countries In Science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction Only highly advanced robots (such as Daneel and Giskard) could comprehend this law.

In The Foundation Series (which did not originally have robots), a scientist implements a semi-secret plan to create a new galactic empire over the course of 1,000 years. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. A galaxy is a massive gravitationally bound system consisting of Stars an Interstellar medium of gas and dust, and Dark matter This series has its version of Platonic guardians, called the Second Foundation, to perfect and protect the plan. The Republic ( Greek: / Politeía, meaning "political system" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business" or When Asimov stopped writing the series in the 1950s, the Second Foundation was depicted as benign protectors of humanity. When he revisited the series in the 1980s, he made the paternalistic themes even more explicit.

Foundation's Edge introduced the planet Gaia, obviously based on the Gaia hypothesis. Foundation's Edge is a novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. Gaia is a Fictional planet described in the book Foundation's Edge ( 1982) and referred to in Foundation and Earth ( The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological Hypothesis proposing that the Biosphere and the physical components of the Earth ( Atmosphere Every animal, plant, and mineral on Gaia participated in a shared consciousness, forming a single super-mind working together for the greater good. In Foundation and Earth, the protagonist starts searching for the Earth, thinking that there he could find the answer of why he decided, in Foundation's Edge, that Galaxia was the right choice to take. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 Gaia is one of Asimov's best attempts at exploring the possibility of a collective awareness, and is compounded further in Nemesis, in which the planet Erythro composed primarily of prokaryotic life has a mind of its own and seeks communion with human beings. Gaia is a Fictional planet described in the book Foundation's Edge ( 1982) and referred to in Foundation and Earth ( Nemesis is a Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov. One of his later science fiction novels it was published in 1989, only three The prokaryotes (proʊˈkærioʊts singular prokaryote /proʊˈkæriət/ are a group of Organisms that lack a Cell nucleus (= karyon or any other

Foundation and Earth introduces robots to the Foundation universe. Foundation and Earth is a Science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in Two of Asimov's last novels, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, explore their behavior in fuller detail. Prelude to Foundation is a 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. Forward the Foundation ( 1993) is a novel written by Isaac Asimov. The robots are depicted as covert operatives, acting for the benefit of humanity. A covert operation is a Military or political activity carried out in such a way that the parties responsible for the action can be an Open secret, but

Another frequent theme, perhaps the reverse of paternalism, is social oppression. The Currents of Space takes place on a planet where a unique plant fiber is grown; the agricultural workers there are exploited by the aristocrats of a nearby planet. The Currents of Space is a 1952 novel by the American Science fiction author Isaac Asimov. In The Stars, Like Dust, the hero helps a planet that is oppressed by an arrogant interplanetary empire, the Tyranni. The Stars Like Dust is a 1951 Science fiction book by writer Isaac Asimov.

Often the victims of oppression are either Earth people (as opposed to colonists on other planets) or robots. In "The Bicentennial Man", a robot fights prejudice to be accepted as a human. In The Caves of Steel, the people of Earth resent the wealthier "Spacers" and in turn treat robots (associated with the Spacers) in ways reminiscent of how whites treated blacks, such as addressing robots as "boy". The Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated that Science fiction Pebble in the Sky shows an analogous situation: the Galactic Empire rules Earth and its people use such terms as "Earthie-squaw", but Earth is a theocratic dictatorship that enforces euthanasia of anyone older than 60. Pebble in the Sky is a Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. Squaw is the phonetic spelling of an eastern Algonquian Indian morpheme meaning "woman" that appears in numerous Algonquian dialects variously spelled as squa skwa Euthanasia (literally "good death" in Ancient Greek) refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner One hero is Bel Arvardan, an upper-class Galactic archaeologist who must overcome his prejudices. The other is Joseph Schwartz, a 62-year-old 20th century American who had emigrated from Europe, where his people were persecuted (he is quite possibly Jewish), and is accidentally transported forward in time to Arvardan's period. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ He must decide whether to help a downtrodden society that thinks he should be dead.

