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79-711: The village is the birthplace of Isaac Asimov . Asimov left it at the age of three, with his parents and sister, emigrating to the United States . There is a stone memorial at the site of his birth. The earliest recorded mention of Petrovichi is from 1403. In the Russian Empire , Petrovichi was a shtetl in Klimovichskiy Uyezd (an uyezd with the seat in Klimovichi ) of Mogilev Governorate . The governorate, historically Belarusian land,

158-455: A Frankenstein plot in which they destroyed their creators. The Robot series has led to film adaptations. With Asimov's collaboration, in about 1977, Harlan Ellison wrote a screenplay of I, Robot that Asimov hoped would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction film ever made". The screenplay has never been filmed and was eventually published in book form in 1994. The 2004 movie I, Robot , starring Will Smith ,

237-495: A New York City Subway station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading. Asimov was afraid of flying , doing so only twice: once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station and once returning home from Oʻahu in 1946. Consequently, he seldom traveled great distances. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as

316-494: A Second World War in which Nazi Germany and Poland are evenly matched militarily, fighting an indecisive war over ten years; and Poul Anderson's early 1950s Psychotechnic League depicted a world undergoing a devastating nuclear war in 1958, yet by the early 21st century managing not only to rebuild the ruins on Earth but also engage in extensive space colonization of the Moon and several planets. A writer possessing knowledge of

395-487: A Judah Asimov Scholarship Fund at Brandeis University . In 2006, he was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York to the inaugural class of winners of the Great Immigrants Award . In 1977, Asimov had a heart attack . In December 1983, he had triple bypass surgery at NYU Medical Center, during which he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion . His HIV status was kept secret out of concern that

474-552: A civilian chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 's Naval Air Experimental Station and lived in the Walnut Hill section of West Philadelphia . In September 1945, he was conscripted into the post-war U.S. Army ; if he had not had his birth date corrected while at school, he would have been officially 26 years old and ineligible. In 1946, a bureaucratic error caused his military allotment to be stopped, and he

553-479: A college-level textbook called Biochemistry and Human Metabolism . Following the brief orbit of the first human-made satellite Sputnik I by the USSR in 1957, he wrote more nonfiction, particularly popular science books, and less science fiction. Over the next quarter-century, he wrote only four science fiction novels, and 120 nonfiction books. Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with

632-609: A conversation with Campbell, Asimov wrote " Nightfall ", his 32nd story, in March and April 1941, and Astounding published it in September 1941. In 1968 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story ever written. In Nightfall and Other Stories Asimov wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and

711-538: A father image". Asimov believed his most enduring contributions would be his " Three Laws of Robotics " and the Foundation series . The Oxford English Dictionary credits his science fiction for introducing into the English language the words " robotics ", " positronic " (an entirely fictional technology), and " psychohistory " (which is also used for a different study on historical motivations). Asimov coined

790-767: A full novel of 70,000 words. The book appeared under the Doubleday imprint in January 1950 with the title of Pebble in the Sky . Doubleday published five more original science fiction novels by Asimov in the 1950s, along with the six juvenile Lucky Starr novels , the latter under the pseudonym "Paul French". Doubleday also published collections of Asimov's short stories, beginning with The Martian Way and Other Stories in 1955. The early 1950s also saw Gnome Press publish one collection of Asimov's positronic robot stories as I, Robot and his Foundation stories and novelettes as

869-419: A full-time writer. He later said that unlike other Golden Age writers Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt —also first published in 1939, and whose talent and stardom were immediately obvious—Asimov "(this is not false modesty) came up only gradually". Through July 29, 1940, Asimov wrote 22 stories in 25 months, of which 13 were published; he wrote in 1972 that from that date he never wrote a science fiction story that

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948-586: A future history. Standalone stories which trace an arc of history are rarely considered future histories. Future histories differ from alternate history , in which different outcomes are ascribed to past events, because they consist of imagined events in the writer's future. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls The Ruins; Or, a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires , by Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney (published in 1791) probably

1027-425: A historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. Examples include Guide to Science , the three-volume Understanding Physics , and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery . He wrote on numerous other scientific and non-scientific topics, such as chemistry , astronomy , mathematics , history , biblical exegesis , and literary criticism . He

1106-416: A history book from the future, having no personal protagonists but rather describing the development of nations and societies over decades and centuries. Such works include: The first science fiction writer to create a future history may have been Neil R. Jones in his stories of the 1930s. The term appears to have been coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. , the editor of Astounding Science Fiction , in

