Editing Isaac Asimov (section)

=== Science fiction ===
{{blockquote|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, 1980<ref>{{Cite book |title=In Joy Still Felt|last= Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Avon |year=1980 |location= New York|pages= 286–287}}</ref>}}

[[File:GXY5101 0000fc.jpg|thumb|right|The first installment of Asimov's ''Tyrann'' was the cover story in the fourth issue of ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'' in 1951. The novel was issued in book form later that year as ''[[The Stars Like Dust]]''.]]
[[File:Galaxy 195310.jpg|thumb|right|The first installment of Asimov's ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'' on the cover of the October 1953 issue of ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', illustrated by [[Ed Emshwiller]]]]
[[File:Weird Tales September 1950.jpg|thumb|right|The novelette "Legal Rites", a collaboration with [[Frederik Pohl]], the only Asimov story to appear in ''[[Weird Tales]]'']]

Asimov became a science fiction fan in 1929,<ref name="earlyyears1_9">{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/n11/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first= Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=1–9}}</ref> when he began reading the [[pulp magazine]]s sold in his family's candy store.<ref>{{cite video |year=1988 |title=Video: Asimov at 391 (1988) |url= https://archive.org/details/openmind_ep48 |publisher=[[The Open Mind (TV series)]] |access-date=February 21, 2012}}</ref> At first his father forbade reading pulps until Asimov persuaded him that because the [[science fiction magazine]]s had "Science" in the title, they must be educational.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |year=1975 |title= Before the Golden Age |publisher=Orbit |volume=1 |page=14 |isbn=0-86007-803-5}}</ref> At age 18 he joined the [[Futurians]] [[science fiction fandom|science fiction fan club]], where he made friends who went on to become science fiction writers or editors.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (Avon Books), pp. 208–212.</ref>

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 a used typewriter at age 16.{{r|nichols19690803}} 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 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.{{r|earlyyears1_9}} 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;{{r|earlyyears560_564}} Campbell had a strong formative influence on Asimov and became a personal friend.<ref>{{cite book |title=Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction |last=Gunn |first=James |author-link=James Gunn (author) |date=1982 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]], England |isbn=0-19-503059-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isaacasimovfound00gunn/page/12 12–13, 20] |url=https://archive.org/details/isaacasimovfound00gunn/page/12 }}</ref>

By the end of the month, Asimov completed a second story, "[[The Callistan Menace|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.{{r|earlyyears1_9}} 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 the March 1939 issue. Asimov was paid $64 ({{Inflation|US|64|1938|fmt=eq}}), or one cent a word.{{r|nichols19690803}}<ref name="earlyyears25_28">{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/24/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first= Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=25–28}}</ref> Two more stories appeared that year, "[[The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use]]" in the May ''Amazing'' and "[[Trends (short story)|Trends]]" in the July ''Astounding'', the issue fans later selected as the start of the [[Golden Age of Science Fiction]].{{r|earlyyears79_82}} For 1940, [[ISFDB]] catalogs seven stories in four different pulp magazines, including one in ''Astounding''.<ref name=isfdb/> His earnings became enough to pay for his education, but not yet enough for him to become a full-time writer.{{r|earlyyears25_28}}

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".<ref name="earlyyears79_82">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/78/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=79–82}}</ref> 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 was not published (except for two "special cases"{{efn|The two exceptions were both 1,000-word short stories written in 1941, "Masks" and "[[Big Game (short story)|Big Game]]."<ref>Asimov, ''The Early Asimov'' Frogmore, UK: Panther Books, pp. 147, 230.</ref> The latter was published in 1974.<ref>Asimov, I. (1981). ''In Joy Still Felt.'' Avon Books. p.&nbsp;582.</ref>}}).<ref name="earlyyears245">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/245/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |page=245}}</ref> 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,<ref name="earlyyears166_169">{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/166/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=166–169}}</ref> and the December 1940 issue of ''Astonishing''—featuring Asimov's name in bold—was the first magazine to base [[cover art]] on his work,<ref name="earlyyears202_205">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/202/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=202–205}}</ref> but Asimov later said that neither he nor anyone else—except perhaps Campbell—considered him better than an often published "third rater".{{r|earlyyears335_339}}

