Isaac Asimov
| Famous as | Writer, Professor |
| Born on | 02 January 1920 |
| Born in | Petrovichi in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic |
| Died on | 06 April 1992 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Works & Achievements | Introduced the era of Science Fiction writing, He was voted the best short science fiction story of all time in 1964 |
Isaac Asimov Childhood
There is much confusion surrounding Isaac Asimov’s exact date of
birth. Isaac Asimov was born anywhere between 4 October 1919 and 2
January 1920 in Petrovichi in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
presently known as Russia to a Jewish miller family. His mother was Anna
Rachel Berman Asimov while Judah Asimov was his father. He is known to
have celebrated his birthday on 2 January. His name in purely Russian is
spelt as Isaak Ozimov. Isaac was 3 years old when his family shifted to
the United States. His parents being Yiddish and English speakers,
Asimov never learnt how to speak proper Russian.
Early Years
Asimov was highly interested in science fiction as a young kid. He
extensively read popular pulp magazines which his father asked him not
to read because Asimov’s father felt the magazines were useless.
However, Asimov got his way with his father making him see the ‘science’
factor alive in the magazines which made them educational in nature.
Asimov’s great interest in this field made him take up the pen at the
age of 11 when he first started writing stories. When he turned 19,
Asimov had honed the art of writing professional science fiction and his stories were sold to science fiction magazines of his time. Asimov discovered community of people who were hugely interested in science fiction and they were called SF fandom or Science fiction fandom. Asimov got heavily influenced by the editor of ‘Astounding Science Fiction’, John W. Campbell who later became a personal friend of Asimov.
Education
Asimov received his formal education from several schools registered under New York City Public Schools
which included Boys High School, in Brooklyn, New York. He moved to
Seth Low Junior College studying for two years before joining Columbia
University where he completed his remaining education for gaining his
master’s degree. In 1939 Asimov received his graduation. He returned to
Columbia University in 1948 to gain his Ph.D. in biochemistry.
Career
Before earning his Ph.D., Asimov spent 3 years working as a
civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental Station
during the World War II. As the war came to an end Asimov was offered a
job in the US Army where he served for about 9 months before leaving the
job after receiving an honourable discharge. Asimov spent a great
military career which was short lived yet he gained high rank rising to
become a corporal for his excellent typing skills. In 1946, Asimov
barely escaped participation in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.
In 1948 Asimov completed his Doctorate degree after which he was appointed to the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine.
He remained here for a long time before deciding to run his non
teaching role at the University as he had already become an active
writer from 1958. Asimov kept serving as an associate professor (he only
held the title) but his full time commitment was with writing. Boston
University’s Mugar Memorial Library has archived all the
personal papers noted and written out by Asimov from the period spanning
from 1965 to his end days with the University. Asimov had even donated
all these papers to the University on curator Howard Gottlieb’s request.
The Asimov collection comprises of 464 boxes, or seventy-one meters of
shelf space. In 1979 Asimov was honoured by Boston University for his
tremendous writing career and contributions and he was made the
Professor of biochemistry.
Writing Career
Asimov used to extensively read science fiction as his family used to sell science fiction pulp magazines at their confectionery store in 1929. His contact with the science fiction community was built in the 1930s. In 1937 Asimov wrote his first science fiction story, “Cosmic Corkscrew” but was unable to complete it. In June 1938 Asimov visited the offices of Astounding Science Fiction
which made him think of completing his story. On 19 June 1938 Asimov
completed his “Cosmic Corkscrew” and went in person to submit his story
to John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding. Asimov’s story was rejected
but he was encouraged by Campbell to keep trying. Asimov soon came up
with his third story, “Marooned Off Vesta” which he sold to Amazing
Stories magazine in October. This story was published in the March issue
of Amazing magazine in 1939. Asimov continued his writing and often
sold his stories to various science fiction pulp magazines.
In 1941 Asimov brought out his 32nd story named “Nightfall” which became very popular and is often known to be the most famous science fiction stories of all time. Nightfall (was voted as “the best science fiction story ever” in 1968 by Science Fiction Writers of America) was the introduction of a new genre of writing which was more of a social science fiction
bringing in a new trend in the 1940s. It was later brought out in a
short story collection, ‘Nightfall and Other Stories’. By 1941 Asimov
had sold (regularly) great many stories to Astounding magazine which led
the science fiction field. All of Asimov’s published science fiction stories and other writings were featured in Astounding from 1943 to 1949.
In 1942 Asimov brought out the very first of his numerous
Foundation series stories. His later works of the Foundation series
include the Foundation Trilogy: Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire
(1952), and Second Foundation (1953). His Foundation series novels were
about a Galactic Empire and the story of their collapse and rebirth set
in a future universe. Foundation series is arguably the best sci-fi
(popular short form for science fiction) work done by Asimov. Robot
series (written much later) is also a brilliant work by Asimov. Such was
the genius of Asimov that he wrote his robotic series simultaneously
with the Foundation series. ‘I, Robot’ (made into a film in 2004
starring Hollywood actor Will Smith) was published in 1950 talking about
positronic brain in robots (a fictional device) and their stories. This
revolutionized the scientific world and encouraged many future writers
to write on this. Asimov’s robot series stories formulated rules and
codes of ethics for robots. In 1942 Asimov brought out his very famous
‘The Three Laws of Robotics’ which he introduced in his short story
‘Runaround’. The Laws are:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
‘The Bicentennial Man’ was also a very popular story of the robot
series which was later made into a Hollywood film starring Robin
Williams.