1185-484: A paper to DARPA titled "On Creativity" containing ideas on how government-based science projects could encourage team members to think more creatively. Asimov met his first wife, Gertrude Blugerman (May 16, 1917, Toronto , Canada  – October 17, 1990, Boston , U.S. ), on a blind date on February 14, 1942, and married her on July 26. The couple lived in an apartment in West Philadelphia while Asimov

1264-412: A pseudonym. When it nevertheless appeared under his own name, Asimov grew concerned that his doctoral examiners might think he wasn't taking science seriously. At the end of the examination, one evaluator turned to him, smiling, and said, "What can you tell us, Mr. Asimov, about the thermodynamic properties of the compound known as thiotimoline". Laughing hysterically with relief, Asimov had to be led out of

1343-516: A strong formative influence on Asimov and became a personal friend. By the end of the month, Asimov completed a second story, " Stowaway ". Campbell rejected it on July 22 but—in "the nicest possible letter you could imagine"—encouraged him to continue writing, promising that Asimov might sell his work after another year and a dozen stories of practice. On October 21, 1938, he sold the third story he finished, " Marooned Off Vesta ", to Amazing Stories , edited by Raymond A. Palmer , and it appeared in

1422-464: A used typewriter at age 16. His first published work was a humorous item on the birth of his brother for Boys High School's literary journal in 1934. In May 1937 he first thought of writing professionally, and began writing his first science fiction story, "Cosmic Corkscrew" (now lost), that year. On May 17, 1938, puzzled by a change in the schedule of Astounding Science Fiction , Asimov visited its publisher Street & Smith Publications . Inspired by

1501-518: A year. He expected to make chemistry his career, and was paid $ 2,600 annually at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, enough to marry his girlfriend; he did not expect to make much more from writing than the $ 1,788.50 he had earned from the 28 stories he had already sold over four years. Asimov left science fiction fandom and no longer read new magazines, and might have left the writing profession had not Heinlein and de Camp been his coworkers at

1580-466: Is done through extensive use of retroactive continuity . In yet other cases, such as the Doctor Who television series and the fiction based on it, much use is made of secret history, in which the events that take place are largely secret and not known to the general public. As with Heinlein, some authors simply write a detailed future history and accept the fact that events will overtake it, making

1659-520: Is my compulsion to write ... That means that my idea of a pleasant time is to go up to my attic, sit at my electric typewriter (as I am doing right now), and bang away, watching the words take shape like magic before my eyes. Asimov's career can be divided into several periods. 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 (1957). He began publishing nonfiction as co-author of

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1738-591: Is that it will date and be overtaken by real historical events, for instance H. Beam Piper's future history, which included a nuclear war in 1973, and much of the future history of Star Trek . Jerry Pournelle 's " CoDominium " future history assumed that the Cold War would end with the United States and Soviet Union establishing a co-rule of the world, the CoDominium of the title, which would last into

1817-585: Is the Foundation series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. The Galactic Empire novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. Later, with Foundation and Earth (1986), he linked this distant future to

1896-527: The Humanist Manifesto . From 1985 until his death in 1992, he served as honorary president of the AHA, and was succeeded by his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut . He was also a close friend of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry , and earned a screen credit as "special science consultant" on Star Trek: The Motion Picture for his advice during production. Asimov was a founding member of

1975-508: The Boston University School of Medicine . This was in large part due to his years-long correspondence with William Boyd , a former associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University, who initially contacted Asimov to compliment him on his story Nightfall . Upon receiving a promotion to professor of immunochemistry , Boyd reached out to Asimov, requesting him to be his replacement. The initial offer of professorship

2054-640: The Columbia University School of General Studies ) in 1939. After two rounds of rejections by medical schools, Asimov applied to the graduate program in chemistry at Columbia in 1939; initially he was rejected and then only accepted on a probationary basis. He completed his Master of Arts degree in chemistry in 1941 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry in 1948. During his chemistry studies, he also learned French and German. From 1942 to 1945 during World War II , between his masters and doctoral studies, Asimov worked as

2133-542: The Latin alphabet , Asimov's father spelled it with an S, believing this letter to be pronounced like Z (as in German), and so it became Asimov. This later inspired one of Asimov's short stories, " Spell My Name with an S ". Asimov refused early suggestions of using a more common name as a pseudonym, believing that its recognizability helped his career. After becoming famous, he often met readers who believed that "Isaac Asimov"