Yet another frequent theme in Asimov is rational thought. Rationality as a term is related to the idea of Reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to He invented the science-fiction mystery with the novel The Caves of Steel and the stories in Asimov's Mysteries, usually playing fair with the reader by introducing early in the story any science or technology involved in the solution. Asimov's Mysteries, published in 1968 is a collection of 14 short stories by Isaac Asimov, all of them Science fiction mysteries Later, he produced non-SF mysteries, including the novel Murder at the ABA (1976) and the "Black Widowers" and "Union Club" short stories, in which he followed the same rule. Murder at the ABA ( 1976) is a Mystery novel by Isaac Asimov, following the adventures of a writer and amateur detective named Darius Just The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of mystery stories he wrote starting in 1971 In his fiction, important scenes are often essentially debates, with the more rational, humane—or persuasive—side winning.

Awards

• 1957 Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award, for Building Blocks of the Universe
• 1960 Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association for The Living River
• 1962 Boston University's Publication Merit Award
• 1963 special Hugo Award for "adding science to science fiction" for essays published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
• 1965 James T. The American Heart Association (AHA is a Non-profit organization in the United States that fosters appropriate For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (later Fantasy & Science Fiction and usually referred to as just F&SF) is a digest-size Grady Award of the American Chemical Society (now called the James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry)
• 1966 Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award for the Foundation series
• 1967 Westinghouse Science Writing Award
• 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Gods Themselves
• 1973 Nebula Award for Best Novel for The Gods Themselves
• 1977 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Bicentennial Man
• 1977 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for The Bicentennial Man
• In 1981 an asteroid, 5020 Asimov, was named in his honor
• 1987 Nebula Grandmaster award, a lifetime achievement award
• 1983 Hugo Award for Best Novel for Foundation's Edge
• 1992 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for Gold
• 1995 Hugo Award for Best Nonfiction for I. The American Chemical Society ( ACS) is a Learned society ( Professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry The James T Grady-James H Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public is awarded on a yearly basis by the American Chemical Society. Founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year The Gods Themselves is a 1972 Science fiction Novel written by Isaac Asimov. The Bicentennial Man is a Novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. 5020 Asimov is an Asteroid discovered March 2, 1981 by Schelte J Asimov: A Memoir
• 1996 -- A 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 was given at the 1996 WorldCon to The Mule, the 7th Foundation story published in Astounding Science Fiction

• 14 honorary doctorate degrees from various universities

• 1997 posthumous induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame

Criticisms

One of the most common impressions of Asimov's fiction work is that his writing style is extremely unornamental. An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa ( Latin: 'for the sake of the honour' is an Academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding In 1980, science fiction scholar James Gunn, professor emeritus of English at the University of Kansas wrote of I, Robot:^[23]

“

Except for two stories—"Liar!" and "Evidence"—they are not stories in which character plays a significant part. James Edwin Gunn (born 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American Science Fiction Author, editor scholar and Anthologist Emeritus (ɨˈmɛrɨtəs is an Adjective that is used in the title of a retired Professor, Bishop or other professional English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of Literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU or just Kansas) is a public research university with campuses located in Lawrence, Kansas City I Robot is a collection of nine Science fiction Short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an " Liar! " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov that first appeared in the May 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction " Evidence " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. Virtually all plot develops in conversation with little if any action. Nor is there a great deal of local color or description of any kind. The dialogue is, at best, functional and the style is, at best, transparent. . . . The robot stories—and, as a matter of fact, almost all Asimov fiction—play themselves on a relatively bare stage.

”

Gunn observes that there are places where Asimov's style rises to the demands of the situation; he cites the climax of "Liar!" as an example. Sharply drawn characters occur at key junctures of his storylines: In addition to Susan Calvin in "Liar!" and "Evidence", we find Arkady Darell in Second Foundation, Elijah Baley in The Caves of Steel and Hari Seldon in the Foundation prequels. Dr Susan Calvin is a Fictional character from Isaac Asimov 's Robot Series. Arcadia “Arkady” Darell (11 5 362FE—1 7 443FE is a Fictional character, part of Isaac Asimov 's Foundation Series. Second Foundation is the third novel published of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, and the fifth in the in-universe chronology Elijah Baley is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov 's Robot series. The Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated that Science fiction Hari Seldon, a fictional character is the intellectual hero of Isaac Asimov 's Foundation Series.

