About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was a biochemistry professor and prolific writer. It is estimated that he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He wrote “hard science fiction” and was considered one of the best science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov also wrote fantasy, mysteries, and much nonfiction.
Born in what is now Smolensk Oblast, Russia, the exact date of his birth is unknown, but Asimov celebrated January 2 as his birthday. His family emigrated to the United States when Isaac was three years old. He was raised in Brooklyn, and his father owned several candy stores, which sold magazines and newspapers. Reading those periodicals influenced Asimov’s love of the written word at an early age.
He obtained a Master of Arts in chemistry in 1941 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in biochemistry in 1948. Between his degrees, he worked during World War II as a civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s Naval Air Experimental Station. He was drafted into the Army in September 1945, and served until receiving an honorable discharge on July 26, 1946.
After earning his doctorate, he joined the faculty of Boston University School of Medicine, but in 1952, he left teaching to write full time. Asimov enjoyed a variety of interests, but was best known for the volume of writing he produced. One of his most well-known books, I, Robot, was made into a popular movie in 2004, staring Will Smith.
Asimov suffered a heart attack in 1977, and in 1983, underwent triple bypass surgery, during which he contracted HIV from a tainted blood transfusion. He died in New York City in April of 1992, from AIDS-related complications. He was 72.
How did Isaac Asimov get the idea for I, Robot?
I, Robot is a collection of short stories that originally appeared in magazines between 1940 and 1950. They were compiled into book form during 1950, using a fictional narrator, Dr. Susan Calvin, who is telling the stories to a reporter, effectively binding them into one cohesive unit.
The book shares the same title as a short story written in 1939, by Eando Binder. Asimov stated that he was greatly influenced by that short story when he began writing the I, Robot series. Asimov’s collection was self-titled Mind and Iron, but his publisher changed the title despite Asimov’s objections.
Asimov mentions his inspiration from the Binder story in the introduction of his book, Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories (1979), saying, “It certainly caught my attention. Two months after I read it, I began ‘Robbie’, about a sympathetic robot, and that was the start of my positronic robot series. Eleven years later, when nine of my robot stories were collected into a book, the publisher named the collection I, Robot, over my objections. My book is now the more famous, but (the Binder) story was there first.”
Excerpt from I, Robot:
“Ninety-eight—ninety-nine—one hundred.” Gloria withdrew her chubby little forearm from before her eyes and stood for a moment, wrinkling her nose and blinking in the sunlight. Then, trying to watch in all directions at once, she withdrew a few cautious steps from the tree against which she had been leaning.
She craned her neck to investigate the possibilities of a clump of bushes to the right and then withdrew farther to obtain a better angle for viewing its dark recesses. The quiet was profound except for the incessant buzzing of insects and the occasional chirrup of some hardy bird, braving the midday sun.
Gloria pouted, “I bet he went inside the house, and I’ve told him a million times that that’s not fair.”
Well-known quote by Isaac Asimov:
“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”