2212-580: The Robot series, creating a unified " future history " for his works. He also wrote more than 380 short stories , including the social science fiction novelette " Nightfall ", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America . Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French. Most of his popular science books explain concepts in

2291-608: The SS ; France for a trip mostly devoted to lectures in London and Birmingham, though he also found time to visit Stonehenge and Shakespeare's birthplace. Asimov was a teetotaler . He was an able public speaker and was regularly invited to give talks about science in his distinct New York accent . He participated in many science fiction conventions , where he was friendly and approachable. He patiently answered tens of thousands of questions and other mail with postcards and

2370-841: The Trap Door Spiders , which served as the basis of his fictional group of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers . He later used his essay on Moriarty's work as the basis for a Black Widowers story, " The Ultimate Crime ", which appeared in More Tales of the Black Widowers . In 1984, the American Humanist Association (AHA) named him the Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of

2449-470: The Upper West Side of Manhattan where he lived for the rest of his life. He began seeing Janet O. Jeppson , a psychiatrist and science-fiction writer, and married her on November 30, 1973, two weeks after his divorce from Gertrude. Asimov was a claustrophile : he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces. In the third volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in

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2528-636: The Wendell Urth mystery stories and the Robot novels featuring Elijah Baley . In his later years, Asimov found enjoyment traveling on cruise ships , beginning in 1972 when he viewed the Apollo 17 launch from a cruise ship . On several cruises, he was part of the entertainment program, giving science-themed talks aboard ships such as the Queen Elizabeth 2 . He sailed to England in June 1974 on

2607-592: The anti-AIDS prejudice might extend to his family members. He died in Manhattan on April 6, 1992, and was cremated. The cause of death was reported as heart and kidney failure . Ten years following Asimov's death, Janet and Robyn Asimov agreed that the HIV story should be made public; Janet revealed it in her edition of his autobiography, It's Been a Good Life . [T]he only thing about myself that I consider to be severe enough to warrant psychoanalytic treatment

2686-437: The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan . Many of his short stories mention or quote Gilbert and Sullivan. He was a prominent member of The Baker Street Irregulars , the leading Sherlock Holmes society, for whom he wrote an essay arguing that Professor Moriarty's work "The Dynamics of An Asteroid" involved the willful destruction of an ancient, civilized planet. He was also a member of the male-only literary banqueting club

2765-575: The pulp magazines sold in his family's candy store. At first his father forbade reading pulps until Asimov persuaded him that because the science fiction magazines had "Science" in the title, they must be educational. At age 18 he joined the Futurians science fiction fan club , where he made friends who went on to become science fiction writers or editors. Asimov began writing at the age of 11, imitating The Rover Boys with eight chapters of The Greenville Chums at College . His father bought him

2844-411: The second grade ). His mother got him into first grade a year early by claiming he was born on September 7, 1919. In third grade he learned about the "error" and insisted on an official correction of the date to January 2. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1928 at the age of eight. After becoming established in the U.S., his parents owned a succession of candy stores in which everyone in

2923-418: The 100s category, but none of his own books were classified in that category. According to UNESCO 's Index Translationum database , Asimov is the world's 24th-most-translated author. No matter how various the subject matter I write on, I was a science-fiction writer first and it is as a science-fiction writer that I want to be identified. Asimov became a science fiction fan in 1929, when he began reading

3002-473: The 22nd Century—rather than the Soviet Union collapsing in 1991. There are several ways this is dealt with. One solution to the problem is when some authors set their stories in an indefinite future, often in a society where the current calendar has been disrupted due to a societal collapse or undergone some form of distortion due to the impact of technology. Related to the first, some stories are set in

3081-711: The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ) and is listed in its Pantheon of Skeptics. In a discussion with James Randi at CSICon 2016 regarding the founding of CSICOP, Kendrick Frazier said that Asimov was "a key figure in the Skeptical movement who is less well known and appreciated today, but was very much in

3160-565: The February 1941 issue of the magazine, to describe Robert A. Heinlein 's Future History ; the issue included a timeline of the stories. However, a fan had used the term, with "history" in quotation marks, in a letter to the pulp Thrilling Wonder Stories the previous year. The future projected in a "future history" can often turn out to be wildly inaccurate. For example, in 1933 H. G. Wells postulated in The Shape of Things to Come