Asimov was also criticised for the lack of sex and aliens in his science fiction. 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 early science fiction stories because the alien characters were portrayed as superior to the humans. John Wood Campbell Jr (June 8 1910 – July 11 1971 was an important Science fiction editor and writer He decided that, rather than write weak alien characters, he would not write about aliens at all. Nevertheless, in response to these criticisms he wrote The Gods Themselves, which contains aliens, sex, and alien sex. The Gods Themselves is a 1972 Science fiction Novel written by Isaac Asimov. Asimov said that of all his writings, he was most proud of the middle section of The Gods Themselves. ^[24]

In the Hugo Award-winning novella "Gold", Asimov describes an author clearly based on himself who has one of his books (The Gods Themselves) adapted into a "compu-drama", essentially photo-realistic computer animation. The Hugo Awards are given every year for the best Science fiction or Fantasy works and achievements of the previous year "Gold" is a Short story by Isaac Asimov, originally appearing in the September 1991 issue of Analog Science Fiction The Gods Themselves is a 1972 Science fiction Novel written by Isaac Asimov. Photorealism is the genre of painting based on making a painting of a Photograph. Computer-generated imagery Computer animation is the art of creating moving images with the use of Computers It is a subfield of Computer graphics 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.

Others have criticised him for a lack of strong female characters in his early work. In his autobiographical writings he acknowledges this, and responds by pointing to inexperience. His later novels, written with more female characters but in essentially the same prose style as his early SF stories, brought this matter to a wider audience. For example, the 25 August 1985 Washington Post's "Book World" section reports of Robots and Empire as follows:

“

In 1940, Asimov's humans were stripped-down masculine portraits of Americans from 1940, and they still are. His robots were tin cans with speedlines like an old Studebaker, and still are; the Robot tales depended on an increasingly unworkable distinction between movable and unmovable artificial intelligences, and still do. Studebaker Corporation, or simply Studebaker, was a United States Wagon and Automobile manufacturer based in In the Asimov universe, because it was conceived a long time ago, and because its author abhors confusion, there are no computers whose impact is worth noting, no social complexities, no genetic engineering, aliens, arcologies, multiverses, clones, sin or sex; his heroes (in this case R. Daneel Olivaw, whom we first met as the robot protagonist of The Caves of Steel and its sequels) feel no pressure of information, raw or cooked, as the simplest of us do today; they suffer no deformation from the winds of the Asimov future, because it is so deeply and strikingly orderly. Genetic engineering, Recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation (GM and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct There is some dispute over whether this article should document both the meaning of this term as used in popular fiction as well as its technical meaning in the field of architecture or The multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible Universes (including our universe that together comprise all of Reality. Molecular cloning refers to the procedure of isolating a defined DNA sequence and obtaining multiple copies of it In vivo. R Daneel Olivaw is a fictional Robot created by Isaac Asimov.

”

Be that as it may, a considerable portion of such criticism boils down to the charge that Asimov's works are simply dated. More precisely, some details of Asimov's imaginary future technology as he described in the 1940s and 1950s have not aged well. He, for example, described powerful robots and computers from the distant future as still using punch cards or punched tape and engineers using slide rules. Punched tape or paper tape is a largely obsolete form of Data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store data The slide rule, also known as a slipstick, is a mechanical Analog computer. In one dramatic scene in Foundation and Empire, a character gets the news by buying a paper at a vending machine. Foundation and Empire is a novel written by Isaac Asimov that was published by Gnome Press in 1952. A vending machine is a machine that provides various snacks beverages and other products to consumers

In addition, his stories also have occasional internal contradictions: names and dates given in The Foundation Series do not always agree with one another, for example. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. Some such errors may plausibly be due to mistakes the characters make, since characters in Asimov stories are seldom fully informed about their own situations. Other contradictions resulted from the many years elapsed between the time Asimov began the Foundation series and when he resumed work on it; occasionally, advances in scientific knowledge forced him to revise his own fictional history.

Other than books by Gunn and Patrouch, there is a relative dearth of "literary" criticism on Asimov (particularly when compared to the sheer volume of his output). Cowart and Wymer's Dictionary of Literary Biography (1981) gives a possible reason:

“

His words do not easily lend themselves to traditional literary criticism because he has the habit of centering his fiction on plot and clearly stating to his reader, in rather direct terms, what is happening in his stories and why it is happening. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. In fact, most of the dialogue in an Asimov story, and particularly in the Foundation trilogy, is devoted to such exposition. Stories that clearly state what they mean in unambiguous language are the most difficult for a scholar to deal with because there is little to be interpreted.

