Asimov Was Astounding


Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was one of the most prolific authors of all time. His body of work encompasses over 500 books plus as many as 9,000 letters and postcards. Born in Russia, he immigrated to the United States at the age of three with his Jewish parents. Growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, Isaac taught himself to read and write at the age of five. He was fluent in both English and Yiddish. He attended public schools in New York City and Columbia University, graduating in 1939, at the age of 19.

As a child he became obsessed with science fiction pulp magazines and began writing his own sci-fi stories at eleven years of age. By the time he was nineteen he had sold stories regularly to sci-fi magazines. As an extremely gifted intellectual he became a faculty member of the Boston University School of Medicine until 1958, when his income as a writer exceeded that as a professor. He was a long-time member of Mensa, an international society limited to those that are highly intelligent. He often referred to some of its members as being "brain proud."

Asimov's writing covered a wide array of topics. Incredibly, he has works published in all but one of the ten Dewey Decimal System Classifications. The exception is philosophy and psychology, although he would have been qualified to author works in these categories as well. His contribution to science fiction is legendary, including his famous "Foundation Series." He also received an award for the best science fiction short story of all time for "Nightfall." At present an asteroid (5020) is named after him, as well as Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Also bearing his name is an elementary school in Brooklyn, and two different awards; one to undergraduate students for Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Writing; the second to recipients selected by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, an organization that investigates paranormal and fringe-science claims.