3239-755: The March 1939 issue. Asimov was paid $ 64 (equivalent to $ 1,385 in 2023), or one cent a word. Two more stories appeared that year, " The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use " in the May Amazing and " Trends " in the July Astounding , the issue fans later selected as the start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction . For 1940, ISFDB catalogs seven stories in four different pulp magazines, including one in Astounding . His earnings became enough to pay for his education, but not yet enough for him to become

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3318-517: The Navy Yard and previously sold stories continued to appear. In 1942, Asimov published the first of his Foundation stories—later collected in the Foundation trilogy : Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953). The books describe the fall of a vast interstellar empire and the establishment of its eventual successor. They feature his fictional science of psychohistory , whose theories could predict

3397-596: The United States via Liverpool on the RMS Baltic , arriving on February 3, 1923 when he was three years old. His parents spoke Yiddish and English to him; he never learned Russian , his parents using it as a secret language "when they wanted to discuss something privately that my big ears were not to hear". Growing up in Brooklyn , New York , Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five (and later taught his sister to read as well, enabling her to enter school in

3476-487: The academically qualified Jewish and Italian-American students who applied to the more prestigious Columbia College , but exceeded the unwritten ethnic admission quotas which were common at the time. Originally a zoology major, Asimov switched to chemistry after his first semester because he disapproved of "dissecting an alley cat". After Seth Low Junior College closed in 1936, Asimov finished his Bachelor of Science degree at Columbia's Morningside Heights campus (later

3555-471: The actual swift collapse of Poland in World War II and the enormous actual costs of far less ambitious space programs in a far less devastated world would have been unlikely to postulate such outcomes. 2001: A Space Odyssey was set in the future and featured developments in space travel and habitation which have not occurred on the timescale postulated. A problem with future history science fiction

3634-445: The blessing of, or at the request of, Asimov's widow, Janet Asimov . In 1948, he also wrote a spoof chemistry article , " The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline ". At the time, Asimov was preparing his own doctoral dissertation , which would include an oral examination. Fearing a prejudicial reaction from his graduate school evaluation board at Columbia University , Asimov asked his editor that it be released under

3713-400: The family was expected to work. The candy stores sold newspapers and magazines, which Asimov credited as a major influence in his lifelong love of the written word, as it presented him as a child with an unending supply of new reading material (including pulp science fiction magazines ) that he could not have otherwise afforded. Asimov began reading science fiction at age nine, at the time that

3792-519: The first recognizable future history. In it, the narrator is transported into space and sees the Earth as a whole while its history unfolds, which Volney uses to present his political and theological ideas. It lists similar examples from the 19th and 20th centuries by William Delisle Hay , Alfred Döblin ( Berge Meere und Giganten ), André Maurois , and Olaf Stapledon ( Last and First Men and Star Maker ). Some of these purported to be excerpts of

3871-520: The first-season episode " Datalore " called the positronic brain "Asimov's dream". Asimov was so prolific and diverse in his writing that his books span all major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification except for category 100, philosophy and psychology . However, he wrote several essays about psychology, and forewords for the books The Humanist Way (1988) and In Pursuit of Truth (1982), which were classified in

3950-567: The future course of history according to dynamical laws regarding the statistical analysis of mass human actions. Campbell raised his rate per word, Orson Welles purchased rights to " Evidence ", and anthologies reprinted his stories. By the end of the war Asimov was earning as a writer an amount equal to half of his Navy Yard salary, even after a raise, but Asimov still did not believe that writing could support him, his wife, and future children. His "positronic" robot stories —many of which were collected in I, Robot (1950)—were begun at about

4029-683: The genre was becoming more science-centered. Asimov was also a frequent patron of the Brooklyn Public Library during his formative years. Asimov attended New York City public schools from age five, including Boys High School in Brooklyn . Graduating at 15, he attended the City College of New York for several days before accepting a scholarship at Seth Low Junior College . This was a branch of Columbia University in Downtown Brooklyn designed to absorb some of

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4108-583: The local synagogue. Tsar Nicholas I (who ruled from 1825 to 1855) at one point ordered the expulsion of all Jewish people who resided in Great Russia , or Russia proper, outside of the Pale of Settlement . However, a rich and powerful Russian landlord, who owned much land on both sides of the border, saved the Jewish community of Petrovichi from " ethnic cleansing " by illegally moving the border marker from