Based on a conversation with Campbell, Asimov wrote "[[Nightfall (Asimov short story)|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.<ref name=obit/><ref name="earlyyears335_339">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/334/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, New York|pages=335–339}}</ref> In ''[[Nightfall and Other Stories]]'' Asimov wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... 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'."<ref>Asimov, I. ''Nightfall and Other Stories''  (1969)  (Grafton Books 1991 edition, pp. 9–10)</ref> "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 [[gadget]]s and [[space opera]] and toward speculation about the [[human condition]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future |last=Bretnor |first=Reginald |author-link=Reginald Bretnor |date=1953 |publisher=Coward-McCann |location=New York |pages=157–197}}</ref>

After writing "[[Victory Unintentional]]" in January and February 1942, Asimov did not write another story for 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 the Navy Yard and previously sold stories continued to appear.<ref name="earlyyears390_397">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/390/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=390–397}}</ref>

In 1942, Asimov published the first of his ''Foundation'' stories—later collected in the [[Foundation Trilogy|''Foundation'' trilogy]]: ''[[Foundation (Isaac Asimov novel)|Foundation]]'' (1951), ''[[Foundation and Empire]]'' (1952), and ''[[Second Foundation]]'' (1953). The books describe the fall of a vast [[Galactic Empire (Asimov)|interstellar empire]] and the establishment of its eventual successor. They feature his fictional science of [[Psychohistory (fictional)|psychohistory]], whose theories could predict the future course of history according to dynamical laws regarding the statistical analysis of mass human actions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cole_11_12/ |title=Clarkesworld Magazine&nbsp;– Science Fiction & Fantasy |work=Clarkesworld Magazine |access-date=March 18, 2016 |archive-date=March 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320053324/http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cole_11_12/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Campbell raised his rate per word, [[Orson Welles]] purchased rights to "[[Evidence (short story)|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.<ref name="earlyyears442_443">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/442/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=442–443}}</ref><ref name="earlyyears466_470">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/466/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=466–470}}</ref>

His [[Robot series|"positronic" robot stories]]—many of which were collected in ''[[I, Robot]]'' (1950)—were begun at about 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 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 (film)|I, Robot]]'', starring [[Will Smith]], 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/bottom/56.html |title=The Bottom of Things |first=Michael |last=Sampson |date=January 14, 2004 |access-date=January 17, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070212180512/http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/bottom/56.html |archive-date=February 12, 2007 }}</ref> (The title was not original to Asimov but had previously been used for [[I, Robot (short story)|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 was adapted into the 1999 movie ''[[Bicentennial Man (film)|Bicentennial Man]]'', starring [[Robin Williams]].<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

In 1966 the ''Foundation'' trilogy won the [[Hugo Award]] for the all-time best series of science fiction and fantasy novels,<ref>[http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1966.html The Long List of Hugo Awards, 1966] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403182439/http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1966.html|date=April 3, 2016}} at nesfa.org (retrieved April 24, 2016).</ref> and they along with the [[Robot series|''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 the blessing of, or at the request of, Asimov's widow, [[Janet Asimov]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?4327 |title=Series: Isaac Asimov's Robot Mysteries |website=isfdb.org |publisher=ISFDB |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=September 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917014414/http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?4327 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?3792 |title=Series: Second Foundation Trilogy |website=isfdb.org |publisher=ISFDB |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=September 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917013954/http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?3792 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?26941 |title=Publication: Psychohistorical Crisis |website=isfdb.org |publisher=ISFDB |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=September 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917013833/http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?26941 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1948, he also wrote a spoof chemistry article, "[[Thiotimoline|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 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 the room. After a five-minute wait, he was summoned back into the room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov".<ref name="earlyyears488_501">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/488/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=488–501}}</ref>

Demand for science fiction greatly increased during the 1950s, making it possible for a genre author to write full-time.<ref name="latham2009">{{Cite book |title=The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction |last=Latham |first=Rob |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-135-22836-1 |editor-last=Bould |editor-first=Mark |pages=80–89 |chapter=Fiction, 1950-1963 |editor-last2=Butler |editor-first2=Andrew M. |editor-last3=Roberts |editor-first3=Adam |editor-last4=Vint |editor-first4=Sherryl |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7CNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |access-date=November 21, 2020 |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126075634/https://books.google.com/books?id=y7CNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1949, book publisher [[Doubleday (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 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]]''.<ref name="earlyyears560_564">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/560/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=560–564}}</ref> Doubleday published five more original science fiction novels by Asimov in the 1950s, along with the six juvenile [[Lucky Starr series|Lucky Starr novels]], the latter under the pseudonym "Paul French".<ref>''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 627.</ref> 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 ''[[The Foundation Series|Foundation]]'' stories and novelettes as the three books of the ''Foundation trilogy''. More positronic robot stories were republished in book form as ''[[The Rest of the Robots]]''.

Book publishers and the magazines ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction|Galaxy]]'' and ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction|Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'' ended Asimov's dependence on ''Astounding''. He later described the era as his "'mature' period". Asimov's "[[The Last Question]]" (1956), on the ability of humankind to cope with and potentially reverse the process of [[entropy]], was his personal favorite story.<ref name="asimov1973">{{Cite book |title=The Best of Isaac Asimov |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Sphere Books |year=1973 |isbn=0-385-05078-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bestofisaacasimo00asim/page/ ix–xiv] |chapter=Introduction |lccn=74-2863 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/bestofisaacasimo00asim#page/n11/mode/2up |url=https://archive.org/details/bestofisaacasimo00asim/page/ }}</ref>

In 1972, his stand-alone novel ''[[The Gods Themselves]]'' was published to general acclaim, winning Best Novel in the [[Hugo Award for Best Novel|Hugo]],<ref name="Jupiter174">Asimov (1975) ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'', VGSF (1988 ed.), p. 174.</ref> [[Nebula Award for Best Novel|Nebula]],<ref name="Jupiter174"/> and [[Locus Award for Best Novel|Locus]] Awards.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Locus1973.html|title=1973 Awards|work=The Locus Index to SF Awards|access-date=September 8, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001063632/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Locus1973.html|archive-date=October 1, 2013}}</ref>

In December 1974, former [[The Beatles|Beatle]] [[Paul McCartney]] approached Asimov and asked him to write the screenplay for a science-fiction movie musical. McCartney had a vague idea for the plot and a small scrap of dialogue, about a rock band whose members discover they are being impersonated by extraterrestrials. The band and their impostors would likely be played by McCartney's group [[Wings (band)|Wings]], then at the height of their career. Though not generally a fan of rock music, Asimov was intrigued by the idea and quickly produced a treatment outline of the story adhering to McCartney's overall idea but omitting McCartney's scrap of dialogue. McCartney rejected it, and the treatment now exists only in the Boston University archives.<ref>Asimov, I. (1980) ''In Joy Still Felt'' Avon, p. 693.</ref>

Asimov said in 1969 that he had "the happiest of all my associations with science fiction magazines" with ''Fantasy & Science Fiction''; "I have no complaints about ''Astounding'', ''Galaxy'', or any of the rest, heaven knows, but ''F&SF'' has become something special to me".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/224/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=224}}</ref> Beginning in 1977, Asimov lent his name to ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (now ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'') and wrote an editorial for each issue. 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 the stablemates ''[[Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine]]''{{'}}s and ''[[Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine]]''{{'}}s "anthologies").<ref>{{cite book| title= I. Asimov: A Memoir| first= Isaac| last= Asimov| pages= 428–429}}</ref>

Due to pressure by fans on Asimov to write another book in his ''Foundation'' series,<ref name="wiredforbooks"/> he did so 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), his last novel.

He also helped [[Leonard Nimoy]] fleshing out the premise of the science fiction comic [[Primortals]] (1995–1997).<ref>[https://majorspoilers.com/2015/03/03/comics-portal-leonard-nimoys-primortal-comics/ COMICS PORTAL: Leonard Nimoy's Primortal Comics!]</ref>