”

In fairness, Gunn's and Patrouch's respective studies of Asimov both take the stand that a clear, direct prose style is still a style. Gunn's 1982 book goes into considerable depth commenting upon each of Asimov's novels published to that date. He does not praise all of Asimov's fiction (nor does Patrouch), but he does call some passages in The Caves of Steel "reminiscent of Proust". The Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated that Science fiction Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (maʁsɛl pʁust (10 July 1871 &ndash 18 November 1922 was a French Novelist Essayist and Critic 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". The City of New York

Although he prided himself on his unornamented prose style (for which he credited Clifford Simak as an early influence), Asimov also enjoyed giving his longer stories complicated narrative structures, often by arranging chapters in non-chronological ways. Clifford Donald Simak ( August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was a major American Science fiction writer Narrative structure is generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a Narrative is presented to a reader listener or viewer Definition A chronology may be either relative &mdashthat is locating related events relative to each other&mdashor ''absolute'' &mdashlocating 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. ^[25] (John Campbell advised Asimov to begin his stories as late in the plot as possible. This advice helped Asimov create "Reason," one of the early Robot stories. " Reason " is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov that was first published in the April 1941 issue of Astounding Science See In Memory Yet Green for details of that time period. ) Patrouch found that the interwoven and nested flashbacks of The Currents of Space did serious harm to that novel, to such an extent that only a "dyed-in-the-kyrt Asimov fan" could enjoy it. The Currents of Space is a 1952 novel by the American Science fiction author Isaac Asimov. Asimov's tendency to contort his timelines is perhaps most apparent in his later novel Nemesis, in which one group of characters live in the "present" and another group starts in the "past", beginning fifteen years earlier and gradually moving toward the time period of the first group. Nemesis is a Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov. One of his later science fiction novels it was published in 1989, only three

In 2002, Donald Palumbo, an English professor at East Carolina University, published Chaos Theory, Asimov's Foundations and Robots, and Herbert’s Dune: The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction. Donald E Palumbo (born 1949 is Professor of English at East Carolina University. East Carolina University is a public, Coeducational, Doctoral / Research University located in Greenville, North A fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts each of which is (at least approximately a reduced-size copy of the whole" This includes a review of Asimov's narrative structures that compares them with the scientific concepts of fractals and chaos. A fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts each of which is (at least approximately a reduced-size copy of the whole" Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek, Chaos) typically refers to Unpredictability, and is the antithesis of Cosmos. Palumbo finds that though the traditional interests of literature (such as symbolism and characterization) are often somewhat lacking or even absent, a fascination with the Foundation and Robot metaseries remains. "Symbolic" redirects here For other uses see Symbolism (disambiguation and Symbolic (disambiguation. UserScottandrewhutchins: http//enwikipediaorg/w/indexphp?title=Characterization&diff=next&oldid=157919139 --> Characterization is a process of conveying The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of Short stories and Novels Short stories A metaseries includes stories which reference each other and some overall similar chronology cast and/or background but are not similar enough to be considered direct Sequels He determines that the purposeful complexities of the narrative build unusual symmetric and recursive structures to be perceived by the mind's eye. Recursion, in Mathematics and Computer science, is a method of defining functions in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition This volume contains some of the most scholarly and in-depth criticism of Asimov to date.

John Jenkins, who has reviewed the vast majority of Asimov's written output, once observed:^[26]

“

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.

