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Isaac Asimov |
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Page 1 :- The End Of Eternity Forward The foundation I robot |
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Page 2 :- Prelude to foundation The robots of down Cleon the Emperor |
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TITLES AVAILABLE |
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Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, as the son of Judah Asimov and Anna Rachel Berman Asimov. His father was educated within the limits of Orthodox Judaism, but religion did not play a central role in Isaac's childhood. "He didn't even bother to have me bar mitzvahed at the ago of thirteen," Asimov remarked later. Judah Asimov was well read in Russian literature, but especially he loved Sholem Aleichem's Yiddish stories. During World War I he served in the Russian Army. In 1923 the family moved to the United States, and settled in New York. Before opening a sweet-shop, Judah worked in odd jobs, and learned also to speak English. In old age, when he retired to Florida, he became Orthodox again. Asimov himself never learned Russian, and the culture of his parents' native country remained him distant. Asimov could read before he entered the first grade. He also had "a near-photographic memory." At school Asimov finished books in a few days. His father got him a library card, but did not supervise the books his son read. A classic "bookworm", Asimov devoured early works on Greek mythology, the Iliad, William Shakespeare plays, history books, all kinds of miscellaneous reading. One library was not enough - he used to go to every one within reach. After leaving Boys High School in Brooklyn, an elite school in those days, Asimov studied chemistry at Columbia University, New York, where he graduated in 1939 and received his M.A. in 1941. In 1942 Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman; they had two children. The marriage was not easy - "sex didn't work out too well", recalled Asimov, "with neither of us possessing experience." She also smoked. During WW II Asimov worked in the US Naval Air Experimental Station alongside such science fiction writers as L. Sprague de Camp, who, according to Asimov, had "something very British about his appearance", and Robert A. Heinlein, who made Asimov feel "particularly gauche" with his courtly way. Asimov's relationship with Heinlein became later somewhat strained. He believed that Heinlein, a liberal during the war, adopted "rock-ribbed far-right conservative" attitudes afterwards under the influence of his wife. At the NAES Asimov remained from 1942 to 1945. After the end of the war Asimov served in the army as a corporal - he received his draft notice in September 1945. Asimov served eight months and twenty-six days. In 1948 he received his Ph. in biochemistry from Columbia University. Asimov's pseudo-dissertation, 'The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline', was published in 1948 in Astounding Science Fiction. In 1949 Asimov joined the Boston University School of Medicine, where he was made an associate professor of biochemistry in 1955. Asimov was one of the best lecturers at the university, but after 1958 he taught only from time to time. Research did not interest him much. "As far as I know, not a single research paper to which my name was attached ever proved of the slightest importance," Asimov said. He devoted himself to writing and focused mostly on non-fiction, publishing such works as THE INTELLIGENT MAN'S GUIDE TO SCIENCE (1960), and books on history and literary topics. Asimov remained an associate professor until 1979, and subsequently held the title of professor. Asimov married in 1973 the writer and psychoanalyst Janet Opal Jeppson. He had met her already in the 1950s. During the following years, Asimov saw her from time to time on his visits to New York. Correspondence with her convinced Asimov that she was the kind of person that suited him perfectly. Janet Jeppson began to write science fiction in the 1970, most of it for children. Her early works she published under the name J.O. Jeppson. Among her books are The Second Experiment (1974), The Last Immortal (1980), Laughing Space (anthology, 1982), The Mysterious Cure, and Other Stories of Pshrinks Anonymous (1985), and Mind Transfer (1988). For young readers she created in collaboration with Isaac Asimov the Norby Chronicles, which depicted the adventures of a robot. "Since I am an atheist and do not believe that either God or Satan, Heaven or Hell, exists, I can only suppose that when I die, there will only be an eternity of nothingness to follow." (from I. Asimov) Asimov had in 1977 a heart attack and in 1983 he had triple bypass surgery. The winter of 1989-90 Asimov spent in a hospital due to a congenital weakness of the mitral valve in the heart. In FORWARD THE FOUNDATION (1993) Asimov said farewell to Hari Seldon. Asimov's heart and kidney failure worsened and he died at New York University Hospital on April 6, 1992. Asimov started to write at the age of eleven. When he worked at his father's store, he became interested in pulp magazines, and imitated their language in his early works. At the age of 18 Asimov sold his first story, 'Marooned Off Vesta'. One of the magazines, which printed his tales, was Astounding Science Fiction. It was edited by John W. Campbell Jr, who encouraged and trained many of the field's rising writers. Fredrik Pohl, a few weeks older than Asimov, edited Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories, both of which bought several of Asimov's stories. Asimov's first novel, PEBBLE IN THE SKY (1950), was published by Doubleday. The first nonfiction book Asimov wrote for the general public, THE CHEMICALS OF LIFE (1954), was published by Abelard-Schuman. Asimov's breakthrough work, 'Nightfall' (1941), is acclaimed to be the best science fiction story ever written - an overstatement of course. The poetic story depicts a world which has six suns, at least one of which is always shining. The world have experienced a universal eclipse every two millennia, and lost its social organization as a result. When the darkness falls the reason for this cyclical development is revealed: suddenly the thousands of stars are visible. Most of Asimov's books are pure adventure, and good entertainment, often giving solutions to all kinds of problems of human society and technology. Among his most popular works are the Foundation novels - based very very loosely on Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - and Robot novels and stories. |
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Page 3 :- The currents of space PEBBLE IN THE SKY (The Empire Novels) The stars like dust |