Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was born on January 2, 1920 in Petrouchi, Russia. His
parents were
Judah and Anna Asimov. Isaac also has a sister Veronica and
a brother Stanley.
In 1923 his family immigrated to the United States. He
and his family grew up in
Brooklyn, New York. In Brooklyn his family ran
a small candy and magazine store.
This is one of the places where Asimov
began to learn about printing. Also it
was here that Asimov learned good
business and self-discipline skills (Bloom,
251). Asimov attended school
and was a very bright student. He went to college
at Columbia University. He
graduated from there with his master’s degree in
Chemistry in 1941. His
career was cut short though because in 1942 he moved to
Philadelphia
Naval Yard to work for the war. In 1945 he entered the army. In
July of
1946 he was discharged from the army and he moved around for a few years
till
settling in West Newton, Massachusetts with Gertrude. It is there that
he
raised his family (Seiler,8). Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman on July
26th,
1942. They met on a blind date on Valentine’s Day. In 1955 their
first son was
born they named him David. Four years later their daughter
Robyn Joan was born.
Asimov met another woman Janet Jepson at a mystery
writers banquet. The two of
them were immediately attracted to one another.
In 1970 when Gertrude and Asimov
separated he moved in with Janet. His
divorce to Gertrude was officialized on
November 16th, 1973. On November
30th, 1973 an official of the Ethical Culture
Society married Asimov and
Janet in her home. They did not have any children
(7). Asimov worked for many
years of his life before become just a writer. His
first job was in 1929.
When Asimov’s mother became ill and could no longer
work at the family
business. This is where Asimov first learned his skills he
would carry for
the rest of his life. He was a hardworking diligent man. After
the war and
everything Asimov became an instructor at the Boston University of
medicine.
He was promoted to assistant professor in December of 1951. On July
1st,
1958 he gave up his teaching job and became a writer. Finally in 1979 he
was
promoted to professor (9). Being a very diligent writer Asimov wrote
more
than eight hours a day, seven days a week. Although he was also
preoccupied with
writing he made time to get out and do things. In 1971 he
joined the Dutch Treat
Club. They were a group who met every Tuesday at a
hotel for lunch. Another
group, which Asimov was a part of, was the Baker
Street Irregulars. This was a
group of Sherlock Holmes fans. And although
Asimov admitted to not liking Holmes
that much he did love to make toasts and
speeches at banquets. One of his
favorite things to do was sing and he
belonged to 2 other groups the Gilbert and
Sullivan Society. There were
two additional societies, which Asimov belonged to
that influenced some of
his stories (10). At the young age of eleven years old
Asimov began
writing. With his first attempt at writing he began The Greenville
Chums
at College. This was a story based on the lives of 3 young boys living in
a
small town. At first Asimov gave up writing, for he did not think he knew
what
he was doing. However, his whole attitude changed when at school one day
he told
the story he had written. His friend was impressed with it and wanted
to borrow
the book when Asimov finished it. This gave Asimov the confidence
he needed to
begin a writing career that would last a lifetime. Asimov’s
first published
writing was in his high school’s newspaper column. He wrote a
humorous story
called "Little Brothers."(12) Asimov’s first published story
was in 1939
it was entitled "Marooned Off Vesta". This story was featured in
the
magazine Astounding Science Fiction. The astounding publisher of this
magazine
was John W. Campbell Jr. He and Asimov had a close relationship and
it was this
that gave Asimov his beginning of a prosperous career. Asimov
wrote mainly
science fiction stories about robots. His themes of his stories
were mainly
based around his ideas that robots were rational programmable
beings and
friendly towards humans (Bloom, 251). Asimov’s stories are mainly
based around
science fiction. He was a very intelligent man and this showed
through in his
stories. They were very technologically advanced. Asimov was
fascinated with
robots. He wrote mainly of their adventures. All of his
stories shared a main
theme. This theme was derived from the 3 laws of
robotics as Asimov had formed
them. They are: 1. A robot may not injure a
human being or, through inaction,
allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A
robot must obey orders given it by
human beings except where such orders
would conflict with the first law. 3. A
robot must protect its own existence
as long as such protection does not
conflict with the first or second laws.
(Magill, 877) These laws are apparent in
all of Asimov’s stories about
robots. The plots of his stories used these laws
and tested them. In many of
his stories he compares robots to humans, and
illustrates humans’ fear of
machines. Religion is a main influence for
Asimov’s stories. Asimov was
an atheist. He believed in nothing at all. In
fact he considered religion
harmful to people. " I would not be satisfied to
have my kids choose to be
religious without trying to argue them out of it, just
as I would not be
satisfied to have them decide to smoke regularly or engage in
any other
practice I consider detrimental to mind or body"(qtd. In Brummond,
3). So
Asimov really did not like religion. He had proclaimed many times that he
had
no faith but more often than not in stories religion was present. In one
of
his most famous stories the entire story is based around the Christianity
story.