”

Selected bibliography

In addition, see Isaac Asimov complete bibliography. This is believed to be a complete Bibliography of the work of Isaac Asimov that is arranged alphabetically For Asimov's suggested reading order, see the Foundation Series list of books. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. If all titles, charts, and edited collections are counted, there are currently 515 items in his complete bibliography. Asimov could have written an Opus 400, which would have been a celebration of his 400th title; the bibliography lists only up to his commemorative Opus 300. He wrote books in every category of the Dewey Decimal Classification except for Philosophy. The Dewey Decimal Classification ( DDC, also called the Dewey Decimal System) is a Proprietary system of Library classification developed Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language

Science fiction

Fantastic Voyage series

• Fantastic Voyage (1966) (a novelization of the movie)
• Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain (1987) (not a sequel to Fantastic Voyage, but a similar, independent story)

"Greater Foundation" series

The Robot series was originally separate from the Foundation series. Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 Science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner Fantastic Voyage II Destination Brain is a 1987 science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov about a group of scientists that shrink down to microscopic size in order to The Galactic Empire novels were originally published as independent stories. Later in life, Asimov synthesized them into a single coherent 'history' that appeared in the extension of the Foundation series.

Main article: Foundation series

Main article: Isaac Asimov's Robot Series

Main article: Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire Series

• The Robot series:
  • The Caves of Steel (1954), ISBN 0-553-29340-0 (first Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
  • The Naked Sun (1957), ISBN 0-553-29339-7 (second Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
  • The Robots of Dawn (1983), ISBN 0-553-29949-2 (third Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
  • Robots and Empire (1985) (sequel to the Elijah Baley trilogy)

• Galactic Empire series:
  • Pebble in the Sky (1950)
  • The Stars, Like Dust (1951)
  • The Currents of Space (1952)

• Original Foundation trilogy:
  • Foundation (1951), ISBN 0-553-29335-4
  • Foundation and Empire (1952), ISBN 0-553-29337-0
  • Second Foundation (1953), ISBN 0-553-29336-2

• Extended Foundation series:
  • Foundation's Edge (1982), ISBN 0-553-29338-9
  • Foundation and Earth (1986), ISBN 0-553-58757-9
  • Prelude to Foundation (1988), ISBN 0-553-27839-8
  • Forward the Foundation (1993), ISBN 0-553-40488-1

Lucky Starr series

Main article: Lucky Starr series

• 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

Main article: Norby

• 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 the Foundation series. The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of Short stories and Novels Short stories The Galactic Empire Series contains three of Isaac Asimov 's earliest Novels and one short story The Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated that Science fiction Elijah Baley is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov 's Robot series. The Naked Sun is the second Novel in Isaac Asimov 's Robot series. The Robots of Dawn is a " Whodunit " Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. Robots and Empire is a 1985 Science fiction Novel written by Isaac Asimov. Pebble in the Sky is a Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. The Stars Like Dust is a 1951 Science fiction book by writer Isaac Asimov. The Currents of Space is a 1952 novel by the American Science fiction author Isaac Asimov. Foundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov 's Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into The Foundation Series) Foundation and Empire is a novel written by Isaac Asimov that was published by Gnome Press in 1952. Second Foundation is the third novel published of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, and the fifth in the in-universe chronology Foundation's Edge is a novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. Foundation and Earth is a Science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in Prelude to Foundation is a 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. Forward the Foundation ( 1993) is a novel written by Isaac Asimov. Lucky Starr is the Hero of a series of Science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the Pen name "Paul French" David Starr Space Ranger is the first novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile Science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids is the second novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile Science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus is the third novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile Science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury is the fourth novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile Science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter is the fifth novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile Science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn is the final novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile Science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally Norby is a Fictional Robot created by Janet Asimov and Isaac Asimov who stars in his own series of children's Science fiction books Norby The Mixed-Up Robot (1983 is the first book in the Norby series by Janet Asimov and Isaac Asimov.

• The End of Eternity (1955) *
• The Gods Themselves (1972)
• Nemesis (1989) *
• Nightfall (1990) - with Robert Silverberg
• The Ugly Little Boy (1992) - with Robert Silverberg (aka: Child of Time)
• The Positronic Man (1993) - with Robert Silverberg

Short story collections

See also List of short stories by Isaac Asimov

• I, Robot (1950), ISBN 0-553-29438-5
• The Martian Way and Other Stories (1955)
• Earth Is Room Enough (1957)
• Nine Tomorrows (1959)
• The Rest of the Robots (1964)
• Through a Glass, Clearly (1967)
• Nightfall and Other Stories (1969)
• The Early Asimov (1972)
• The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973)
• Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (1975)
• The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories (1976)
• The Complete Robot (1982)
• The Winds of Change and Other Stories (1983)
• The Alternate Asimovs (1986)
• The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov (1986)
• Robot Dreams (1986)
• Azazel (1988)
• Gold (1990)
• Robot Visions (1990) ISBN 0-451-45064-7
• Magic (1995)

