Editing Isaac Asimov (section)

=== Early life ===
Asimov was born in [[Petrovichi]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]],<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 3–4. Avon. "Strictly speaking, then, I was not born in Russia, nor in the U.S.S.R. either, but in the Russian S.F.S.R. (Great Russia). ... Petrovichi was in the Smolensk-guberniya—that is, in the Smolensk district of Great Russia. "Guberniya" is a term no longer used in the U.S.S.R., I believe, and one would now speak of the Smolensk-oblast instead."</ref> on an unknown date between October 4, 1919, and January 2, 1920, inclusive. Asimov celebrated his birthday on January 2.{{efn|name="birthday"}}

Asimov's parents were [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Jews]], Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, the son of a miller.<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 21. Avon.</ref> He was named Isaac after his mother's father, Isaac Berman.<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 8, 22, 30. Avon.</ref> Asimov wrote of his father, "My father, for all his education as an [[Orthodox Jew]], was not Orthodox in his heart", noting that "he didn't recite the [[Prayer in Judaism|myriad prayers prescribed for every action]], and he never made any attempt to teach them to me."<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', ch. 5. [[Random House]], 2009. {{ISBN|0-307-57353-2}}</ref>

In 1921, Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed [[double pneumonia]]. Only Asimov survived.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |year=1975 |title=Before the Golden Age |publisher=Orbit |volume=1 |page=4 |isbn=0-86007-803-5}}</ref> He had two younger siblings: a sister, Marcia (born Manya;<ref>[http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary12 Isaac Asimov FAQ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary12 |date=October 16, 2012 }}, asimovonline.com.</ref> June 17, 1922&nbsp;– April 2, 2011),<ref>{{cite news |title=Marcia (Asimov) Repanes |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsday/obituary.aspx?n=marcia-repanes-asimov&pid=149980085&fhid=3923 |access-date=August 11, 2011 |newspaper=[[Newsday]] |date=April 4, 2011 |archive-date=October 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026105505/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsday/obituary.aspx?n=marcia-repanes-asimov&pid=149980085&fhid=3923 |url-status=live }}</ref> and a brother, [[Stanley Asimov|Stanley]] (July 25, 1929&nbsp;– August 16, 1995), who would become vice-president of ''[[Newsday]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Stanley Asimov, 66, Newsday Executive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/17/obituaries/stanley-asimov-66-newsday-executive.html |access-date=August 11, 2011 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 17, 1995 |archive-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630105356/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/17/obituaries/stanley-asimov-66-newsday-executive.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 661.</ref>

Asimov's family travelled to the United States via Liverpool on the [[RMS Baltic (1903)|RMS ''Baltic'']], arriving on February 3, 1923<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 40–41. Avon.</ref> when he was three years old. His parents spoke [[Yiddish]] and English to him; he never learned [[Russian language|Russian]], his parents using it as a secret language "when they wanted to discuss something privately that my big ears were not to hear".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asimov |first1=Isaac |title=I. Asimov : a memoir |date=2009 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=9780307573537 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mATFyeVI7IUC&pg=PA7 |access-date=January 25, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=It's Been a Good Life |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |editor-first=Janet |editor-last=Asimov |date=2002 |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |location=Amherst, New York |isbn=1-57392-968-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim/page/12 12] |url=https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim/page/12 }}</ref> Growing up in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|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 the [[educational stage#United States|second grade]]).<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 47–48, 80. Avon.</ref> His mother got him into [[educational stage#United States|first grade]] a year early by claiming he was born on September 7, 1919.<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994|publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=2–3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=In Memory Yet Green |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Avon Books |date=1979 |isbn=0-380-75432-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/inmemoryyetgreen00asim/page/51 51–52] |url=https://archive.org/details/inmemoryyetgreen00asim/page/51 }}</ref> In third grade he learned about the "error" and insisted on an official correction of the date to January 2.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 51–52.</ref> He became a [[Naturalization|naturalized]] U.S. citizen in 1928 at the age of eight.<ref name=konstantin>{{cite web |url=http://americanindian.net/asimov.html |title=An Interview with Isaac Asimov |last=Konstantin |first=Phil |work=americanindian.net |access-date=March 3, 2015 |archive-date=October 12, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021012133458/http://americanindian.net/asimov.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

After becoming established in the U.S., his parents owned a succession of [[candy store]]s in which everyone in 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 magazine]]s)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/06/isaac_asimov_100_years_on/ | title=From Soviet to science fiction icon, the weird life of Isaac Asimov 100 years on | website=[[The Register]] | access-date=January 6, 2020 | archive-date=January 6, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200106191331/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/06/isaac_asimov_100_years_on/ | url-status=live }}</ref> that he could not have otherwise afforded. Asimov began reading science fiction at age nine, at the time that the genre was becoming more science-centered.<ref>Leslie, David. "Isaac Asimov: centenary of the great explainer." Natur 577, no. 7792 (2020): 614–616.</ref> Asimov was also a frequent patron of the [[Brooklyn Public Library]] during his formative years.<ref>{{Cite web|date=December 27, 2019|title=I, Asimov in Brooklyn: How the Library Shaped a Writer's Mind|url=https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2019/12/27/i-asimov-brooklyn-how|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=Brooklyn Public Library|language=en-us}}</ref>