Asimov Isaac. I, Asimov: A Memoir

NY: Bantam, 1995. — 608 p. — ISBN 978-0553569971, 055356997X.Arguably the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived, Isaac Asimov also possessed one of the most brilliant and original minds of our time. His accessible style and far-reaching interests in subjects ranging from science to humor to history earned him the nickname the «Great Explainer».
I. Asimov is his personal story — vivid, open, and honest—as only Asimov himself could tell it.
Here is the story of the paradoxical genius who wrote of travel to the stars yet refused to fly in airplanes; who imagined alien universes and vast galactic civilizations while staying home to write; who compulsively authored more than 470 books yet still found the time to share his ideas with some of the great minds of our century. Here are his wide-ranging thoughts and sharp-eyed observations on everything from religion to politics, love and divorce, friendship and Hollywood, fame and mortality. Here, too, is a riveting behind-the-scenes look at the varied personalities —Campbell, Ellison, Heinlein, Clarke, del Rey, Silverberg, and others — who along with Asimov helped shape science fiction.
As unique and irrepressible as the man himself, I. Asimov is the candid memoir of an incomparable talent who entertained readers for nearly half a century and whose work will surely endure into the future he so vividly envisioned.
Isaac Asimov was one of our most beloved authors, and when he died in 1992 at the age of seventy-two he left behind an unparalleled legacy of thought and imagination. In a career that lasted more than fifty years, he wrote more than 470 books and innumerable articles and short stories, winning the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Perhaps best known as one of science fiction's founding fathers, he wrote the novels that defined the genre and went on to become its all-time bestselling voice. But more than that, Isaac Asimov was one of the most wide-ranging minds of this century, and he earned the nick- name the Great Explainer for his non- fiction works on subjects ranging from the nature of the universe to Byron's «Don Juan» In these memoirs, he looks back on a long and very full life, and discusses subjects he has never before addressed. Exuberant, topically arranged, and richly anecdotal, I. Asimov shines with the author's incomparable personality.
The story of Isaac Asimov's life is an illustrious twentieth-century odyssey. The beginnings of his writing career were the beginnings of science fiction, and he writes of that time the golden age of pulp fiction with warmth and candor. As Asimov's fame grew, so did his contacts with other science fiction writers, and his circle of friends became a veritable Who's Who of science-fiction greats. He reminisces fondly about the people who played important roles in his life, among them Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl, John W. Campbell, Jr., Robert A. Heinlein, L Sprague de Camp, Clifford Simak, Harlan Ellison, Ben Bova, Lester and Judy-Lynn del Rey, Robert Silverberg, and Martin Greenberg.
A man of great humor, bonhomie, and vision, Asimov made friends in all walks of life and traded ideas with some of the great minds of his time. His renown as a science-fiction writer and disseminator of modern scientific thought attracted speaking invitations of all kinds, and I. Asimov brims with delightful (and delightfully embarrassing) vignettes from a lifetime of public oration. These memoirs provide an unflinching look into the inner recesses of Isaac Asimov's personal life, including his views on religion, love, divorce, children, death, and much more; they also offer a window into the formation of the famed «Asimov Style» that enabled him to become the most prolific writer of our time.
Moving, funny, and utterly irresistible, I. Asimov is a fitting retrospective of a singular life and career.Introduction
Infant Prodigy?
My Father
My Mother
Marcia
Religion
My Name
Anti-Semitism
Library
Bookworm
School
Growing Up
Long Hours
Pulp Fiction
Science Fiction
Beginning to Write
Humiliation
Failure
The Futurians
Frederik Pohl
Cyril M. Kornbluth
Donald Allen Wollheim
Early Sales
John Wood Campbell, Jr.
Robert Anson Heinlein
Lyon Sprague de Camp
Clifford Donald Simak
Jack Williamson
Lester del Rey
Theodore Sturgeon
Graduate School
Women
Heartbreak
«Nightfall»
As World War II Begins
Master of Arts
Pearl Harbor
Marriage and Problems
In-Laws
NAES
Life at War’s End
Games
Acrophobia
Claustrophilia
Ph.D. and Public Speaking
Postdoctorate
Job Hunting
The Big Three
Arthur Charles Clarke
More Family
First Novel
New Job at Last
Doubleday
Gnome Press
Boston University School of Medicine
Scientific Papers
Novels
Nonfiction
Children
David
Robyn
Off the Cuff
Horace Leonard Gold
Country Living
Automobile
Fired!
Prolificity
Writer’s Problems
Critics
Humor
Literary Sex and Censorship
Doomsday
Style
Letters
Plagiarism
Science Fiction Conventions
Anthony Boucher
Randall Garrett
Harlan Ellison
Hal Clement
Ben Bova
Over My Head
Farewell to Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Janet
Mystery Novels
Lawrence P. Ashmead
Overweight
More Conventions
Guide to Science
Indexes
Titles
Essay Collections
Histories
Reference Library
Boston University Collection
Anthologies
Headnotes
My Own Hugos
Walker & Company
Failures
Teenagers
Al Capp
Oases
Judy-Lynn del Rey
The Bible
Hundredth Book
Death
Life After Death
Divorce
Second Marriage
Guide to Shakespeare
Annotations
New In-Laws
Hospitalizations
Cruises
Janet’s Books
Hollywood
Star Trek Conventions
Short Mysteries
Trap Door Spiders
Mensa
The Dutch Treat Club
The Baker Street Irregulars
The Gilbert & Sullivan Society
Other Clubs
American Way
Rensselaerville Institute
Mohonk Mountain House
Travel
Foreign Travel
Martin Harry Greenberg
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
Autobiography
Heart Attack
Crown Publishers
Simon & Schuster
Marginal Items
Nightfall, Inc.
Hugh Downs
Best-seller
Out of the Past
Word Processor
Police
Heinz Pagels
New Robot Novels
Robyn Again
Triple Bypass
Azazel
Fantastic Voyage II
Limousines
Humanists
Senior Citizen
More About Doubleday
Interviews
Honors
Russian Relatives
Grand Master
Children’s Books
Recent Novels
Back to Nonfiction
Robert Silverberg
Gathering Shadows
Threescore Years and Ten
Hospital
New Autobiography
New Life
Epilogue, by Janet Asimov
Catalogue of Books by Isaac Asimov