Mysteries

Novels

• The Death Dealers (1958) (later republished as A Whiff of Death)
• Murder at the ABA (1976) (also published as Authorized Murder)

Short story collections

Black Widowers series

• Tales of the Black Widowers (1974)
• More Tales of the Black Widowers (1976)
• Casebook of the Black Widowers (1980)
• Banquets of the Black Widowers (1984)
• Puzzles of the Black Widowers (1990)
• The Return of the Black Widowers (2003)

Other mysteries

• Asimov's Mysteries (1968)
• The Union Club Mysteries (1980)
• The Disappearing Man and Other Mysteries (1985)
• The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov (1986)

Nonfiction

Popular science

Collections of columns from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

1. Fact and Fancy (1962)
2. View from a Height (1963)
3. Adding a Dimension (1964)
4. Of Time, Space, & Other Things (1965)
5. From Earth to Heaven (1966)
6. Science, Numbers and I (1968)
7. The Solar System and Back (1970)
8. The Stars in Their Courses (1971)
9. Left Hand of the Electron (1972)
10. The Tragedy of the Moon (1973)
11. Of Matters Great & Small (1975)
12. The Planet that Wasn't (1976)
13. Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright (1977)
14. Road to Infinity (1979)
15. The Sun Shines Bright (1981)
16. Counting the Eons (1983)
17. X Stands for Unknown (1984)
18. The Subatomic Monster (1985)
19. Far as Human Eye Could See (1987)
20. The Relativity of Wrong (1988)
21. Out of the Everywhere (1990)
22. The Secret of The Universe (1990)

Others

• The Chemicals of Life (1954)
• Inside the Atom (1956)
• Only a Trillion (1957)
• The World of Carbon (1958)
• The World of Nitrogen (1958)
• Words of Science and the History Behind Them (1959)
• The Clock We Live On (1959)
• Asimov on Numbers (1959)
• Life and Energy (1962)
• The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation (1963)
• The Human Brain (1964)
• The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science (1965)
  • 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 (1966)
• The Neutrino (1966)
• Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor (1971)
• Our World in Space (1974)
• The Collapsing Universe (1977) ISBN 0-671-81738-8
• Extraterrestrial Civilizations (1979)
• Views of the Universe (1981)
• Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos (1982)
• Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery (1989, second edition extends to 1993)
• Asimov's Chronology of the World (1991)
• Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space (1991)
• Asimov Laughs Again (1992)
• Quasars, Pulsars and Black Holes(1992)
• The Sun (2003, revised by Richard Hantula)
• Jupiter (2004, revised by Richard Hantula)
• The Earth (2004, revised by Richard Hantula)
• Venus (2004, revised by Richard Hantula)

Annotations

• Asimov's Annotated "Don Juan"
• Asimov's Annotated "Paradise Lost"
• Asimov's Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan
• The Annotated "Gulliver's Travels"

Guides

• Asimov's Guide to the Bible, vols I and II (1981), ISBN 0-517-34582-X
• Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, vols I and II (1970), ISBN 0-517-26825-6

Autobiography

• In Memory Yet Green, (1979, Doubleday)
• In Joy Still Felt, (1980, Doubleday)
• I, Asimov:A Memoir, (1994, Doubleday)