This story has a negative outlook for at the end destruction is
apparent and
that resembles how Christians fear hell. In most of Asimov’s
stories if
religion is present but it is not to glorify it (Brummond, 1).
Another influence
to Asimov’s stories was two of the societies to which he
belonged. One society
The Wodehouse Society Asimov used the butler Jeeves
in many of his stories. This
character played a major part of Asimov’s Black
Widower stories also the
Wodehouse society gained recognition in his
Azazel stories. The other group,
which Asimov belonged to, that influenced
his writing was the Trap Door Spiders.
This was an all male group that
met one Friday per month. Many of the characters
in the Black Widower stories
were based on members of this group. The groups
that Asimov belonged to were
influential to his works and can be seen today
(Seiler, 10). Asimov had many
influences on his career. Many of them were ones
he picked up during his life
through experiences. He was a hardworking man and
learned responsibility from
his early job with his family. He lived and fought
in World War 2. This was
also another influence to his work. His personal
knowledge and love for
writing are one of the main reasons Asimov wrote such
wonderful stories. Many
of Asimov’s stories were very influential in his time
and still are today. At
the time of their publications science fiction was not
very popular. The
stories Asimov was writing were much different form the
popular stories
during that era. However Asimov helped to gain science fiction
acceptance.
Asimov wrote different subject matter and it was his manner of
writing that
made him popular. When he began writing about robots they were
viewed as
negative, because many people misunderstood them and they seemed
impractical.
Asimov had to overcome many prejudices to make his stories popular
(Allen,
24) Since Asimov was very intelligent it helped him make histories
seem
realistic. As we can see in one of his most popular stories
"Bicentennial
Man" Asimov was very highly advanced. He had a very vivid
imagination and his
stories are even very far ahead of our technology today.
In bicentennial man he
talks about a robot that strives to become human. This
was one of the first
times someone had compared a robot to a human. This
story was made into a very
popular movie and last year it appeared in
theaters. This shows that Asimov’s
stories are still very popular today.
Asimov has won quite a few awards in his
lifetime for his achievements. Two
major award-winning stories are The
Foundation Trilogy and the novel The
Gods Themselves. What made Asimov's stories
so influential was that they were
the first in his time. No one else before him
had done such a thing and
written about robots as he had. He introduced people
of his time period into
science fiction and beyond. (Magill, 875). More evidence
that Asimov was very
influential is in the magazine and his seminar that he
began. The seminar
takes place over four days late in the summer. Asimov founded
it in 1972. The
seminar hosts guest speakers and discusses many things relating
to science.
The magazine which Asimov was editor for is still around today it is
entitled
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. This magazine is still in
print
today and in its time it was the most prestigious of science
fiction
magazines. The magazines first issue came out in the spring of 1977.
This is
proof that Asimov was popular then, and although he passed away his
stories
still intrigue readers today (O’Neill, 1) Isaac Asimov died on April
6th,
1992. He died because of heart and kidney failure. At his death he
was working
on his last set of stories titled Forward the Foundation. Asimov
had finished
them before he died and they were published a year later. Some
of the stories
had already been published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction
Magazine. So he
died with no work left undone. Asimov lived a great life and
gave us a good
foundation for much science fiction
today.
Bibliography
Allen, David L. "Isaac Asimov." Science
Fiction Writers. Ed. Richard
Bleiler. New York: Macmillan Publishing USA,
1999. Bloom, Harold, ed.
Twentieth-Century American Literature. Vol. 1.
New York: Chelsea House
Publishers, 1985. Brummond, Michael. "Religion in
Asimov’s Writings." 11
May 1999: pg. 3. On- line. Internet. 21 May 2000.
Available WWW.Angelfire.com/wi/mikebru/alps.html.
Magill, Frank N. ed.
Critical Survey Of Short Fiction. Vol. 3. New Jersey: Salem
Press, 1984.
O’Neill, John. "A Brief History of Isaac Asimov’s Science
Fiction
Magazine." 1998: 2 pg. On-line. Internet. 21 May 2000.
Available
WWW.sfsite.com/columns/asimov.html. Seiler, Edward. "Frequently
Asked
Questions about Isaac Asimov." 2 Apr. 1999. Pgs. 25. On-line.
Internet. 21 May
2000. Available
WWW.clark.net/pub/edseiler/WWW/asimov_FAQ.html.