Other Contributions
In the late 1950s and 60s Asimov stopped writing fictions. He
published four adult novels two of which were mysteries. He increased
his non-fiction writing after the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Magazine of
Fantasy and Science Fiction had asked Asimov to regularly contribute
for their monthly edition in the non-fiction column. Another bimonthly
companion magazine ‘Venture Science Fiction Magazine’ which had
dedicated themselves purely in serving popular science and Asimov got
his full freedom as the magazine’s editor. First F&SF columns
appeared in November 1958. Asimov also dedicatedly wrote about social
issues and observations of his time in his essays "Thinking About
Thinking" and "Science: Knock Plastic" (1967). He wrote many other
essays dealing with society.
Asimov wrote about bible in two parts bringing out ‘Asimov's Guide
to the Bible’ in two volumes, one covering the Old Testament in 1967 and
the other covering the New Testament in 1969.
Asimov was greatly interested in English Literature which guided
him to write and publish ‘Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare’ in 1970,
‘Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost’ in 1974 and ‘The Annotated Gulliver's
Travels’ in 1980.
Asimov wrote many different genre books of which 1987’s ‘How to
Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort’ is a notable one which Asimov
had co written. This book talked about ways to build positive attitudes
and how to deal with discouragement distractions, rejection and
thick-headed editors. Several husband-wife dialogues surrounding an
author’s ups and downs, quotations, essays, anecdotes were included in
the book.
Asimov coined the term “Robotics” (which came out for the first
time in 1941 story, Liar). Asimov also termed the word “Spome” in one of
his papers, “There’s No Place Like Spome” which was originally
presented as a paper to the American Chemical Society on September 13,
1965. Spome is a type of any system which is closed to matter but open
to energy and is able to sustain human life indefinitely.
Asimov was greatly interested in History which made him write 14
popular history books, some of the notable ones being, ‘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).
Personal Life
On 26 July 1942 Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman with whom he had
two children, David (born in 1951) and Robyn Joan (born in 1955). In
1970 Asimov separated from Gertrude before getting divorced in 1973.
Asimov married Janet O. Jeppson in the same year.
Asimov had very different habits. He liked to listen to the noise
of trains passing by during his reading hours so he often enclosed
himself. He was always afraid of flying. Asimov was a very good public
speaker and he was very friendly to converse and discuss topics with.
Death
In 1977 Asimov had a heart attack for which he went for triple
bypass surgery in December 1983. He died in New York City on 6 April
1992. Asimov’s brother Stanley had reported heart and kidney failure
which had possibly caused Asimov’s death.
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Timeline: | ||||
1920 – He was born on 2 January
1939 - Asimov received his graduation from Columbia University
1937 - Asimov wrote his first science fiction story, “Cosmic Corkscrew” but was unable to complete it
1938 – In June Asimov visited the offices of Astounding Science Fiction which made him think of completing “Cosmic Corkscrew”
1938 - On 19 June Asimov completed his “Cosmic Corkscrew” and went in person to submit his story to John W. Campbell
1941 - Asimov brought out his 32nd story named “Nightfall” which became very popular and is often known to be the most famous science fiction stories of all time
1941 - Asimov had sold (regularly) great many stories to Astounding magazine
1942 - Asimov brought out his very first of his numerous Foundation series stories
1942 - Asimov brought out his very famous ‘The Three Laws of Robotics’ which he introduced in his short story ‘Runaround’
1942 - On 26 July Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman
1946 - Asimov barely escaped participation in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll
1948 - He returned to Columbia University to gain his Ph.D. in biochemistry
1948 - Asimov completed his Doctorate degree after which he was appointed to the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine
1950 - ‘I, Robot’ (made into a film in 2004
starring Hollywood actor Will Smith) was published which talked about
positronic brain in robots (a fictional device) and their stories
1951 – “Foundation Trilogy: Foundation” was published
1952 – “Foundation and Empire” was published
1953 – “Second Foundation” was published
1958 – Asimov became an active writer
1965 – He termed the word “Spome” in one of his
papers, “There’s No Place Like Spome” which was originally presented as a
paper to the American Chemical Society on September 13
1965 – First history book ‘The Greeks: A Great Adventure’ was published
1966 - Another history book ‘The Roman Republic’ was published
1967 - ‘The Roman Empire’ was published
1967 - ‘The Egyptians’ were brought out
1967 - Asimov dedicatedly wrote about social
issues and observations of his time in his essays "Thinking About
Thinking" and "Science: Knock Plastic"
1967 & 1969 - ‘Asimov's Guide
to the Bible’ was brought out in two volumes, one covering the Old
Testament in 1967 and the other covering the New Testament in 1969
1968 - ‘The Near East: 10,000 Years of History’ was published
1968 – His story ‘Nightfall’ was voted by Science Fiction Writers of America as the best science fiction story ever written
1970 - ‘Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare’ was published
1970 - Asimov separated from Gertrude
1973 – Asimov got a divorce with Gertrude
1974 - ‘Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost’ was brought out
1977 - Asimov had a heart attack for which he went for triple bypass surgery
1979 - Asimov was honoured by Boston University
for his tremendous writing career and contributions and he was made the
Professor of biochemistry
1980 – He brought out his ‘The Annotated Gulliver's Travels’
1987 - He co-wrote ‘How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort’
1992 – Asimov died on 6 April
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