Other nonfiction

• Opus 100 (1969)
• The Sensuous Dirty Old Man (A collection of limericks)(1971)
• Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (1972)
• Opus 200 (1979)
• Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1979)
• The Roving Mind (1983) (collection of essays). The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a Science fiction novel with mystery and thriller elements on the subjects of Time The Gods Themselves is a 1972 Science fiction Novel written by Isaac Asimov. Nemesis is a Science fiction Novel by Isaac Asimov. One of his later science fiction novels it was published in 1989, only three " Nightfall " is an influential Science fiction Short story by author Isaac Asimov, about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American author best known for writing Science fiction. The Ugly Little Boy is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American author best known for writing Science fiction. The Ugly Little Boy is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. The Positronic Man ( 1993) is a novel co-written by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's Novella The Bicentennial Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American author best known for writing Science fiction. This list of short stories by Isaac Asimov is divided into published collections I Robot is a collection of nine Science fiction Short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an The Martian Way and Other Stories is a 1955 collection of four Science fiction novellas previously published by Isaac Asimov in 1952 Earth Is Room Enough is a collection of fifteen short Science fiction and Fantasy stories and two pieces of comic verse published by Isaac Asimov Nine Tomorrows is a collection of nine short stories and two pieces of comic verse by Isaac Asimov. The Rest of the Robots ( 1964) is a collection of eight Short stories and two full-length Novels by Isaac Asimov. Through A Glass Clearly ( 1967) is a collection of four Short stories by Isaac Asimov Nightfall and Other Stories (1969 is a book collecting previously published Science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. The Early Asimov or Eleven Years of Trying is a 1972 collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. The Best of Isaac Asimov, published in 1973, is a collection of 12 short stories by Isaac Asimov, chosen by Asimov himself Buy Jupiter and Other Stories is a 1975 collection of Short stories by Isaac Asimov. The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories is a Science fiction Anthology written and edited by Isaac Asimov (ISBN 0-385-12198-9 The Complete Robot is a collection of Science fiction Short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which The Winds of Change and Other Stories is Isaac Asimov 's twelfth collection of Science fiction short stories published in 1983 by Doubleday The Alternate Asimovs, Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, 1986. The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, published in 1986, is a collection of 28 short stories by Isaac Asimov. Robot Dreams ( 1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimov 's Short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings Azazel is Fantasy Short story collection by Isaac Asimov first published in 1988. Gold The Final Science Fiction Collection is a collection of Isaac Asimov 's stories and Essays The stories Robot Visions (1990 is a collection of Science fiction short stories and factual essays by Isaac Asimov. Magic is a 1995 collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. Contents (1989 To Your Health (1992 The Critic on the Hearth The Death Dealers is a Mystery novel by Isaac Asimov published in 1958 (later republished as A Whiff of Death Murder at the ABA ( 1976) is a Mystery novel by Isaac Asimov, following the adventures of a writer and amateur detective named Darius Just The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of mystery stories he wrote starting in 1971 Tales of the Black Widowers is a 1974 Mystery Book written by Isaac Asimov. More Tales of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional Casebook of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional Banquets of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional Puzzles of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional The Return of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional Asimov's Mysteries, published in 1968 is a collection of 14 short stories by Isaac Asimov, all of them Science fiction mysteries The Union Club Mysteries is a collection of mystery short stories by Science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional mystery The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (later Fantasy & Science Fiction and usually referred to as just F&SF) is a digest-size Fact and Fancy is a collection of seventeen scientific Essays by Isaac Asimov. View from a Height is a collection of seventeen scientific Essays by Isaac Asimov. Adding a Dimension is a collection of seventeen scientific Essays by Isaac Asimov. The Solar System and Back (1970 is the seventh collection of Isaac Asimov 's essays reprinted from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction It concerns the effect of electron-spin direction on molecular structure e Quasar Quasar Burning Bright is the thirteenth collection of essays by Isaac Asimov reprinted from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction The Subatomic Monster is a collection of 17 scientific essays by Isaac Asimov. Far as Human Eye Could See (published 1987 is the 19th collection of science essays by Isaac Asimov, short works which originally appeared in The Magazine of The Relativity of Wrong is a 1988 Essay collection by Isaac Asimov, which takes its title from the most ambitious essay it contains Out of the Everywhere is a collection of seventeen scientific essays by Isaac Asimov. The Secret of the Universe, is the twenty-second collection of science essays by Isaac Asimov, short works which originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Only a Trillion is a collection of ten science Essays and three scientific spoof articles by Isaac Asimov. Life and Energy is one of Isaac Asimov 's most famous and popular scientific books The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science is a general guide to the sciences written by Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov 's Treasury of Humor is a book of "640 Jokes anecdotes and Limericks, complete with notes on how to tell them" Extraterrestrial Civilizations is a book written by Isaac Asimov in 1979, wherein the probability of there being intelligent Extraterrestrial Views of the Universe is a book written by Isaac Asimov in 1981. Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos is a book written by Isaac Asimov in 1982. This book by Isaac Asimov explains in chronological order important events that happened in our World from the Big Bang until the end of World War II. Guide to Earth and Space (ISBN 0-449-22059-1 is a non-fiction work by the well-known science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Don Juan (dɒn dʒuən is a long digressive satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses portraying Juan not as Paradise Lost is an Epic poem in Blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of Librettist W Gulliver's Travels (1726 amended 1735 officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World in Four Parts Asimov's Guide to the Bible is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes covering the Old Testament (including the Apocrypha Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, by Isaac Asimov, vols I and II (1970 ISBN 0-517-26825-6 This work gives a short guide to every Shakespeare play and In Memory Yet Green is the first volume of Isaac Asimov 's two-volume autobiography The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world In Memory Yet Green is the first volume of Isaac Asimov 's two-volume autobiography The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world Opus 100 is Isaac Asimov 's one hundredth book It was published by Houghton Mifflin on 16 October 1969 A limerick is a five-line Poem with a strict form originally popularized in English by Edward Lear. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology is a history of science by Isaac Asimov, more recently updated by his daughter Robyn Asimov New edition published by Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-181-5. Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for
• Our Federal Union (1975) ISBN 0-395-2283-3