4187-665: The public eye back then." He said that Asimov's being associated with CSICOP "gave it immense status and authority" in his eyes. Asimov described Carl Sagan as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky . Asimov was an on-and-off member and honorary vice president of Mensa International , albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". After his father died in 1969, Asimov annually contributed to

4266-435: The publication of Foundation's Edge . 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 many inconsistencies in this unification, especially in his earlier stories. Doubleday and Houghton Mifflin published about 60% of his work up to 1969, Asimov stating that "both represent

4345-417: The reader can reconstruct the order of the stories from information provided. The term can also be used to describe the subgenre of science fiction that uses this framework. A set of stories which share a backdrop but are not really concerned with the sequence of history in their universe are rarely considered future histories. For example, Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga is not generally considered

4424-412: The room. After a five-minute wait, he was summoned back into the room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov". Demand for science fiction greatly increased during the 1950s, making it possible for a genre author to write full-time. In 1949, book publisher Doubleday 's science fiction editor Walter I. Bradbury accepted Asimov's unpublished "Grow Old with Me" (40,000 words), but requested that it be extended to

4503-401: The same time. 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. Asimov notes in his introduction to the short story collection The Complete Robot (1982) that he was largely inspired by the tendency of robots up to that time to fall consistently into

4582-625: The settlement of Jewish people. The village became a part of the Russian SFSR and briefly belonged to Gomel Governorate before being transferred to Smolensk Oblast . The population dwindled significantly. In 1921, Isaac Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed double pneumonia . Only Asimov survived. In July 1941, Petrovichi was occupied by the German armies. 416 Jewish inhabitants who did not flee in time were massacred. It

4661-410: The term "robotics" without suspecting that it might be an original word; at the time, he believed it was simply the natural analogue of words such as mechanics and hydraulics , but for robots . 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 " and

4740-476: The three books of the Foundation trilogy . More positronic robot stories were republished in book form as The Rest of the Robots . Future history A future history is a fictional conjecture of the future used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for stories. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, while other times

4819-536: The two h's and say it again and you have Asimov. Asimov's family name derives from the first part of озимый хлеб ( ozímyj khleb ), meaning ' winter grain ' (specifically rye ) in which his great-great-great-grandfather dealt, with the Russian surname ending -ov added. Azimov is spelled Азимов in the Cyrillic alphabet . When the family arrived in the United States in 1923 and their name had to be spelled in

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4898-497: The university's Mugar Memorial Library , to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gotlieb. In 1959, after a recommendation from Arthur Obermayer , Asimov's friend and a scientist on the U.S. missile defense project, Asimov was approached by DARPA to join Obermayer's team. Asimov declined on the grounds that his ability to write freely would be impaired should he receive classified information , but submitted

4977-458: The very remote future and only deal with the author's contemporary history in a sketchy fashion, if at all (e.g. the original Foundation Trilogy by Asimov). Another related case is where stories are set in the near future, but with an explicitly allohistorical past, as in Ken MacLeod 's Engines of Light series. In other cases, the merging of the fictional history and the known history

5056-487: The visit, he finished the story on June 19, 1938, and personally submitted it to Astounding editor John W. Campbell two days later. Campbell met with Asimov for more than an hour and promised to read the story himself. Two days later he received a detailed rejection letter. This was the first of what became almost weekly meetings with the editor while Asimov lived in New York, until moving to Boston in 1949; Campbell had

5135-455: The west to the east of the shtetl . Thus he saved half of the people from much suffering, as well as saving himself from losing their talents and skills. Petrovichi was an important hub of the wheat trade, and Jewish traders in wheat were respected for their honesty and efficiency. Petrovichi was part of Belarus for several decades. During the Soviet times, restrictions were no longer imposed on

5214-506: 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 he created to describe a new trend in the 1940s, led by authors including him and Heinlein, away from gadgets and space opera and toward speculation about the human condition . After writing " Victory Unintentional " in January and February 1942, Asimov did not write another story for

5293-551: Was a distinctive pseudonym created by an author with a common name. Asimov was born in Petrovichi , Russian SFSR , on an unknown date between October 4, 1919, and January 2, 1920, inclusive. Asimov celebrated his birthday on January 2. Asimov's parents were Russian Jews , Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, the son of a miller. He was named Isaac after his mother's father, Isaac Berman. Asimov wrote of his father, "My father, for all his education as an Orthodox Jew ,

5372-458: Was a part of the Empire's Northwestern Krai . Petrovichi's population was half Jewish , half Belarusian . It had both a church and a synagogue , each one with a school attached to it. According to Asimov's memoirs, the place had never known of pogroms . There were amicable business connections and even friendships between the two communities. Asimov even reports non-Jews paying friendly visits to

5451-717: Was adapted into the 1999 movie Bicentennial Man , starring Robin Williams . In 1966 the Foundation trilogy won the Hugo Award for the all-time best series of science fiction and fantasy novels, and they along with the Robot series are his most famous science fiction. 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 , David Brin , and Donald Kingsbury . At least some of these appear to have been done with

5530-422: Was based on an unrelated script by Jeff Vintar titled Hardwired , with Asimov's ideas incorporated later after the rights to Asimov's title were acquired. (The title was not original to Asimov but had previously been used for a story by Eando Binder .) Also, one of Asimov's robot short stories, " The Bicentennial Man ", was expanded into a novel The Positronic Man by Asimov and Robert Silverberg , and this

5609-673: Was employed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard (where two of his co-workers were L. Sprague de Camp and Robert A. Heinlein ). Gertrude returned to Brooklyn while he was in the army, and they both lived there from July 1946 before moving to Stuyvesant Town , Manhattan , in July 1948. They moved to Boston in May 1949, then to nearby suburbs Somerville in July 1949, Waltham in May 1951, and, finally, West Newton in 1956. They had two children, David (born 1951) and Robyn Joan (born 1955). In 1970, they separated and Asimov moved back to New York, this time to

5688-767: Was liberated by the Red Army in September 1943. Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( / ˈ æ z ɪ m ɒ v / AZ -ih-mov ; c.  January 2, 1920  – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University . During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke . A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards . Best known for his hard science fiction , Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy , as well as popular science and other non-fiction . Asimov's most famous work

5767-515: Was not Orthodox in his heart", noting that "he didn't recite the myriad prayers prescribed for every action , and he never made any attempt to teach them to me." In 1921, Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed double pneumonia . Only Asimov survived. He had two younger siblings: a sister, Marcia (born Manya; June 17, 1922 – April 2, 2011), and a brother, Stanley (July 25, 1929 – August 16, 1995), who would become vice-president of Newsday . Asimov's family travelled to

5846-544: Was not published (except for two "special cases" ). By 1941 Asimov was famous enough that Donald Wollheim told him that he purchased " The Secret Sense " for a new magazine only because of his name, and the December 1940 issue of Astonishing —featuring Asimov's name in bold—was the first magazine to base cover art on his work, but Asimov later said that neither he nor anyone else—except perhaps Campbell—considered him better than an often published "third rater". Based on

5925-566: Was pleased to give autographs. He was of medium height, 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and stocky build. In his later years, he adopted a signature style of "mutton-chop" sideburns . He took to wearing bolo ties after his wife Janet objected to his clip-on bow ties. He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle, but did learn to drive a car after he moved to Boston. In his humor book Asimov Laughs Again , he describes Boston driving as "anarchy on wheels". Asimov's wide interests included his participation in later years in organizations devoted to

6004-510: Was promoted to tenured associate professor. In December 1957, Asimov was dismissed from his teaching post, with effect from June 30, 1958, due to his lack of research. After a struggle over two years, he reached an agreement with the university that he would keep his title and give the opening lecture each year for a biochemistry class. On October 18, 1979, the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry. Asimov's personal papers from 1965 onward are archived at

6083-473: Was removed from a task force days before it sailed to participate in Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll . He was promoted to corporal on July 11 before receiving an honorable discharge on July 26, 1946. After completing his doctorate and a postdoctoral year with Robert Elderfield , Asimov was offered the position of associate professor of biochemistry at

6162-427: Was the president of the American Humanist Association . Several entities have been named in his honor, including the asteroid (5020) Asimov , a crater on Mars , a Brooklyn elementary school, Honda 's humanoid robot ASIMO , and four literary awards . There are three very simple English words: 'Has', 'him' and 'of'. Put them together like this—'has-him-of'—and say it in the ordinary fashion. Now leave out

6241-424: Was withdrawn and Asimov was offered the position of instructor of biochemistry instead, which he accepted. He began work in 1949 with a $ 5,000 salary (equivalent to $ 64,000 in 2023), maintaining this position for several years. By 1952, however, he was making more money as a writer than from the university, and he eventually stopped doing research, confining his university role to lecturing students. In 1955, he

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