TV and film appearances

• Stranieri in America 1988
• Oltre New York 1986
• Voyage to the Outer Planets and Beyond 1986
• Target. . . Earth? 1980
• The Dick Cavett Show 1970
• The Nature of Things 1969

References

Print media

• Asimov, Isaac. In Memory Yet Green (1979, ISBN 0-380-75432-0).

In Joy Still Felt (1980, ISBN 0-380-53025-2).

I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994). ISBN 0-385-41701-2 (hc), ISBN 0-553-56997-X (pb).

Yours, Isaac Asimov (1996), edited by Stanley Asimov. ISBN 0-385-47624-8.

It's Been a Good Life (2002), edited by Janet Asimov. ISBN 1-57392-968-9.

• 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", IASFM, July 1980, pp. Asimov's Science Fiction (ISSN 1065-2698 is an American Science fiction magazine which publishes Science fiction and Fantasy and 56–81. Reprinted in the 1982 book.

Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (1982). ISBN 0-19-503060-5.

The Science of Science-Fiction Writing (2000). ISBN 1-57886-011-3.

Further reading

Print media

• Fiedler, Jean; Jim Mele (1982). Isaac Asimov. ISBN 0-8044-2203-6.  
• Joseph D. Oleander and Martin H. Greenberg (editors) (1974). Martin Harry Greenberg (born March 1[[ 941]] is a prolific American Speculative fiction anthologist and writer Isaac Asimov. ISBN 0-8008-4258-8, Hardback ISBN 0-8008-4257-X.  
• Patrouch, Joseph F. (1977). The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov. ISBN 0-385-08696-2.  
• Touponce, William F. (1991). Isaac Asimov. ISBN 0-8057-7623-0.  
• White, Michael (1994). Asimov: The Unauthorized Life. ISBN 0-14-004130-3.  

External links

• Isaac Asimov Home Page
• Isaac Asimov Wikia Page that contains overview to most of his books
• Isaac Asimov at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Isaac Asimov at the Internet Movie Database
• Isaac Asimov at the Internet Book Database of Fiction {Work in Progress}
• 1987 interview with Isaac Asimov by Don Swaim at Wired for Books. Don Swaim (born 1936 is an American journalist and broadcaster. Wired for Books is an online educational project of the WOUB Center for Public Media at Ohio University in Athens Ohio.
• Guardian Books "Author Page", with profile and links to further articles.
• 15-Book Reading Order as Suggested by Asimov From "Author's Note" of "Prelude to Foundation" Doubleday 1988 hardcover edition

Persondata
NAME	Asimov, Isaac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Исаак Озимов (Russian); Айзек Азимов (Russian); French, Paul (pseudonym); Dale, George E. (pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Russian-born American novelist, short story author, essayist, historian, biochemist, textbook writer, humorist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 2?, 1920?
PLACE OF BIRTH	Petrovichi, RSFSR
DATE OF DEATH	April 6, 1992
PLACE OF DEATH	New York, New York, U.S.

Petrovichi (Петро́вичи is a village in Shumyachsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located about 400 kilometers The City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic