View source for Isaac Asimov

{{Short description|American writer and biochemist (1920–1992)}}
{{Redirect|Asimov}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Isaac Asimov<!-- Please don't add a middle name without a good source. (Previously discussed at length at [[Talk:Isaac Asimov/Archive13#Unsourced middle name: a hoax?]].) -->
| image            = Isaac.Asimov01.jpg
| caption          = Photo {{circa|1959}}
| native_name      = 
| birth_date       = {{circa|January 2, 1920|lk=no}}{{efn|name="birthday"}}
| birth_place      = [[Petrovichi]], Russian SFSR<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] -->
| spouse           = {{ubl|{{marriage|Gertrude Blugerman|1942|1973|end=div}}|{{marriage|[[Janet Asimov|Janet Opal Jeppson]]|1973}}}}
| relatives        = {{ubl|[[Stanley Asimov]] (brother)|[[Eric Asimov]] (nephew)}}
| children         = 2
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1992|4|6|1920|1|2}}
| death_place      = New York City, U.S.
| citizenship      = United States
| nationality      = <!--Deprecated per MOS:INFONAT-->
| occupation       = Writer, professor of [[biochemistry]]
| years_active     = 1939–1992
| genre            = {{hlist|Science fiction {{hlist|[[hard SF]]|[[social SF]]}}|[[mystery fiction|mystery]]|[[popular science]]}}
| subject          = {{hlist|[[Popular science]]|science [[textbooks]]|essays|[[history]]|[[literary criticism]]}}
| education        = [[Columbia University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]], [[Master of Arts|MA]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
| movement         = [[Golden Age of Science Fiction]]
| module           = {{Infobox scientist
| embed             = yes
| fields            = [[Biochemistry]]
| workplaces        = [[Boston University]]
| doctoral_advisor  = Charles Reginald Dawson
| academic_advisors = [[Robert Elderfield]] <small>([[Postdoctoral researcher|post-doctoral]])</small>
| thesis_title      = The kinetics of the reaction inactivation of tyrosinase during its catalysis of the aerobic oxidation of catechol
| thesis_url        = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/609476547
| thesis_year       = 1948
}}
| signature        = Isaac Asimov signature.svg
}}

'''Isaac Asimov'''<!-- see Talk page before adding middle name or name in Yiddish--> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|z|ɪ|m|ɒ|v}} {{Respell|AZ|im|ov}};{{efn|In the humorous poem "The Prime of Life" published in the anthology ''[[The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories]]'' (p. 3), Asimov rhymes his name thusly: "Why, [[mazel tov]], it's Asimov." In his comments on the poem, Asimov wrote that originally it was "Why, stars above, it's Asimov," and when someone suggested to use "mazel tov" instead, Asimov accepted this as a significant improvement.}}{{efn|{{langx|ru|Исаак Азимов}}, {{IPA|ru|ɪsɐˈak ɐˈzʲiməf|pron}}; {{langx|yi|יצחק אַזימאָװ|Yitskhok Azimov}}.<ref name="azimov"/>}} {{circa|January 2, 1920|lk=no}}{{efn|name="birthday"|{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |date=1979|page=31 |quote=The date of my birth, as I celebrate it, was January 2, 1920. It could not have been later than that. It might, however, have been earlier. Allowing for the uncertainties of the times, of the lack of [[civil registry|records]], of the [[Hebrew calendar|Jewish]] and [[Julian calendar]]s, it might have been as early as October 4, 1919. There is, however, no way of finding out. My parents were always uncertain and it really doesn't matter. I celebrate January 2, 1920, so let it be.}}}}<!-- do not add birthplace per [[WP:CONTEXTBIO]]-->&nbsp;– April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of [[biochemistry]] at [[Boston University]]. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" [[science fiction]] writers, along with [[Robert A. Heinlein]] and [[Arthur C. Clarke]].<ref>{{cite book |isbn=9780819563996 |last=Freedman |first=Carl | author-link = Carl Freedman (writer) |title=Critical Theory and Science Fiction |publisher=Doubleday |date=2000 |page=71}}</ref> A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and [[postcard]]s.{{efn|{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Stanley |title=Yours, Isaac Asimov |date=1996 |quote=My estimate is that Isaac received about 100,000 letters in his professional career. And with the compulsiveness that has to be a character trait of a writer of almost 500 books, he answered 90 percent of them. He answered more than half with postcards and didn't make carbons of them. But with the 100,000 letters he received, there are carbons of about 45,000 that he wrote.}}}} Best known for his [[hard science fiction]], Asimov also wrote [[mystery fiction|mysteries]] and [[fantasy]], as well as [[popular science]] and other [[non-fiction]].

Asimov's most famous work is the ''[[Foundation (book series)|Foundation]]'' series,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biblio.com/authors/212/Isaac_Asimov_Biography.html |title=Isaac Asimov Biography and List of Works |access-date=March 5, 2008 |work=Biblio.com |archive-date=July 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100730234538/http://www.biblio.com/authors/212/Isaac_Asimov_Biography.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the first three books of which won the one-time [[Hugo Award]] for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1966-hugo-awards/| title=1966 Hugo Awards| publisher=[[Hugo Award]]| website=thehugoawards.org| date=July 26, 2007| access-date=July 28, 2017| archive-date=May 7, 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507164600/http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1966-hugo-awards/| url-status=live}}</ref> His other major series are the ''[[Galactic Empire series|Galactic Empire]]'' series and the ''[[Robot series|Robot]]'' series. The ''Galactic Empire'' novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the ''Foundation'' series. Later, with ''[[Foundation and Earth]]'' (1986), he linked this distant future to the ''Robot'' series, creating a unified "[[future history]]" for his works.<ref>{{cite book|title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-41701-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/475 475–476] |url=https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/475 }}</ref> He also wrote [[Isaac Asimov short stories bibliography|more than 380&nbsp;short stories]], including the [[social science fiction]] novelette "[[Nightfall (Asimov novelette and novel)|Nightfall]]", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the [[Science Fiction Writers of America]]. Asimov wrote the ''[[Lucky Starr series|Lucky Starr]]'' series of [[Young adult fiction|juvenile]] science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=Opus 100 |year=1969 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |quote=So [Walter Bradbury] said, 'Use a pseudonym.' And I did. I chose Paul French ...}}</ref>

Most of his popular science books explain concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. Examples include ''[[The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science|Guide to Science]]'', the three-volume ''[[Understanding Physics]]'', and ''Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery''. He wrote on numerous other scientific and non-scientific topics, such as [[chemistry]], [[astronomy]], [[mathematics]], [[history]], [[Exegesis#Biblical commentaries|biblical exegesis]], and [[literary criticism]].

He was the president of the [[American Humanist Association]].<ref>{{cite book|title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-41701-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/500 500] |url=https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/500 }}</ref> Several entities have been named in his honor, including the [[asteroid]] [[5020 Asimov|(5020) Asimov]],<ref name="asteroid">{{cite web|url=http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=✓&object_id=5020 |title=5020 Asimov |website=Minor Planet Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225081534/http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=5020 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |access-date=October 22, 2017}}</ref> a [[Asimov crater|crater]] on [[Mars]],<ref name=crater>{{cite web |url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14567 |title=USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, Mars: Asimov |access-date=September 4, 2012 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224205822/http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14567 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | first=Ken | last=Edgett | date=May 27, 2009 | title=The Martian Craters Asimov and Danielson | publisher=The Planetary Society | url=http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/1965.html | access-date=November 6, 2017 | archive-date=November 7, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107004528/http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/1965.html | url-status=live }}</ref> a [[Brooklyn]] elementary school,<ref>[https://www.schools.nyc.gov/schools/K099 "P.S. 099 Isaac Asimov"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806183127/https://www.schools.nyc.gov/schools/K099 |date=August 6, 2018 }} at New York City Department of Education website. (Retrieved August 6, 2018.)</ref> [[Honda]]'s humanoid robot [[ASIMO]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Kupperberg | first = Paul | title = Careers in robotics | publisher = Rosen Pub | location = New York | year = 2007 | page = [https://archive.org/details/careersinrobotic00kupp/page/8 8] | isbn = 978-1-4042-0956-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/careersinrobotic00kupp/page/8 }}</ref> and [[Isaac Asimov Awards|four literary awards]].
{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

==<span id="name"></span>Surname==
{{blockquote|There are three very simple English words: 'Has', 'him' and 'of'. Put them together like this—'has-him-of'—and say it in the ordinary fashion. Now leave out the two h's and say it again and you have Asimov.|Asimov, 1979<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |page=12 |year=1979}}</ref>}}
Asimov's family name derives from the first part of {{lang|ru|озимый хлеб}} ({{transliteration|ru|ozímyj khleb}}), meaning '[[winter cereals|winter grain]]' (specifically [[rye]]) in which his great-great-great-grandfather dealt, with the Russian surname ending ''-ov'' added.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |pages=8, 10–11}}</ref> Azimov is spelled {{lang|ru|Азимов}} in the [[Cyrillic alphabet]].<ref name="azimov">{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |page=11}}</ref> When the family arrived in the United States in 1923 and their name had to be spelled in the [[Latin alphabet]], Asimov's father spelled it with an S, believing this letter to be pronounced like Z (as in German), and so it became Asimov.<ref name="azimov"/> This later inspired one of Asimov's short stories, "[[Spell My Name with an S]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov |publisher=Grafton Books |year=1987 |location=Glasgow |page=243}}</ref>

Asimov refused early suggestions of using a more common name as a pseudonym, believing that its recognizability helped his career. After becoming famous, he often met readers who believed that "Isaac Asimov" was a distinctive pseudonym created by an author with a common name.{{r|earlyyears79_82}}

== Life ==
=== Early life ===
Asimov was born in [[Petrovichi]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]],<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 3–4. Avon. "Strictly speaking, then, I was not born in Russia, nor in the U.S.S.R. either, but in the Russian S.F.S.R. (Great Russia). ... Petrovichi was in the Smolensk-guberniya—that is, in the Smolensk district of Great Russia. "Guberniya" is a term no longer used in the U.S.S.R., I believe, and one would now speak of the Smolensk-oblast instead."</ref> on an unknown date between October 4, 1919, and January 2, 1920, inclusive. Asimov celebrated his birthday on January 2.{{efn|name="birthday"}}

Asimov's parents were [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Jews]], Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, the son of a miller.<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 21. Avon.</ref> He was named Isaac after his mother's father, Isaac Berman.<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 8, 22, 30. Avon.</ref> Asimov wrote of his father, "My father, for all his education as an [[Orthodox Jew]], was not Orthodox in his heart", noting that "he didn't recite the [[Prayer in Judaism|myriad prayers prescribed for every action]], and he never made any attempt to teach them to me."<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', ch. 5. [[Random House]], 2009. {{ISBN|0-307-57353-2}}</ref>

In 1921, Asimov and 16 other children in Petrovichi developed [[double pneumonia]]. Only Asimov survived.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |year=1975 |title=Before the Golden Age |publisher=Orbit |volume=1 |page=4 |isbn=0-86007-803-5}}</ref> He had two younger siblings: a sister, Marcia (born Manya;<ref>[http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary12 Isaac Asimov FAQ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary12 |date=October 16, 2012 }}, asimovonline.com.</ref> June 17, 1922&nbsp;– April 2, 2011),<ref>{{cite news |title=Marcia (Asimov) Repanes |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsday/obituary.aspx?n=marcia-repanes-asimov&pid=149980085&fhid=3923 |access-date=August 11, 2011 |newspaper=[[Newsday]] |date=April 4, 2011 |archive-date=October 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026105505/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsday/obituary.aspx?n=marcia-repanes-asimov&pid=149980085&fhid=3923 |url-status=live }}</ref> and a brother, [[Stanley Asimov|Stanley]] (July 25, 1929&nbsp;– August 16, 1995), who would become vice-president of ''[[Newsday]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Stanley Asimov, 66, Newsday Executive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/17/obituaries/stanley-asimov-66-newsday-executive.html |access-date=August 11, 2011 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 17, 1995 |archive-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630105356/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/17/obituaries/stanley-asimov-66-newsday-executive.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 661.</ref>

Asimov's family travelled to the United States via Liverpool on the [[RMS Baltic (1903)|RMS ''Baltic'']], arriving on February 3, 1923<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 40–41. Avon.</ref> when he was three years old. His parents spoke [[Yiddish]] and English to him; he never learned [[Russian language|Russian]], his parents using it as a secret language "when they wanted to discuss something privately that my big ears were not to hear".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asimov |first1=Isaac |title=I. Asimov : a memoir |date=2009 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=9780307573537 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mATFyeVI7IUC&pg=PA7 |access-date=January 25, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=It's Been a Good Life |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |editor-first=Janet |editor-last=Asimov |date=2002 |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |location=Amherst, New York |isbn=1-57392-968-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim/page/12 12] |url=https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim/page/12 }}</ref> Growing up in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|New York]], Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five (and later taught his sister to read as well, enabling her to enter school in the [[educational stage#United States|second grade]]).<ref>Asimov, Isaac (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 47–48, 80. Avon.</ref> His mother got him into [[educational stage#United States|first grade]] a year early by claiming he was born on September 7, 1919.<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994|publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=2–3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=In Memory Yet Green |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Avon Books |date=1979 |isbn=0-380-75432-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/inmemoryyetgreen00asim/page/51 51–52] |url=https://archive.org/details/inmemoryyetgreen00asim/page/51 }}</ref> In third grade he learned about the "error" and insisted on an official correction of the date to January 2.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'', pp. 51–52.</ref> He became a [[Naturalization|naturalized]] U.S. citizen in 1928 at the age of eight.<ref name=konstantin>{{cite web |url=http://americanindian.net/asimov.html |title=An Interview with Isaac Asimov |last=Konstantin |first=Phil |work=americanindian.net |access-date=March 3, 2015 |archive-date=October 12, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021012133458/http://americanindian.net/asimov.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

After becoming established in the U.S., his parents owned a succession of [[candy store]]s in which everyone in the family was expected to work. The candy stores sold newspapers and magazines, which Asimov credited as a major influence in his lifelong love of the written word, as it presented him as a child with an unending supply of new reading material (including pulp [[science fiction magazine]]s)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/06/isaac_asimov_100_years_on/ | title=From Soviet to science fiction icon, the weird life of Isaac Asimov 100 years on | website=[[The Register]] | access-date=January 6, 2020 | archive-date=January 6, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200106191331/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/06/isaac_asimov_100_years_on/ | url-status=live }}</ref> that he could not have otherwise afforded. Asimov began reading science fiction at age nine, at the time that the genre was becoming more science-centered.<ref>Leslie, David. "Isaac Asimov: centenary of the great explainer." Natur 577, no. 7792 (2020): 614–616.</ref> Asimov was also a frequent patron of the [[Brooklyn Public Library]] during his formative years.<ref>{{Cite web|date=December 27, 2019|title=I, Asimov in Brooklyn: How the Library Shaped a Writer's Mind|url=https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2019/12/27/i-asimov-brooklyn-how|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=Brooklyn Public Library|language=en-us}}</ref>

=== Education and career ===
Asimov attended New York City public schools from age five, including [[Boys and Girls High School|Boys High School]] in [[Brooklyn]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Early Asimov Volume 1 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |page=10 |publisher=[[Panther Books]] |location=[[St. Albans]], Hertfordshire, UK |date=1973 |isbn=0-586-03806-X}}</ref> Graduating at 15, he attended the [[City College of New York]] for several days before accepting a scholarship at [[Seth Low Junior College]]. This was a branch of [[Columbia University]] in [[Downtown Brooklyn]] designed to absorb some of the academically qualified Jewish and [[Italian-American]] students who applied to the more prestigious [[Columbia College, Columbia University|Columbia College]] but exceeded the unwritten ethnic [[numerus clausus|admission quotas]] which were common at the time. Originally a [[zoology]] major, Asimov switched to [[chemistry]] after his first semester because he disapproved of "dissecting an alley cat". After Seth Low Junior College closed in 1936, Asimov finished his [[Bachelor of Science]] degree at Columbia's Morningside Heights campus (later the [[Columbia University School of General Studies]])<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |pages=156–157, 159–160, 240}}</ref> in 1939. (In 1983, Dr. Robert Pollack (dean of Columbia College, 1982–1989) granted Asimov an honorary doctorate from Columbia College after requiring that Asimov place his foot in a bucket of water to pass the college's swimming requirement.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gohn |first1=Claudia |title=Nearly a Century Ago, Columbia's Jewish Applicants Were Sent to Brooklyn |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/the-eye/2019/04/15/nearly-a-century-ago-columbias-jewish-applicants-were-sent-to-brooklyn/ |website=Columbia Spectator |access-date=December 1, 2024}}</ref>)

After two rounds of rejections by medical schools, Asimov applied to the graduate program in chemistry at Columbia in 1939; initially he was rejected and then only accepted on a probationary basis.<ref name="earlyyears180_183">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/180/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=180–183}}</ref> He completed his [[Master of Arts]] degree in chemistry in 1941 and earned a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree in chemistry in 1948.{{efn|He obtained his Ph.D. on May 20, 1948.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |pages=525–526}}</ref> He wrote a dissertation on "Kinetics of the Reaction Inactivation of [[Tyrosinase]] During Its Catalysis of the Aerobic Oxidation of [[Catechol]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book000.html|title=Kinetics of the Reaction Inactivation of Tyrosinase During Its Catalysis of the Aerobic Oxidation of Catechol|website=www.asimovreviews.net|access-date=February 24, 2019|archive-date=December 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216105636/http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book000.html|url-status=live}}</ref> An abridged version was published in the ''[[Journal of the American Chemical Society]]''<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |page=584}}</ref> (February 1950, p. 820; online at the ''JACS'' website.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja01158a045 |title=On the Reaction Inactivation of Tyrosinase during the Aerobic Oxidation of Catechol |journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society |date=February 1950 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=820–828 |doi=10.1021/ja01158a045|access-date=March 18, 2019 |last1=Asimov |first1=Isaac |last2=Dawson |first2=Charles R. |bibcode=1950JAChS..72..820A |issn=0002-7863|url-access=subscription }}</ref> {{subscription required}}). (The introduction to the full dissertation was reprinted in his book ''[[Opus 100]]'', pp. 171–173.)}}<ref name="Opus100">Asimov, I. (1969) ''[[Opus 100]]'', Dell, pp. 143–144.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |page=552}}</ref> During his chemistry studies, he also learned French and German.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |year=1979 |pages=298–299}}</ref>

[[File:Heinlein-decamp-and-asimov.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Photo|[[Robert A. Heinlein]], [[L. Sprague de Camp]], and Asimov (left to right), [[Philadelphia Naval Shipyard|Philadelphia Navy Yard]], 1944]]

From 1942 to 1945 during [[World War II]], between his masters and doctoral studies, Asimov worked as a civilian chemist at the [[Philadelphia Navy Yard]]'s Naval Air Experimental Station and lived in the [[Walnut Hill, Philadelphia|Walnut Hill]] section of [[West Philadelphia]].<ref>{{cite web |first1=Edward |last1=Seiler |first2=John H. |last2=Jenkin |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary6 |title=Frequently Asked Questions about Isaac Asimov |publisher=asimovonline.com |date=1994–2014 |access-date=July 27, 2014 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary6 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Bart|last=Everts|url=http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/07/sci-phi-isaac-asimovs-west-philly-years/|title=SciPhi: Isaac Asimov's West Philly Years|date=July 18, 2014 |access-date=July 28, 2014|archive-date=May 18, 2016|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160518042200/http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/07/sci-phi-isaac-asimovs-west-philly-years/|url-status=live}}</ref> In September 1945, he was conscripted into the post-war [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]; if he had not had his birth date corrected while at school, he would have been officially 26 years old and ineligible.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 426.</ref> In 1946, a bureaucratic error caused his military allotment to be stopped, and he was removed from a task force days before it sailed to participate in [[Operation Crossroads]] nuclear weapons tests at [[Bikini Atoll]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |pages=467–468}}</ref> He was  promoted to [[corporal]] on July 11 before receiving an [[honorable discharge]] on July 26, 1946.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |pages=472–3, 476}}</ref>{{efn|He had entered the army on November 1, 1945.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |page=432}}</ref>}}

After completing his doctorate and a [[Postdoctoral researcher|postdoctoral]] year with [[Robert Elderfield]],<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green''. p. 515.</ref> Asimov was offered the position of [[associate professor]] of [[biochemistry]] at the [[Boston University School of Medicine]]. This was in large part due to his years-long correspondence with [[William C. Boyd|William Boyd]], a former associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University, who initially contacted Asimov to compliment him on his story ''[[Nightfall (Asimov novelette and novel)|Nightfall]]''.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green''. p. 411.</ref> Upon receiving a promotion to professor of [[immunochemistry]], Boyd reached out to Asimov, requesting him to be his replacement. The initial offer of professorship was withdrawn and Asimov was offered the position of instructor of biochemistry instead, which he accepted.<ref name="p546">Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green''. p. 546.</ref> He began work in 1949 with a $5,000 salary{{r|earlyyears560_564}} ({{Inflation|US|5000|1949|r=-3|fmt=eq}}), maintaining this position for several years.<ref name="wiredforbooks">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080926040513/http://wiredforbooks.org/isaacasimov/ Isaac Asimov Interview with Don Swaim]}} (1987)</ref> By 1952, however, he was making more money as a writer than from the university, and he eventually stopped doing research, confining his university role to lecturing students.{{efn|Between 1950 and 1953 he published seven scientific research papers: the summary of his PhD dissertation (described in an earlier explanatory note), which he described as "my longest and my best," and six papers about his research at Boston University ("all those papers were unimportant").<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |pages=584–585}}</ref>}} In 1955, he was promoted to [[tenure]]d associate professor. In December 1957, Asimov was dismissed from his teaching post, with effect from June 30, 1958, due to his lack of research. After a struggle over two years, he reached an agreement with the university that he would keep his title<ref>Multiple sources:
* Asimov, Isaac (1975) ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'', VGSF (1988 ed.), p. 112
* {{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |date=1994|pages=195–200}}
* {{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=The Tragedy of the Moon |date=1973|pages=222–223|bibcode=1973trmo.book.....A }}</ref> and give the opening lecture each year for a biochemistry class.{{r|nichols19690803}} On October 18, 1979, the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |date=1994|page=199}}</ref> Asimov's personal papers from 1965 onward are archived at the university's [[Mugar Memorial Library]], to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gotlieb.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Joy Still Felt |pages=353–355}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://hgar-srv3.bu.edu/collections/collection?id=121382 |access-date=July 27, 2016 |title=Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center: Asimov, Isaac (1920–1992) |archive-date=August 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814170104/http://hgar-srv3.bu.edu/collections/collection?id=121382 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1959, after a recommendation from [[Arthur Obermayer]], Asimov's friend and a scientist on the [[U.S. missile defense]] project, Asimov was approached by [[DARPA]] to join Obermayer's team. Asimov declined on the grounds that his ability to write freely would be impaired should he receive [[classified information]], but submitted a paper to DARPA titled "On Creativity"<ref name="technologyreview.com">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/10/20/169899/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/ |access-date=April 1, 2021 |date=October 20, 2014 |title=Isaac Asimov Asks, 'How Do People Get New Ideas?' |magazine=[[MIT Technology Review]] |archive-date=April 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401040048/https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/10/20/169899/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/ |url-status=live }}</ref> containing ideas on how government-based science projects could encourage team members to think more creatively.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-write-stuff-asimovs-secret-cold-war-mission-jc8k5w9pb7b |access-date=October 27, 2014 |date=October 27, 2014 |title=The write stuff: Asimov's secret Cold War mission |last=Dean |first=James |newspaper=[[The Times]] |archive-date=October 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027182242/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/technology/article4248519.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Personal life ===
Asimov met his first wife, Gertrude Blugerman (May 16, 1917, [[Toronto]], Canada<ref>Asimov, I. (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', (Avon 1980 edition), p. 351.</ref>&nbsp;– October 17, 1990, [[Boston]], U.S.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Gertrude-Asimov-Blugerman/6000000010837202541 |title= Gertrude Asimov Blugerman|website= Geni.com|date= May 16, 1917| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323094144/https://www.geni.com/people/Gertrude-Asimov-Blugerman/6000000010837202541 |archive-date= March 23, 2019 | access-date= March 23, 2019}}</ref>), on a [[blind date]] on February 14, 1942, and married her on July 26.<ref>Asimov, I. (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', (Avon 1980 edition), p. 364.</ref> The couple lived in an apartment in [[West Philadelphia]] while Asimov was employed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard (where two of his co-workers were [[L. Sprague de Camp]] and [[Robert A. Heinlein]]). Gertrude returned to Brooklyn while he was in the Army, and they both lived there from July 1946 before moving to [[Stuyvesant Town]], [[Manhattan]], in July 1948. They moved to [[Boston]] in May 1949, then to nearby suburbs [[Somerville, Massachusetts|Somerville]] in July 1949, [[Waltham, Massachusetts|Waltham]] in May 1951, and, finally, [[West Newton, Massachusetts|West Newton]] in 1956.<ref>Asimov, I. (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', (Avon 1980 edition), pp. 355, 366, 476, 480–481, 532, 560–563, 623, and Asimov, I. (1979) ''In Joy Still Felt'', (Avon 1980 edition), pp. 47–49.</ref> They had two children, David (born 1951) and Robyn Joan (born 1955).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html |title=Isaac Asimov FAQ |work=asimovonline.com |access-date=March 3, 2015 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1970, they separated and Asimov moved back to New York, this time to the [[Upper West Side]] of Manhattan where he lived for the rest of his life.<ref>Asimov wrote in 1969 that "periodic trips to New York ... have, more and more, become a kind of highlight to my life". {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/244/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=267}}</ref> He began seeing [[Janet Asimov|Janet O. Jeppson]], a psychiatrist and science-fiction writer, and married her on November 30, 1973,<ref>Asimov, Isaac. (1975) ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'', VGSF (1988 ed.), p. 205.</ref> two weeks after his divorce from Gertrude.<ref>{{cite book|title=In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1980 |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |location=Garden City, New York |isbn=0-385-15544-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/659 659, 661] |url=https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/659 }}</ref>

Asimov was a [[Claustrophilia|claustrophile]]: he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces.<ref>{{cite book|title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-41701-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/129 129–131] |url=https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/129 }}</ref>{{efn|{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/244/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and Other Stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=244|quote=I wrote a novel in 1953 which pictured a world in which everyone lived in underground cities, comfortably enclosed away from the open air. People would say, 'How could you imagine such a nightmarish situation?' And I would answer in astonishment, 'What nightmarish situation?'}}}} In the third volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in a [[New York City Subway]] station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading.<ref>{{cite book |title=In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1979 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, New York |isbn=0-385-13679-X}}</ref>

Asimov was [[fear of flying|afraid of flying]], doing so only twice: once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station and once returning home from [[Oahu|Oʻahu]] in 1946. Consequently, he seldom traveled great distances. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as the [[Wendell Urth]] mystery stories and the ''Robot'' novels featuring [[Elijah Baley]]. In his later years, Asimov found enjoyment traveling on [[cruise ship]]s, beginning in 1972 when he viewed the [[Apollo 17]] launch from a [[SS Statendam (1956)|cruise ship]].<ref>Asimov, I. (1973) "The Cruise and I", in ''The Tragedy of the Moon'' (1973, Dell), chapter 16.</ref> On several cruises, he was part of the entertainment program, giving science-themed talks aboard ships such as the ''[[Queen Elizabeth 2]]''.<ref name="Acrophobia">{{cite book|title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-41701-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/125 125–129] |url=https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/125 }}</ref> He sailed to England in June 1974 on the {{SS|France|1960|6}} for a trip mostly devoted to lectures in London and Birmingham,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fiawol.org.uk/fanstuff/then%20archive/1974Asimov/asimov.htm |title=Asimov in the UK |website=Rob Hansen's Fan Stuff |access-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930035853/http://www.fiawol.org.uk/fanstuff/then%20archive/1974Asimov/asimov.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> though he also found time to visit [[Stonehenge]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Platt |first=Charles |editor-last=Durwood |editor-first=Thomas |title=Ariel, The Book of Fantasy, Volume 4 |publisher=Ariel Books |date=1978 |pages=28–31 |chapter=A Visit with Isaac Asimov |isbn=9780345278296}}</ref> and Shakespeare's birthplace.<ref>Asimov (1980) ''In Joy Still Felt'', p. 676</ref>

[[File:Isaac and Janet Asimov.jpg|thumb|right|Asimov with his second wife, Janet. "They became a permanent feature of my face, and it is now difficult to believe early photographs that show me without sideburns."<ref>Asimov (1980), ''In Joy Still Felt'', p. 471.</ref> (Photo by Jay Kay Klein.)]]
Asimov was a [[teetotalism|teetotaler]].{{sfn|Asimov|1971|p=[https://archive.org/details/isaacasimovstrea00asim/page/106/mode/2up 106]}}

He was an able public speaker and was regularly invited to give talks about science in his distinct [[New York accent]]. He participated in many [[science fiction convention]]s, where he was friendly and approachable.<ref name="Acrophobia"/> He patiently answered tens of thousands of questions and other mail with postcards and was pleased to give autographs. He was of medium height, {{height|ft=5|in=9}}<ref>''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 22.</ref> and stocky build. In his later years, he adopted a signature style of "mutton-chop" [[sideburns]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.space.com/42222-astounding-science-fiction-book-excerpt.html|title=Asimov's Sword: Excerpt from 'Astounding' History of Science Fiction|last=Lewin|first=Sarah|date=October 23, 2018|website=[[Space.com]]|publisher=[[Purch Group|Purch]]|access-date=November 9, 2018|archive-date=November 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110040337/https://www.space.com/42222-astounding-science-fiction-book-excerpt.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-harlan-ellison-isaac-asimov-studs-terkel-together-video-20130503-story.html|title=Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Studs Terkel together in 1982 video|last=Kellogg|first=Carolyn|date=May 6, 2013|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=November 9, 2018|archive-date=October 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017201429/http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/06/entertainment/la-et-jc-harlan-ellison-isaac-asimov-studs-terkel-together-video-20130503|url-status=live}}</ref> He took to wearing [[bolo tie]]s after his wife Janet objected to his clip-on bow ties.<ref>Asimov, I. (1980) ''In Joy Still Felt'', p. 677.</ref> He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle, but did learn to drive a car after he moved to Boston. In his humor book ''Asimov Laughs Again'', he describes Boston driving as "anarchy on wheels".<ref>{{cite book|title=Asimov Laughs Again |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1992 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |location=New York |isbn=0-06-016826-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/asimovlaughsagai00isaa }}</ref>

Asimov's wide interests included his participation in later years in organizations devoted to the [[comic opera]]s of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]].<ref name="Acrophobia"/> Many of his short stories mention or quote Gilbert and Sullivan.{{sfnp|White|2005|pp=83, 219–220}} He was a prominent member of [[The Baker Street Irregulars]], the leading [[Sherlock Holmes]] society,<ref name="Acrophobia"/> for whom he wrote an essay arguing that Professor Moriarty's work "The Dynamics of An Asteroid" involved the willful destruction of an ancient, civilized planet. He was also a member of the male-only literary banqueting club the [[Trap Door Spiders]], which served as the basis of his fictional group of mystery solvers, the [[Black Widowers]].<ref name="Asimov_p376-377">Asimov, Isaac. ''I. Asimov, a Memoir'', New York, Doubleday, 1994, pp. 376–377.</ref> He later used his essay on Moriarty's work as the basis for a Black Widowers story, "[[The Ultimate Crime]]", which appeared in ''[[More Tales of the Black Widowers]]''.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''More Tales of the Black Widowers'', Greenwich (Connecticut), [[Fawcett Crest]], 1976, p. 223.</ref><ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Joy Still Felt'', Avon, 1980, pp. 699–700.</ref>

In 1984, the [[American Humanist Association]] (AHA) named him the Humanist of the Year. He was one of the signers of the [[Humanist Manifesto II|''Humanist Manifesto'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |title=Humanist Manifesto II |publisher=American Humanist Association |access-date=October 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |archive-date=October 20, 2012 }}</ref> From 1985 until his death in 1992, he served as honorary president of the AHA, and was succeeded by his friend and fellow writer [[Kurt Vonnegut]]. He was also a close friend of ''[[Star Trek]]'' creator [[Gene Roddenberry]], and earned a screen credit as "special science consultant" on ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture]]'' for his advice during production.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/09/isaacasimov|title=Isaac Asimov|date=July 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510164909/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/09/isaacasimov|archive-date=May 10, 2017|url-status=live|work=The Guardian|access-date=March 3, 2015}}</ref>

Asimov was a founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP (now the [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]])<ref>*{{cite web |title=Sixteen Notable Figures in Science and Skepticism Elected CSI Fellows |date=January 12, 2010 |url=http://www.csicop.org/news/press_releases/show/sixteen_notable_figures_in_science_and_skepticism_elected_csi_fellows |publisher=[[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] |access-date=October 11, 2012 |archive-date=October 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024204448/https://www.csicop.org/news/press_releases/show/sixteen_notable_figures_in_science_and_skepticism_elected_csi_fellows |url-status=live }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Blackmore |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Blackmore |title=Playing with fire / Firewalking with the Wessex Skeptics |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12717254.900--forum-playing-with-fire--firewalking-with-the-wessex-skeptics--.html |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |access-date=October 11, 2012 |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004220126/http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12717254.900--forum-playing-with-fire--firewalking-with-the-wessex-skeptics--.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |title=About CSI |url=http://www.csicop.org/about/about_csi/ |publisher=[[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] |access-date=April 29, 2014 |archive-date=April 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421083212/http://www.csicop.org/about/about_csi |url-status=live }}</ref> and is listed in its Pantheon of Skeptics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.csicop.org/about/the_pantheon_of_skeptics/ |title=The Pantheon of Skeptics |access-date=April 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013103203/http://www.csicop.org/about/the_pantheon_of_skeptics/ |archive-date=October 13, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In a discussion with [[James Randi]] at [[CSICon|CSICon 2016]] regarding the founding of CSICOP, [[Kendrick Frazier]] said that Asimov was "a key figure in the [[Skeptical movement]] who is less well known and appreciated today, but was very much in the public eye back then." He said that Asimov's being associated with CSICOP "gave it immense status and authority" in his eyes.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Conversation with James Randi|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZQNuw2jjzg&t=1s|website=[[YouTube]]| date=August 14, 2017 |publisher=[[Center For Inquiry]]|access-date=August 25, 2017|archive-date=February 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228220925/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZQNuw2jjzg|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|13:00}}

Asimov described [[Carl Sagan]] as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the [[computer scientist]] and [[artificial intelligence]] expert [[Marvin Minsky]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac Asimov |title=In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978 |orig-year=Originally published 1980; Garden City, NY: [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |date=1981 |publisher=[[Avon (publisher)|Avon]] |location=New York |isbn=0-380-53025-2 |oclc=7880716 |lccn=79003685 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/217 217, 302] |url=https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/217 }}</ref> Asimov was an on-and-off member and honorary vice president of [[Mensa International]], albeit reluctantly;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asimov |first1=Isaac |title=I.Asimov: A Memoir |date=2009 |edition=ebook |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-57353-7 |oclc=612306604 |pages=546–547 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mATFyeVI7IUC&pg=PT546 |access-date=July 3, 2014 |archive-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728030600/http://books.google.com/books?id=mATFyeVI7IUC&pg=PT546 |url-status=live }}</ref> he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs".<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I, Asimov: A Memoir |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |date=1994 |page=380 }}</ref>{{efn|On the subject of IQ tests, Asimov wrote: "there is no objective definition of intelligence, and what we call intelligence is only a creation of cultural fashion and subjective prejudice,"<ref>"Thinking About Thinking" in ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', January 1975.</ref> and "I simply don't think it is reasonable to use IQ tests to produce results of questionable value, which may then serve to justify racists in their own minds and to help bring about the kinds of tragedies we have already witnessed earlier in this century."<ref>"Alas, All Human" in ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', June 1979.</ref>}}

After his father died in 1969, Asimov annually contributed to a Judah Asimov Scholarship Fund at [[Brandeis University]].<ref>Asimov (1981), ''In Joy Still Felt'', Avon Books edition (originally Doubleday, 1980), p. 500.</ref>

In 2006, he was named by [[Carnegie Corporation of New York]] to the inaugural class of winners of the [[Great Immigrants Award]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=2006 Great Immigrants: Isaac Asimov |url=https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/isaac-asimov/ |access-date=February 20, 2024 |website=Great Immigrants Great Americans}}</ref>

=== Illness and death ===
In 1977, Asimov had a [[heart attack]]. In December 1983, he had [[Coronary artery bypass surgery|triple bypass surgery]] at NYU Medical Center, during which he contracted [[HIV]] from a [[blood transfusion]].<ref name="faq-nonlit">{{cite web |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary2 |title=Asimov FAQ |date=September 27, 2004 |access-date=January 17, 2007 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary2 |url-status=live }}</ref> His HIV status was kept secret out of concern that the [[Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS|anti-AIDS prejudice]] might extend to his family members.<ref name=Aids/>

He died in Manhattan on April 6, 1992, and was cremated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary2|title=Isaac Asimov FAQ|website=www.asimovonline.com|access-date=December 13, 2002|archive-date=October 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#non-literary2|url-status=live}}</ref> The cause of death was reported as heart and [[Renal failure|kidney failure]].<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Isaac Asimov, Whose Thoughts and Books Traveled the Universe, Is Dead at 72 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/07/books/isaac-asimov-whose-thoughts-and-books-traveled-the-universe-is-dead-at-72.html |access-date=September 4, 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 7, 1992 |page=B7 |archive-date=May 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530061354/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/07/books/isaac-asimov-whose-thoughts-and-books-traveled-the-universe-is-dead-at-72.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=It's Been a Good Life |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=2002 |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-1-57392-968-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim/page/251 251–253] |url=https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim/page/251 }}</ref><ref name=janetLetter/> Ten years following Asimov's death, Janet and Robyn Asimov agreed that the HIV story should be made public; Janet revealed it in her edition of his autobiography, ''[[It's Been a Good Life]]''.<ref name="faq-nonlit"/><ref name=janetLetter>{{cite web |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2002/Issue04/Letter.html |title=Locus Online: Letter from Janet Asimov |date=April 4, 2002 |access-date=January 17, 2007 |archive-date=October 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002160457/http://www.locusmag.com/2002/Issue04/Letter.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Aids>"Widow reveals Isaac Asimov died from Aids", ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', March 17, 2002.</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Hal |last=Bock|title=Ashe says transfusion gave him AIDS: Former tennis star blames tainted blood received during 1983 bypass surgery|date=April 9, 1992|page=E5|newspaper=The Globe and Mail}}</ref>

== Writings ==
{{blockquote|[T]he only thing about myself that I consider to be severe enough to warrant psychoanalytic treatment is my compulsion to write ... That means that my idea of a pleasant time is to go up to my attic, sit at my electric typewriter (as I am doing right now), and bang away, watching the words take shape like magic before my eyes.|Asimov, 1969<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/204/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|pages=205, 244}}</ref>}}

=== Overview ===
{{Robotic laws}}
Asimov's career can be divided into several periods. His early career, dominated by science fiction, began with short stories in 1939 and novels in 1950. This lasted until about 1958, all but ending after publication of ''[[The Naked Sun]]'' (1957). He began publishing nonfiction as co-author of a college-level textbook called ''Biochemistry and Human Metabolism''. Following the brief orbit of the first human-made satellite [[Sputnik I]] by the USSR in 1957, he wrote more nonfiction, particularly [[popular science]] books, and less science fiction. Over the next quarter-century, he wrote only four science fiction novels, and 120 nonfiction books.

Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with the publication of ''[[Foundation's Edge]]''. From then until his death, Asimov published several more sequels and prequels to his existing novels, tying them together in a way he had not originally anticipated, making a unified series. There are many inconsistencies in this unification, especially in his earlier stories.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=[[Prelude to Foundation]] |publisher=Bantam Books |date=1988 |pages=xiii–xv}}</ref> [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] and [[Houghton Mifflin]] published about 60% of his work up to 1969, Asimov stating that "both represent a father image".{{r|nichols19690803}}

Asimov believed his most enduring contributions would be his "[[Three Laws of Robotics]]" and the [[Foundation Series|''Foundation'' series]].<ref>''Yours, Isaac Asimov'', p. 329.</ref> The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' credits his science fiction for introducing into the English language the words "[[robotics]]", "[[positronic brain|positronic]]" (an entirely fictional technology), and "[[psychohistory (fictional)|psychohistory]]" (which is also used for a [[Psychohistory|different study]] on historical motivations). Asimov coined the term "robotics" without suspecting that it might be an original word; at the time, he believed it was simply the natural analogue of words such as [[mechanics]] and [[hydraulics]], but for [[robot]]s. Unlike his word "psychohistory", the word "robotics" continues in mainstream technical use with Asimov's original definition. ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' featured [[android (robot)|androids]] with "[[positronic brain]]s" and the first-season episode "[[Datalore]]" called the positronic brain "Asimov's dream".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seiler |first1=Edward |last2=Hatcher |first2=Richard |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#series12 |title=Is Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation an Asimovian robot? |publisher=Isaac Asimov Home Page |date=2014 |access-date=August 3, 2016 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#series12 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Asimov was so prolific and diverse in his writing that his books span all major categories of the [[Dewey Decimal Classification]] except for category 100, [[philosophy]] and [[psychology]].<ref name="AsimovFAQ-DeweyDecimal"/> However, he wrote several essays about psychology,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seiler |first1=Edward |last2=Hatcher |first2=Richard |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/Essays/psychology.html |title=Asimov essays about psychology |publisher=Isaac Asimov Home Page |date=1995 |access-date=May 13, 2013 |archive-date=January 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121190158/http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/Essays/psychology.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and forewords for the books ''The Humanist Way'' (1988) and ''In Pursuit of Truth'' (1982),<ref name="Popper"/> which were classified in the 100s category, but none of his own books were classified in that category.<ref name="AsimovFAQ-DeweyDecimal">{{cite web |last1=Seiler |first1=Edward |last2=Hatcher |first2=Richard |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#others11 |title=Did you know that Asimov is the only author to have published books in all ten categories of the Dewey Decimal System? |date=2014 |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#others11 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to [[UNESCO]]'s ''Index Translationum database'', Asimov is the world's 24th-most-translated author.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Index Translationum|url=https://www.unesco.org/xtrans/bsstatexp.aspx?crit1L=5&nTyp=min&topN=50|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=www.unesco.org|language=en}}</ref>

=== 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>

=== Popular science ===
{{blockquote|Just say I am one of the most versatile writers in the world, and the greatest popularizer of many subjects.|Asimov, 1969<ref name="nichols19690803">{{Cite news |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/23/lifetimes/asi-v-profile.html |title=Isaac Asimov: Man of 7,560,000 Words |last=Nichols |first=Lewis |date=1969-08-03 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-09-10 |archive-date=January 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117082824/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/23/lifetimes/asi-v-profile.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Asimov and two colleagues published a textbook in 1949, with two more editions by 1969.{{r|nichols19690803}} During the late 1950s and 1960s, Asimov substantially decreased his fiction output (he published only four adult novels between 1957's ''[[The Naked Sun]]'' and 1982's ''[[Foundation's Edge]]'', two of which were mysteries). He greatly increased his nonfiction production, writing mostly on science topics; the launch of Sputnik in 1957 engendered [[Sputnik crisis|public concern over a "science gap"]].<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=252–254}}</ref> Asimov explained in ''The Rest of the Robots'' that he had been unable to write substantial fiction since the summer of 1958, and observers understood him as saying that his fiction career had ended, or was permanently interrupted.<ref name="budrys196506">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Budrys
 |first=Algis
 |date=June 1965
 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v23n05_1965-06#page/n163/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=164–169
}}</ref> Asimov recalled in 1969 that "the United States went into a kind of tizzy, and so did I. I was overcome by the ardent desire to write popular science for an America that might be in great danger through its neglect of science, and a number of publishers got an equally ardent desire to publish popular science for the same reason".<ref name=nightfall321>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/320/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=321}}</ref>

''Fantasy and Science Fiction'' invited Asimov to continue his regular nonfiction column, begun in the now-folded bimonthly companion magazine ''[[Venture Science Fiction Magazine]]''. The first of 399 monthly ''F&SF'' columns appeared in November 1958 and they continued until his terminal illness.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Asimov Essays From the Mag. of F&SF|url=http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/Essays/f_and_sf_essays.html|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=www.asimovonline.com}}</ref>{{efn|name="400th essay"|A 400th essay, a compilation of excerpts from his earlier essays edited by his widow Janet Jeppson Asimov, was published in the magazine in 1994.}} These columns, periodically collected into books by Doubleday,{{r|nichols19690803}} gave Asimov a reputation as a "Great Explainer" of science; he described them as his only popular science writing in which he never had to assume complete ignorance of the subjects on the part of his readers. The column was ostensibly dedicated to popular science but Asimov had complete editorial freedom, and wrote about contemporary social issues{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} in essays such as "Thinking About Thinking"<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=January 1975 |title=Thinking About Thinking |magazine=The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction |location=New York |publisher=Mercury Press, Inc.}}</ref> and "Knock Plastic!".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=November 1967 |title=Knock Plastic! |magazine=The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction |location=New York |publisher=Mercury Press, Inc.}}</ref> In 1975 he wrote of these essays: "I get more pleasure out of them than out of any other writing assignment."<ref>Asimov (1975), ''Buy Jupiter'' (VGSF 1988 edition), p. 125.</ref>

Asimov's first wide-ranging reference work, ''[[The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science]]'' (1960), was nominated for a [[National Book Award]], and in 1963 he won a [[Hugo Award]]—his first—for his essays for ''F&SF''.<ref name="1963hugo">[http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1963.html 1963 Hugo Award winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930112929/http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1963.html |date=September 30, 2017 }} at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref> The popularity of his science books and the income he derived from them allowed him to give up most academic responsibilities and become a full-time [[freelance writer]].<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' chapter 65.</ref> He encouraged other science fiction writers to write popular science, stating in 1967 that "the knowledgeable, skillful science writer is worth his weight in contracts", with "twice as much work as he can possibly handle".<ref name="asimov196708">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Asimov
 |first=Isaac
 |date=August 1967
 |title=S. F. as a Stepping Stone
 |department=Editorial
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=4, 6
}}</ref>

The great variety of information covered in Asimov's writings prompted [[Kurt Vonnegut]] to ask, "How does it feel to know everything?" Asimov replied that he only knew how it felt to have the 'reputation' of omniscience: "Uneasy".<ref>Asimov, I. ''[[In Joy Still Felt]]'' (Doubleday, 1980) chapter 30.</ref> [[Floyd C. Gale]] said that "Asimov has a rare talent. He can make your mental mouth water over dry facts",<ref name="gale196008">{{Cite magazine |last=Gale |first=Floyd C. |date=August 1960 |title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v18n06_1960-08#page/115/mode/2up |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=117–121}}</ref> and "science fiction's loss has been science popularization's gain".<ref name="gale196112">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Gale
 |first=Floyd C.
 |date=December 1961
 |title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v20n02_1961-12_modified#page/n42/mode/1up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=144–147
}}</ref> Asimov said that "Of all the writing I do, fiction, non-fiction, adult, or juvenile, these ''F & SF'' articles are by far the most fun".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/298/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=299}}</ref> He regretted, however, that he had less time for fiction—causing dissatisfied readers to send him letters of complaint—stating in 1969 that "In the last ten years, I've done a couple of novels, some collections, a dozen or so stories, but that's ''nothing''".{{r|nightfall321}}

In his essay "To Tell a Chemist" (1965), Asimov proposed a simple [[shibboleth]] for distinguishing chemists from non-chemists: ask the person to read the word "unionized". Chemists, he noted, will read ''un''-''[[Ionization|ionized]]'' (electrically neutral), while non-chemists will read ''[[Trade union|union]]-ized'' (belonging to a trade union).

=== Coined terms ===
Asimov coined the term "[[robotics]]" in his 1941 story "[[Liar! (short story)|Liar!]]",<ref>According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' the term "robotics" was first used in the short story "Liar!" published in the May 1941 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction''.</ref> though he later remarked that he believed then that he was merely using an existing word, as he stated in ''[[Gold (Asimov book)|Gold]]'' ("The Robot Chronicles"). While acknowledging the Oxford Dictionary reference, he incorrectly states that the word was first printed about one third of the way down the first column of page 100 in the March 1942 issue of ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding Science Fiction]]'' – the printing of his short story "[[Runaround (story)|Runaround]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac Asimov |title=Gold |publisher=Voyager <!-- was Eos --> |date=1996 <!-- was 2003 --> |orig-year=1995 |location=London |isbn=0-00-648202-3 |pages=224–225 |chapter=The Robot Chronicles}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac Asimov |title=Counting the Eons |chapter=4 The Word I Invented |publisher=Doubleday |date=1983 |quote=Robotics has become a sufficiently well developed technology to warrant articles and books on its history and I have watched this in amazement, and in some disbelief, because I invented ... the word|title-link=Counting the Eons |bibcode=1983coeo.book.....A }}</ref>

In the same story, Asimov also coined the term "positronic" (the counterpart to "electronic" for [[positron]]s).<ref>[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/positronic Oxford Dictionary website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529191116/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/positronic |date=May 29, 2019 }} entry for "positronic"</ref>

Asimov coined the term "[[psychohistory (fictional)|psychohistory]]" in his [[Foundation (book series)|''Foundation'']] stories to name a fictional branch of science which combines [[history]], [[sociology]], and [[mathematical statistics]] to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the [[Galactic Empire (Asimov)|Galactic Empire]]. Asimov said later that he should have called it psychosociology. It was first introduced in the five short stories (1942–1944) which would later be collected as the 1951 [[fix-up]] novel ''[[Foundation (Isaac Asimov novel)|Foundation]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=Psychohistory |magazine=Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=4–8 |publisher=Davis Publications |date=July 1988 |issn=0162-2188}}</ref> Somewhat later, the term "[[psychohistory]]" was applied by others to research of the effects of psychology on history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Noland |first=Richard W. |date=1977 |title=Psychohistory, Theory and Practice |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25088736 |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=295–322 |jstor=25088736 |pmid=11614903 |issn=0025-4878}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shepherd |first1=Michael |title=Clio and Psyche: The Lessons of Psychohistory |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=June 1978 |volume=71 |issue=6 |pages=406–412 |doi=10.1177/014107687807100604 |pmid=359805 |pmc=1436484 }}</ref>

=== Other writings ===
In addition to his interest in science, Asimov was interested in history. Starting in the 1960s, he wrote 14 popular history books, including ''The Greeks: A Great Adventure'' (1965),<ref>{{cite book |title=The Greeks: A Great Adventure |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1965 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston}}</ref> ''The Roman Republic'' (1966),<ref>{{cite book |title=The Roman Republic |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1966 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston}}</ref> ''The Roman Empire'' (1967),<ref>{{cite book |title=The Roman Empire |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1967 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston}}</ref> ''The Egyptians'' (1967)<ref>{{cite book |title=The Egyptians |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1967 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston}}</ref> ''The Near East: 10,000 Years of History'' (1968),<ref>{{cite book |title=The Near East: 10,000 Years of History |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1968 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston}}</ref> and ''[[Asimov's Chronology of the World]]'' (1991).<ref>{{cite book |title=Asimov's Chronology of the World |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1991 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York}}</ref>

He published ''[[Asimov's Guide to the Bible]]'' in two volumes—covering the [[Old Testament]] in 1967 and the [[New Testament]] in 1969—and then combined them into one 1,300-page volume in 1981. Complete with maps and tables, the guide goes through the books of the Bible in order, explaining the history of each one and the political influences that affected it, as well as biographical information about the important characters. His interest in literature manifested itself in several annotations of literary works, including ''[[Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare]]'' (1970),{{efn|Asimov, ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980), pp. 464–465: "Of all the books I have ever worked on, I think ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' gave me the most pleasure, day in, day out. For months and months I lived and thought Shakespeare, and I don't see how there can be any greater pleasure in the world—any pleasure, that is, that one can indulge in for as much as ten hours without pause, day after day indefinitely."}} ''Asimov's Annotated Don Juan'' (1972), ''Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost'' (1974), and ''The Annotated Gulliver's Travels'' (1980).<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' chapter 112.</ref>

Asimov was also a noted mystery author and a frequent contributor to ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. He began by writing science fiction mysteries such as his Wendell Urth stories, but soon moved on to writing "pure" mysteries. He published two full-length mystery novels, and wrote 66 stories about the [[Black Widowers]], a group of men who met monthly for dinner, conversation, and a puzzle. He got the idea for the Widowers from his own association in a stag group called the Trap Door Spiders, and all of the main characters (with the exception of the waiter, Henry, who he admitted resembled Wodehouse's Jeeves) were modeled after his closest friends.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=Puzzles of the Black Widowers |publisher=Bantam Books |date=1991 |page=xiii }}</ref> A parody of the Black Widowers, "An Evening with the White Divorcés," was written by author, critic, and librarian Jon L. Breen.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Breen |first1=Jon L. "An Evening with the White Divorcés" |title=Hair of the Sleuthhound |date=1982 |publisher=Scarecrow |location=Metuchen, NJ |pages=125–131}}</ref> Asimov joked, "all I can do ... is to wait until I catch him in a dark alley, someday."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Breen |first1=Jon L. "An Evening with the White Divorcés" |title=Hair of the Sleuthhound |date=1982 |publisher=Scarecrow |location=Metuchen, NJ |page=131}}</ref>

Toward the end of his life, Asimov published a series of collections of [[limerick (poetry)|limericks]], mostly written by himself, starting with ''[[Lecherous Limericks]]'', which appeared in 1975. ''Limericks: Too Gross'', whose title displays Asimov's love of [[pun]]s, contains 144 limericks by Asimov and an equal number by [[John Ciardi]]. He even created a slim volume of [[Sherlock Holmes|Sherlockian]] limericks. Asimov featured [[Yiddish]] humor in ''[[Azazel (Asimov)|Azazel, The Two Centimeter Demon]]''. The two main characters, both Jewish, talk over dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, about anecdotes of "George" and his friend Azazel. Asimov's ''[[Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor|Treasury of Humor]]'' is both a working joke book and a treatise propounding his views on [[Theory of humor|humor theory]]. According to Asimov, the most essential element of humor is an abrupt change in point of view, one that suddenly shifts focus from the important to the trivial, or from the sublime to the ridiculous.<ref name="Asimov 1971">{{cite book |title=Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1971 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=New York |isbn=0-395-12665-7}}</ref><ref name="Asimov 1992">{{cite book|title=Asimov Laughs Again |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1992 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=London |isbn=0-06-016826-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/asimovlaughsagai00isaa }}</ref>

Particularly in his later years, Asimov to some extent cultivated an image of himself as an amiable lecher. In 1971, as a response to the popularity of sexual guidebooks such as ''[[The Sensuous Woman]]'' (by "J") and ''[[The Sensuous Man]]'' (by "M"), Asimov published ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'' under the byline "Dr. 'A{{'"}}<ref>''In Joy Still Felt'', p. 569.</ref> (although his full name was printed on the paperback edition, first published 1972). However, by 2016, Asimov's habit of groping women was seen as [[sexual harassment]] and came under criticism, and was cited as an early example of inappropriate behavior that can occur at science fiction conventions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/dont-look-away-fighting-sexual-harassment-in-the-scifi-1785704207|title=Don't Look Away: Fighting Sexual Harassment in the Scifi/Fantasy Community|last=Hines|first=Jim C.|date=August 29, 2016|work=io9|access-date=December 18, 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=November 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123220020/https://io9.gizmodo.com/dont-look-away-fighting-sexual-harassment-in-the-scifi-1785704207|url-status=live}}</ref>

Asimov published [[Autobiographies of Isaac Asimov|three volumes of autobiography]]. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979)<ref>{{cite book |title=In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1979 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-13679-X}}</ref> and ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980)<ref>{{cite book |title=In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1979 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-13679-X}}</ref> cover his life up to 1978. The third volume, ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994),<ref>{{cite book|title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1994 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-41701-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0 }}</ref> covered his whole life (rather than following on from where the second volume left off). The epilogue was written by his widow [[Janet Asimov]] after his death. The book won a [[Hugo Award]] in 1995.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 26, 2007|title=1995 Hugo Awards|url=https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1995-hugo-awards/|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=The Hugo Awards|language=en-US}}</ref> Janet Asimov edited ''[[It's Been a Good Life]]'' (2002),<ref>{{cite book|title=It's Been a Good Life |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=2002 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=New York |isbn=1-57392-968-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/itsbeengoodlife00asim }}</ref> a condensed version of his three autobiographies. He also published three volumes of retrospectives of his writing, ''[[Opus 100]]'' (1969),<ref name="Asimov 1969">{{cite book |title=Opus 100 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1969 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston}}</ref> ''[[Opus 200]]'' (1979),<ref name="Asimov 1979">{{cite book|title=Opus 200 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1979 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |isbn=0-395-27625-X |url=https://archive.org/details/opus20000asim }}</ref> and ''[[Opus 300]]'' (1984).<ref name="Asimov 1984">{{cite book |title=Opus 300 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1984 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |isbn=0-395-36108-7}}</ref>

In 1987, the Asimovs co-wrote ''How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort''. In it they offer advice on how to maintain a positive attitude and stay productive when dealing with discouragement, distractions, rejection, and thick-headed editors. The book includes many quotations, essays, anecdotes, and husband-wife dialogues about the ups and downs of being an author.<ref>{{cite book|title=How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort |last1=Asimov |first1=Janet |author-link=Janet Asimov |last2=Asimov |first2=Isaac |date=1987 |publisher=Walker & Co. |location=New York |isbn=0-8027-0945-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/howtoenjoywritin00asim_0 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book362.html |title=How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort |publisher=John H. Jenkins |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=August 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803195159/http://asimovreviews.net/Books/Book362.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Asimov and ''[[Star Trek]]'' creator [[Gene Roddenberry]] developed a unique relationship during ''Star Trek''{{'}}s initial launch in the late 1960s. Asimov wrote a critical essay on ''Star Trek''{{'}}s scientific accuracy for ''[[TV Guide]]'' magazine. Roddenberry retorted respectfully with a personal letter explaining the limitations of accuracy when writing a weekly series. Asimov corrected himself with a follow-up essay to ''TV Guide'' claiming that despite its inaccuracies, ''Star Trek'' was a fresh and intellectually challenging [[science fiction on television|science fiction television]] show. The two remained friends to the point where Asimov even served as an advisor on a number of ''Star Trek'' projects.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/06/getting-star-trek-on-air-was-impossible.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627222403/http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/06/getting-star-trek-on-air-was-impossible.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 27, 2012 |title=Letters of Note: Getting Star Trek on the air was impossible |date=June 25, 2012 }}</ref>

{{anchor|Calendar}}
In 1973, Asimov published a proposal for [[calendar reform]], called the World Season Calendar. It divides the year into four seasons (named A–D) of 13 weeks (91 days) each. This allows days to be named, e.g., "D-73" instead of December 1 (due to December 1 being the 73rd day of the 4th quarter). An extra 'year day' is added for a total of 365 days.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |author-link=Isaac Asimov |chapter=The Week Excuse |title=The Tragedy of the Moon |pages=48–58 |publisher=Doubleday and Co |date=1973 |isbn=0-440-18999-3|title-link=The Tragedy of the Moon }}</ref>

=== Awards and recognition ===
Asimov won more than a dozen annual awards for particular works of science fiction and a half-dozen lifetime awards.<ref name=SFAwards>[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit5.html#179 "Asimov, Isaac"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016200502/http://locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit5.html |date=October 16, 2012 }}. ''The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees''. [[Locus Publications]]. Retrieved March 24, 2013.</ref>
He also received 14 [[honorary doctorate]] degrees from universities.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seiler |first1=Edward |last2=Hatcher |first2=Richard |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#literary3 |title=What awards did he win for his writing? |date=2014 |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#literary3 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1955 – Guest of Honor at the 13th [[Worldcon|World Science Fiction Convention]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Long List of Worldcons|url=http://www.smofinfo.com/LL/TheLongList.html|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=www.smofinfo.com}}</ref>
* 1957 – [[Thomas Alva Edison]] Foundation Award for best science book for youth, for ''Building Blocks of the Universe''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Building Blocks of the Universe|url=http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book022.html|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=www.asimovreviews.net}}</ref>
* 1960 – [[Howard W. Blakeslee]] Award from the [[American Heart Association]] for ''The Living River''<ref>Asimov, I. (1980) In Joy Still Felt Avon, p. 210.</ref>
* 1962 – [[Boston University]]'s Publication Merit Award<ref>Asimov, I. (1980) ''In Joy Still Felt'' Avon, p. 278.</ref>
* 1963 – A special [[Hugo Award]] for "adding science to science fiction," for essays published in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction]]''<ref name="1963hugo"/>
* 1963 – Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=April 25, 2011 |archive-date=October 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005182401/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1964 – The [[Science Fiction Writers of America]] voted "Nightfall" (1941) the all-time best science fiction short story<ref name=obit/>
* 1965 – James T. Grady Award of the [[American Chemical Society]] (now called the [[James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry]])<ref>[https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding-and-awards/awards/national/bytopic/james-t-grady-james-h-stack-award-for-interpreting-chemistry-for-the-public.html James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018051603/https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding-and-awards/awards/national/bytopic/james-t-grady-james-h-stack-award-for-interpreting-chemistry-for-the-public.html |date=October 18, 2017 }} at the American Chemical Society website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 1966 – Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award for the ''[[Foundation (book series)|Foundation]]'' trilogy<ref>[http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1966.html 1966 Hugo Award winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403182439/http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1966.html |date=April 3, 2016 }} at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 1967 – [[Edward E. Smith Memorial Award]]<ref>[http://www.nesfa.org/awards/skylark.html The E. E. Smith Memorial Award] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204000351/http://www.nesfa.org/awards/skylark.html |date=December 4, 2008 }} at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 1967 – [[American Association for the Advancement of Science|AAAS]]-[[Westinghouse Electric Corporation|Westinghouse]] [[American Association for the Advancement of Science#Awards and fellowships|Science Writing Award for Magazine Writing]], for essay "Over the Edge of the Universe"{{efn|Reprinted as "The Birth and Death of the Universe" in ''Is Anyone There?'' (Doubleday, 1967)}} (in the March 1967 ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'')<ref>[https://docslide.com.br/documents/aaas-westinghouse-science-writing-awards.html AAAS-Westinghouse Science Writing Award] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023010637/https://docslide.com.br/documents/aaas-westinghouse-science-writing-awards.html |date=October 23, 2017 }} at docslide.com (retrieved October 22, 2017) (scroll down).</ref>
* 1972 – [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]] for ''[[The Gods Themselves]]''<ref name="WWE">{{cite web |url=https://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=20 |title=The Gods Themselves |work=Worlds Without End |access-date=September 8, 2017 |archive-date=July 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724112819/https://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?id=20 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1973 – [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] for ''The Gods Themselves''<ref name="WWE"/>
* 1973 – [[Locus Award for Best Novel]] for ''The Gods Themselves''<ref name="WWE"/>
* 1975 – Golden Plate Award of the American [[Academy of Achievement]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement|website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration|access-date=May 20, 2020|archive-date=December 15, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161215023909/https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1975 – [[Klumpke-Roberts Award]] "for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Past Recipients of the Klumpke-Roberts Award « Astronomical Society|url=https://www.astrosociety.org/about-us/awards/past-recipients-of-the-klumpke-roberts-award/|access-date=December 29, 2022|archive-date=November 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181112021739/https://www.astrosociety.org/about-us/awards/past-recipients-of-the-klumpke-roberts-award/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 1975 – [[Locus Award]] for Best Reprint Anthology for ''[[Before the Golden Age]]''<ref name="sfadb.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.sfadb.com/Isaac_Asimov|title=sfadb : Isaac Asimov Awards|website=www.sfadb.com|access-date=September 15, 2018|archive-date=September 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928050747/http://www.sfadb.com/Isaac_Asimov|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1977 – [[Hugo Award for Best Novelette]] for ''[[The Bicentennial Man]]''<ref>[http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1977.html 1977 Hugo Award winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929005713/http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1977.html |date=September 29, 2017 }} at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 1977 – [[Nebula Award for Best Novelette]] for ''The Bicentennial Man''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/Nebula_Awards_1977 |title=Nebula Awards 1977 |work=Science Fiction Awards Database |publisher=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |access-date=December 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025042352/http://www.sfadb.com/Nebula_Awards_1977 |archive-date=October 25, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1977 – [[Locus Award for Best Novelette]] for ''The Bicentennial Man''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfadb.com/Locus_Awards_1977|title=sfadb: Locus Awards 1977|website=www.sfadb.com|access-date=September 14, 2018|archive-date=September 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915002155/http://www.sfadb.com/Locus_Awards_1977|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1981 – An asteroid, [[5020 Asimov]], was named in his honor<ref name="asteroid"/>
* 1981 – [[Locus Award]] for Best Non-Fiction Book for ''[[Autobiographies of Isaac Asimov|In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978]]''<ref name="sfadb.com"/>
* 1983 – [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] for ''[[Foundation's Edge]]''<ref name="WWE-1983">{{cite web |url=http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1983 |title=1983 Award Winners & Nominees |work=Worlds Without End |access-date=June 30, 2009 |archive-date=July 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722201338/https://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1983 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1983 – Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for ''Foundation's Edge''<ref name="WWE-1983"/>
* 1984 – [[Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism|Humanist of the Year]]<ref>{{cite web|title=The Humanist of the Year |url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/AHA/Humanists_of_the_Year |publisher=American Humanist Association |access-date=May 1, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114082408/http://www.americanhumanist.org/AHA/Humanists_of_the_Year |archive-date=January 14, 2013 }}</ref>
* 1986 – The [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]] named him its 8th [[SFWA Grand Master]] (presented in 1987).<ref name=SFWA>[http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/events-program/grandmaster/ "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123091612/http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/events-program/grandmaster/ |date=January 23, 2013 }} Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). (Retrieved March 24, 2013.)</ref>
* 1987 – [[Locus Award]] for Best Short Story for "[[Robot Dreams (short story)|Robot Dreams]]"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Award Category: Best Short Story (Locus Poll Award)|url=https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?378+0|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=Internet Speculative Fiction Database}}</ref>
* 1992 – [[Hugo Award for Best Novelette]] for "[[Gold (short story)|Gold]]"<ref>[http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1992.html 1992 Hugo Award winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608015505/http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1992.html |date=June 8, 2008 }} at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 1995 – [[Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book]] for ''[[Autobiographies of Isaac Asimov|I. Asimov: A Memoir]]''<ref>[http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1995.html 1995 Hugo Award winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901081925/http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1995.html |date=September 1, 2017 }} at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 1995 – [[Locus Award]] for Best Non-Fiction Book for ''[[Autobiographies of Isaac Asimov|I. Asimov: A Memoir]]''<ref name="sfadb.com"/>
* 1996 – A 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 was given at the 1996 WorldCon for "[[Foundation and Empire#The Mule|The Mule]]", the 7th Foundation story, published in ''Astounding Science Fiction''<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 26, 2007|title=1946 Retro-Hugo Awards|url=https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1946-retro-hugo-awards/|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=The Hugo Awards|language=en-US}}</ref>
* 1997 – The [[EMP Museum#Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame|Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame]] inducted Asimov in its second class of two deceased and two living persons, along with [[H. G. Wells]].<ref name=sfhof-old>[http://www.midamericon.org/halloffame/ "Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521070009/http://www.midamericon.org/halloffame/ |date=May 21, 2013 }}. Mid American Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions, Inc. Retrieved March 24, 2013. This was the official website of the hall of fame to 2004.</ref>
* 2000 – Asimov was featured on a stamp in Israel<ref>[http://israelphilately.org.il/en/catalog/stamps/1633/Science%20Fiction%3a%20Robotics%2c%20Travel%20in%20Time%2c%20Travel%20in%20Space Israel Philatelic Federation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023011301/http://israelphilately.org.il/en/catalog/stamps/1633/Science%20Fiction%3a%20Robotics%2c%20Travel%20in%20Time%2c%20Travel%20in%20Space |date=October 23, 2017 }} (retrieved October 22, 2017).</ref>
* 2001 – The [https://www.amnh.org/our-research/hayden-planetarium/asimov-debate Isaac Asimov Memorial Debates] at the [[Hayden Planetarium]] in New York were inaugurated
* 2009 – A crater on the planet Mars, [[Asimov (crater)|Asimov]],<ref name=crater/> was named in his honor
* 2010 – In the US Congress bill about the designation of the National Robotics Week as an annual event, a tribute to Isaac Asimov is as follows:
** "Whereas the second week in April each year is designated as 'National Robotics Week', recognizing the accomplishments of Isaac Asimov, who immigrated to America, taught science, wrote science books for children and adults, first used the term robotics, developed the Three Laws of Robotics, and died in April 1992: Now, therefore, be it resolved ..."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-resolution/1055/text |title=H.Res.1055 – Supporting the designation of National Robotics Week as an annual event. |date=March 9, 2010 |publisher=Congress.gov |access-date=June 6, 2021 |archive-date=January 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113101906/https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-resolution/1055/text |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 2015 – Selected as a member of the [[New York State Writers Hall of Fame]].<ref>[https://www.nyla.org/max/userfiles/documents/hallfame15release.pdf "2015 Inductees to the NYS Writers Hall of Fame Announced"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170626191825/https://www.nyla.org/max/userfiles/documents/hallfame15release.pdf |date=June 26, 2017 }}, New York Library Association website. (Retrieved March 26, 2016.)</ref>
* 2016 – A 1941 [[Hugo Award|Retro-Hugo]] for Best Short Story of 1940 was given at the 2016 WorldCon for ''[[Robbie (short story)|Robbie]]'', his first positronic robot story, published in ''[[Super Science Stories]]'', September 1940<ref>{{Cite web|date=December 29, 2015|title=1941 Retro-Hugo Awards|url=https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1941-retro-hugo-awards/|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=The Hugo Awards|language=en-US}}</ref>
* 2018 – A 1943 [[Hugo Award|Retro-Hugo]] for Best Short Story of 1942 was given at the 2018 WorldCon for ''[[Foundation (Asimov novel)#"The Encyclopedists"|Foundation]]'', published in ''[[Astounding Science-Fiction]]'', May 1942<ref>{{Cite web|date=March 30, 2018|title=1943 Retro-Hugo Awards|url=https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1943-retro-hugo-awards/|access-date=December 29, 2022|website=The Hugo Awards|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Writing style ==
{{blockquote|I have an informal style, which means I tend to use short words and simple sentence structure, to say nothing of occasional colloquialisms. This grates on people who like things that are poetic, weighty, complex, and, above all, obscure. On the other hand, the informal style pleases people who enjoy the sensation of reading an essay without being aware that they are reading and of feeling that ideas are flowing from the writer's brain into their own without mental friction.|Asimov, 1980<ref>Asimov (1980) "On Style", introduction to ''Who Done It?'' (anthology edited by Isaac Asimov and Alice Laurance), Houghton Mifflin Co.<!-- Taken from "Opus 300", p. 296, Robert Hale Ltd edition. --></ref>}}

Asimov was his own secretary, typist, [[index (publishing)|index]]er, [[proofreader]], and [[literary agent]].{{r|nichols19690803}} He wrote a typed first draft composed at the keyboard at 90 words per minute; he imagined an ending first, then a beginning, then "let everything in-between work itself out as I come to it". (Asimov used an [[outline (list)|outline]] only once, later describing it as "like trying to play the piano from inside a straitjacket".) After correcting a draft by hand, he retyped the document as the final copy and only made one revision with minor editor-requested changes; a [[word processor]] did not save him much time, Asimov said, because 95% of the first draft was unchanged.{{r|asimov1973}}<ref name="earlyyears142_145"/><ref name="fallows198207">{{Cite magazine |last=Fallows |first=James |date=July 1982 |title=Living With a Computer |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/07/living-with-a-computer/306063/ |magazine=The Atlantic |language=en-US |access-date=March 17, 2019 |archive-date=March 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328142145/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/07/living-with-a-computer/306063/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

After disliking making multiple revisions of "[[Black Friar of the Flame]]", Asimov refused to make major, second, or non-editorial revisions ("like chewing used gum"), stating that "too large a revision, or too many revisions, indicate that the piece of writing is a failure. In the time it would take to salvage such a failure, I could write a new piece altogether and have infinitely more fun in the process". He submitted "failures" to another editor.{{r|asimov1973}}<ref name="earlyyears142_145">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyasimovorele00asim#page/142/mode/2up |title=The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1972 |location=Garden City, NY |pages=142–145}}</ref>

Asimov's fiction style is extremely unornamented. In 1980, science fiction scholar [[James Gunn (author)|James Gunn]] wrote of ''I, Robot'':

{{blockquote|Except for two stories—"[[Liar! (short story)|Liar!]]" and "[[Evidence (Asimov)|Evidence]]"—they are not stories in which character plays a significant part. Virtually all plot develops in conversation with little if any action. Nor is there a great deal of local color or description of any kind. The dialogue is, at best, functional and the style is, at best, transparent. ... . The robot stories and, as a matter of fact, almost all Asimov fiction—play themselves on a relatively bare stage.<ref name="IASFM-Gunn">{{cite journal |last=Gunn |first=James | author-link = James Gunn (author) |title=On Variations on a Robot |journal=Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine |date=July 1980 |pages=56–81 }}</ref>}}

Asimov addressed such criticism in 1989 at the beginning of ''[[Nemesis (Isaac Asimov novel)|Nemesis]]'':

{{blockquote|I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing—to be 'clear'. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics—Well, they can do whatever they wish.<ref name="Nemesis-Authour's note">{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=[[Nemesis (Isaac Asimov novel)|Nemesis]] |date=October 1989  |oclc=19628406}}</ref>}}

Gunn cited examples of a more complex style, such as the climax of "Liar!". Sharply drawn characters occur at key junctures of his storylines: [[Susan Calvin]] in "Liar!" and "Evidence", [[Arkady Darell]] in ''Second Foundation'', Elijah Baley in ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'', and [[Hari Seldon]] in the ''Foundation'' prequels.

Other than books by Gunn and Joseph Patrouch, there is relatively little literary criticism on Asimov (particularly when compared to the sheer volume of his output). Cowart and Wymer's ''[[Dictionary of Literary Biography]]'' (1981) gives a possible reason:

{{blockquote|His words do not easily lend themselves to traditional [[literary criticism]] because he has the habit of centering his fiction on plot and clearly stating to his reader, in rather direct terms, what is happening in his stories and why it is happening. In fact, most of the dialogue in an Asimov story, and particularly in the Foundation trilogy, is devoted to such exposition. Stories that clearly state what they mean in unambiguous language are the most difficult for a scholar to deal with because there is little to be interpreted.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Literary Biography: Volume 8: Twentieth-Century American Science Fiction Writers |last1=Cowart |first1=David |last2=Wymer |first2=Thomas L. |date=1981 |publisher=Gale Research |location=Detroit |pages=15–29}}</ref>}}

Gunn's and Patrouch's studies of Asimov both state that a clear, direct prose style is still a style. Gunn's 1982 book comments in detail on each of Asimov's novels. He does not praise all of Asimov's fiction (nor does Patrouch), but calls some passages in ''The Caves of Steel'' "reminiscent of [[Marcel Proust|Proust]]". When discussing how that novel depicts night falling over futuristic New York City, Gunn says that Asimov's prose "need not be ashamed anywhere in literary society".<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 |isbn=0-19-503059-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isaacasimovfound00gunn }}</ref>

Although he prided himself on his unornamented prose style (for which he credited [[Clifford D. Simak]] as an early influence{{r|earlyyears79_82}}<ref>''Beyond the Golden Age'', pp. 222–223.</ref>), and said in 1973 that his style had not changed,{{r|asimov1973}} Asimov also enjoyed giving his longer stories complicated [[narrative structure]]s, often by arranging chapters in non[[Chronology|chronological]] ways. Some readers have been put off by this, complaining that the [[Nonlinear (arts)|nonlinearity]] is not worth the trouble and adversely affects the clarity of the story. For example, the first third of ''The Gods Themselves'' begins with Chapter 6, then backtracks to fill in earlier material.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book121.html |title=Review of ''The Gods Themselves'' |access-date=September 4, 2012 |last=Jenkins |first=John |archive-date=May 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501110840/http://www.asimovreviews.net/Books/Book121.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (John Campbell advised Asimov to begin his stories as late in the plot as possible. This advice helped Asimov create "[[Reason (Asimov)|Reason]]", one of the early ''Robot'' stories). Patrouch found that the interwoven and nested flashbacks of ''[[The Currents of Space]]'' did serious harm to that novel, to such an extent that only a "dyed-in-the-kyrt<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Currents of Space (Galactic Empire Trilogy, book 2) by Isaac Asimov|url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/isaac-asimov/currents-of-space.htm|access-date=2022-12-29|website=www.fantasticfiction.com}}</ref> Asimov fan" could enjoy it. In his later novel ''Nemesis'' one group of characters lives in the "present" and another group starts in the "past", beginning 15 years earlier and gradually moving toward the time of the first group.

=== Alien life ===
Asimov once explained that his reluctance to write about aliens came from an incident early in his career when ''Astounding''{{'}}s editor [[John W. Campbell|John Campbell]] rejected one of his science fiction stories because the alien characters were portrayed as superior to the humans. The nature of the rejection led him to believe that Campbell may have based his bias towards humans in stories on a real-world racial bias. Unwilling to write only weak alien races, and concerned that a confrontation would jeopardize his and Campbell's friendship, he decided he would not write about aliens at all.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Early Asimov Volume 2 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |pages=33–34 |publisher=[[Panther Books]] |location=[[St. Albans]], Hertfordshire, UK |date=1973 |isbn=}}</ref> Nevertheless, in response to these criticisms, he wrote ''[[The Gods Themselves]]'', which contains aliens and alien sex. The book won the [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]] in 1972,<ref name="WWE"/> and the [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] in 1973.<ref name="WWE"/> Asimov said that of all his writings, he was most proud of the middle section of ''The Gods Themselves'', the part that deals with those themes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I, Asimov: A Memoir |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |date=1994 |page=250}}</ref>

In the [[Hugo Award]]–winning novelette "[[Gold (short story)|Gold]]", Asimov describes an author, based on himself, who has one of his books (''The Gods Themselves'') adapted into a "compu-drama", essentially [[photo-realistic]] [[computer animation]]. The director criticizes the fictionalized Asimov ("Gregory Laborian") for having an extremely nonvisual style, making it difficult to adapt his work, and the author explains that he relies on ideas and dialogue rather than description to get his points across.<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |title=Gold |url=https://archive.org/details/goldfinalscience00asim/page/109 |location=New York |publisher=HarperPrism |pages=[https://archive.org/details/goldfinalscience00asim/page/109 109–138] |isbn=0-06-105206-X }}</ref>

=== Romance and women ===

In the early days of science fiction some authors and critics felt that the romantic elements were inappropriate in science fiction stories, which were supposedly to be focused on science and technology. Isaac Asimov was a supporter of this point of view, expressed in his 1938-1939 letters to ''[[Astounding]]'', where he described such elements as "mush" and "slop". To his dismay, these letters were met with a strong opposition.<ref name=eld>{{Cite book|last=Davin|first=Eric Leif|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZoNDebTvUnsC&pg=PA4|title=Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965|date=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-1267-0|language=en |pages=3–4}}</ref>

Asimov attributed the lack of romance and sex in his fiction to the "early imprinting" from starting his writing career when he had never been on a date and "didn't know anything about girls".{{r|earlyyears25_28}} He was sometimes criticized for the general absence of sex (and of [[extraterrestrial life]]) in his science fiction. He claimed he wrote ''[[The Gods Themselves]]'' (1972) to respond to these criticisms,<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Joy Still Felt |date=1980 |page=567}}</ref> which often came from [[New Wave science fiction]] (and often British) writers. The second part (of three) of the novel is set on an alien world with three sexes, and the sexual behavior of these creatures is extensively depicted.

== Views ==
{{blockquote|There is a perennial question among readers as to whether the views contained in a story reflect the views of the author. The answer is, "Not necessarily—" And yet one ought to add another short phrase "—but usually."|Asimov, 1969<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/164/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=165}}</ref>}}

=== Religion ===
Asimov was an [[Atheism|atheist]], and a [[Humanism|humanist]].<ref name="Popper">Isaac Asimov, "The Way of Reason", in ''In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday,,'' ed. [[Paul Levinson]], Humanities Press, 1982, pp. ix–x.</ref> He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against [[superstition|superstitious]] and [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. During his childhood, his parents observed the traditions of [[Orthodox Judaism]] less stringently than they had in Petrovichi; they did not force their beliefs upon young Isaac, and  he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the ''[[Torah]]'' represented [[Jewish mythology|Hebrew mythology]] in the same way that the ''[[Iliad]]'' recorded [[Greek mythology]].<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=11–14}}</ref> When he was 13, he chose not to have a [[bar mitzvah]].<ref>''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 121.</ref> As his books ''[[Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor|Treasury of Humor]]'' and ''Asimov Laughs Again'' record, Asimov was willing to tell jokes involving God, [[Satan]], the [[Garden of Eden]], [[Jerusalem]], and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion.<ref name="Asimov 1971"/><ref name="Asimov 1992"/>

For a brief while, his father worked in the local [[synagogue]] to enjoy the familiar surroundings and, as Isaac put it, "shine as a learned scholar"<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954''. Doubleday, 1979.</ref> versed in the sacred writings. This scholarship was a seed for his later authorship and publication of ''[[Asimov's Guide to the Bible]]'', an analysis of the historic foundations for the Old and New Testaments. For many years, Asimov called himself an atheist; he considered the term somewhat inadequate, as it described what he did not believe rather than what he did. Eventually, he described himself as a "humanist" and considered that term more practical. Asimov continued to identify himself as a [[List of Jewish atheists and agnostics|secular Jew]], as stated in his introduction to [[Jack Dann]]'s anthology of Jewish science fiction, ''[[Wandering Stars (anthology)|Wandering Stars]]'': "I attend no services and follow no ritual and have never undergone that curious puberty rite, the Bar Mitzvah. It doesn't matter. I am Jewish."<ref>"I make no secret of the fact that I am a non-observant Jew", Asimov, Isaac. ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', Volume 15, Issues 10–13. p. 8. Davis Publishing, 1991.</ref>

When asked in an interview in 1982 if he was an atheist, Asimov replied,

{{blockquote|I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible |url=https://secularhumanism.org/1982/04/an-interview-with-isaac-asimov-on-science-and-the-bible/ |magazine=Free Inquiry|date=Spring 1982 }}</ref>}}

Likewise, he said about religious education: "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."<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Corvallis Secular Society |year=1997 |title=Isaac Asimov on religion |url=http://css.peak.org/newsletter/1997/aug97/asimov.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051127124434/http://css.peak.org/newsletter/1997/aug97/asimov.html |archive-date=November 27, 2005 }}</ref>

In his last volume of autobiography, Asimov wrote,

{{blockquote|If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |page=338}}</ref>}}

The same memoir states his belief that [[Hell]] is "the drooling dream of a [[sadistic personality disorder|sadist]]" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell".<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=336–338}}</ref>

Asimov said about using religious motifs in his writing:

{{blockquote|I tend to ignore religion in my own stories altogether, except when I absolutely have to have it. ... and, whenever I bring in a religious motif, that religion is bound to seem vaguely Christian because that is the only religion I know anything about, even though it is not mine. An unsympathetic reader might think that I am "burlesquing" Christianity, but I am not. Then too, it is impossible to write science fiction and really ignore religion.<ref>{{cite book |first=Isaac |last=Asimov |title=Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection |year=1995 |pages=297–302}}</ref>}}

=== Politics ===
Asimov became a staunch supporter of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] during the [[New Deal]], and thereafter remained a political [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]]. He was a vocal opponent of the [[Vietnam War]] in the 1960s and in a television interview during the early 1970s he publicly endorsed [[George McGovern]].<ref>Asimov, I. ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Avon, 1981), p. 503.</ref> He was unhappy about what he considered an "irrationalist" viewpoint taken by many radical political activists from the late 1960s and onwards. In his second volume of autobiography, ''In Joy Still Felt'', Asimov recalled meeting the counterculture figure [[Abbie Hoffman]]. Asimov's impression was that the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|1960s' counterculture]] heroes had ridden an emotional wave which, in the end, left them stranded in a "no-man's land of the spirit" from which he wondered if they would ever return.<ref name="joy">{{cite book|title=In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1980 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, NY|isbn=0-385-15544-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/574 574] |url=https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/574 }}</ref>

Asimov vehemently opposed [[Richard Nixon]], considering him "a crook and a liar". He closely followed [[Watergate]], and was pleased when the president was forced to resign. Asimov was dismayed over the pardon extended to Nixon by his successor [[Gerald Ford]]: "I was not impressed by the argument that it has spared the nation an ordeal. To my way of thinking, the ordeal was necessary to make certain it would never happen again."<ref>Asimov, I. ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Doubleday, 1980) chapter 39.</ref>

After Asimov's name appeared in the mid-1960s on a list of people the [[Communist Party USA]] "considered amenable" to its goals, the [[FBI]] investigated him. Because of his academic background, the bureau briefly considered Asimov as a possible candidate for known Soviet spy ROBPROF, but found nothing suspicious in his life or background.<ref name="skelding20131107">{{cite web |url=https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/nov/07/isaac-asimov-fbi-file-ROBPROF/ |title="Inimical to the best interests of the United States." Isaac Asimov's FBI File |last=Skelding |first=Conor |website=MuckRock |date=November 7, 2013 |access-date=January 1, 2017 |archive-date=January 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102171808/https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/nov/07/isaac-asimov-fbi-file-ROBPROF/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Asimov appeared to hold an equivocal attitude towards [[Israel]]. In his first autobiography, he indicates his support for the safety of Israel, though insisting that he was not a [[Zionist]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |quote=<!--None-->}}</ref> In his third autobiography, Asimov stated his opposition to the creation of a [[Jewish state]], on the grounds that he was opposed to having [[nation-states]] in general, and supported the notion of a single humanity. Asimov especially worried about the safety of Israel given that it had been created among Muslim neighbors "who will never forgive, never forget and never go away", and said that Jews had merely created for themselves another "Jewish ghetto".{{efn|{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I, Asimov: A Memoir |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |date=1994 |page=380 |quote=When Israel was founded in 1948 and all my Jewish friends were jubilant, I was the skeleton at the feast. I said, "We are building ourselves a ghetto. We will be surrounded by tens of millions of Muslims who will never forgive, never forget and never go away."... But don't Jews deserve a homeland? Actually, I feel that no human group deserves a "homeland" in the usual sense of the word. ... I am not a Zionist, then, because I don't believe in nations, and Zionism merely sets up one more nation to trouble the world.}}}}

=== Social issues ===
Asimov believed that "''science'' fiction ... serve[s] the good of humanity".{{r|asimov196708}} He considered himself a feminist even before [[women's liberation]] became a widespread movement; he argued that the issue of [[women's rights]] was closely connected to that of population control.<ref name="YIA"/> Furthermore, he believed that [[homosexuality]] must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction.<ref name="YIA"/> He issued many appeals for [[population control]], reflecting a perspective articulated by people from [[Thomas Malthus]] through [[Paul R. Ehrlich]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Bill Moyer's World of Ideas, Part I |url=https://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf |work=transcript page 6, 10/17/1988 show |access-date=December 31, 2012 |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104050458/http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a 1988 interview by [[Bill Moyers]], Asimov proposed [[computer-aided learning]], where people would use computers to find information on subjects in which they were interested.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bill Moyer's World of Ideas, Part II |url=https://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov2.pdf |work=transcript page 3, 10/17/1988 show |access-date=December 31, 2012 |archive-date=June 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605005723/https://www-tc.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov2.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> He thought this would make learning more interesting, since people would have the freedom to choose what to learn, and would help spread knowledge around the world. Also, the [[One to one computing|one-to-one]] model would let students learn at their own pace.<ref>{{cite web |title=Isaac Asimov on His Hopes for the Future (Part Two) |url=http://billmoyers.com/content/isaac-asimov-part-two/ |work=October 21, 1988 PBS broadcast Moyers and Company |access-date=October 5, 2015 |archive-date=October 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006064139/http://billmoyers.com/content/isaac-asimov-part-two/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Asimov thought that people would live in space by 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/isaac-asimov-future-predictions-from-1983?rebelltitem=3|title=Space utilization|date=December 27, 2018|website=Big Think|language=en|access-date=December 30, 2018|archive-date=December 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230184215/https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/isaac-asimov-future-predictions-from-1983?rebelltitem=3|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1983 Asimov wrote:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/12/27/35-years-ago-isaac-asimov-was-asked-by-the-star-to-predict-the-world-of-2019-here-is-what-he-wrote.html|title=35 years ago, Isaac Asimov was asked by the Star to predict the world of 2019. Here is what he wrote|date=December 27, 2018|newspaper=The Toronto Star|access-date=March 14, 2021|archive-date=February 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226100507/https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/12/27/35-years-ago-isaac-asimov-was-asked-by-the-star-to-predict-the-world-of-2019-here-is-what-he-wrote.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Computerization will undoubtedly continue onward inevitably...

This means that a vast change in the nature of education must take place, and entire populations must be made "computer-literate" and must be taught to deal with a "high-tech" world.}}

He continues on education: {{blockquote|Education, which must be revolutionized in the new world, will be revolutionized by the very agency that requires the revolution — the computer.

Schools will undoubtedly still exist, but a good schoolteacher can do no better than to inspire curiosity which an interested student can then satisfy at home at the console of his computer outlet.

There will be an opportunity finally for every youngster, and indeed, every person, to learn what he or she wants to learn, in his or her own time, at his or her own speed, in his or her own way.

Education will become fun because it will bubble up from within and not be forced in from without.}}

=== Sexual harassment ===
Asimov would often fondle, kiss and pinch women at conventions and elsewhere without regard for their consent. According to [[Alec Nevala-Lee]], author of an Asimov biography<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Alec |year=2018 |title=Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of science fiction |location=New York |publisher=Dey St., an imprint of William Morrow | isbn=978-0-06-257194-6 | oclc=1030279844 | page=}}</ref>  and writer on the history of science fiction, he often defended himself by saying that far from showing objections, these women cooperated.<ref name=":0"/> In a 1971 satirical piece, ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'', Asimov wrote: "The question then is not whether or not a girl should be touched. The question is merely where, when, and how she should be touched."<ref name=":0"/>

According to Nevala-Lee, however, "many of these encounters were clearly nonconsensual."<ref name=":0"/> He wrote that Asimov's behaviour, as a leading science-fiction author and personality, contributed to an undesirable atmosphere for women in the male-dominated science fiction community. In support of this, he quoted some of Asimov's contemporary fellow-authors such as [[Judith Merril]], [[Harlan Ellison]] and [[Frederik Pohl]], as well as editors such as Timothy Seldes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Nevala-Lee |first=Alec |author-link=Alec Nevala-Lee |url=https://www.publicbooks.org/asimovs-empire-asimovs-wall/ |title=Asimov's Empire, Asimov's Wall |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109111535/https://www.publicbooks.org/asimovs-empire-asimovs-wall/ |archive-date=January 9, 2020 |website=Public Books |date=January 7, 2020}}</ref> Additional specific incidents were reported by other people including [[Edward L. Ferman]], long-time editor of ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', who wrote "...instead of shaking my date's hand, he shook her ''left breast''{{-"}}.<ref name="Davin 2006 p. ">{{Cite book |last=Davin |first=Eric |year=2006 |title=Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926–1965 |location=Lanham, MD |page= |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1267-0 |oclc=1253442749}}</ref>

=== Environment and population ===
Asimov's defense of civil applications of [[nuclear power]], even after the [[Three Mile Island accident|Three Mile Island]] nuclear power plant incident, damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. In a letter reprinted in ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'',<ref name="YIA">Asimov, Isaac (1996). ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'', edited by Stanley Asimov. {{ISBN|0-385-47624-8}}.</ref> he states that although he would prefer living in "no danger whatsoever" to living near a nuclear reactor, he would still prefer a home near a nuclear power plant to a slum on [[Love Canal]] or near "a [[Union Carbide]] plant producing [[methyl isocyanate]]", the latter being a reference to the [[Bhopal disaster]].<ref name="YIA"/>

In the closing years of his life, Asimov blamed the deterioration of the quality of life that he perceived in New York City on the shrinking tax base caused by the [[white flight|middle-class flight]] to the suburbs, though he continued to support high taxes on the middle class to pay for social programs. His last nonfiction book, ''[[Our Angry Earth]]'' (1991, co-written with his long-time friend, science fiction author [[Frederik Pohl]]), deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as [[human overpopulation|overpopulation]], [[oil dependence]], [[war]], [[global warming]], and the destruction of the [[ozone layer]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Our Angry Earth |last1=Asimov |first1=Isaac |last2=Pohl |first2=Frederik |date=1991 |publisher=Tor |location=New York |isbn=0-312-85252-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ourangryearth0000asim }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Chow |first=Dan |date=December 1991 |title=Review: Our Angry Earth |magazine=Locus |location=Oakland |publisher=Locus Publications}}</ref> In response to being presented by [[Bill Moyers]] with the question "What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate?", Asimov responded:

{{blockquote|It's going to destroy it all ... if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Bill |last1=Moyers |first2=Betty Sue |last2=Flowers |title=A world of ideas : conversations with thoughtful men and women about American life today and the ideas shaping our future |date=1989 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-26278-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldofideasconv00moye/page/6 6] |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofideasconv00moye/page/6 }}</ref>}}

=== Other authors ===
Asimov enjoyed the writings of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], and used ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' as a plot point in a [[Black Widowers]] story, titled ''Nothing like Murder''.<ref name="asimov1976">{{Cite book|title=More Tales of the Black Widowers |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1976 |isbn=0-385-11176-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack00asim/page/62 62–76] |chapter=Nothing Like Murder |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/moretalesofblack00asim#page/62/mode/2up |url=https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack00asim/page/62}}</ref> In the essay "All or Nothing" (for ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,'' Jan 1981), Asimov said that he admired Tolkien and that he had read ''The Lord of the Rings'' five times. (The feelings were mutual, with Tolkien saying that he had enjoyed Asimov's science fiction.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=No.&nbsp;294 }}</ref> This would make Asimov an exception to Tolkien's earlier claim<ref name=":1" /> that he rarely found "any modern books" that were interesting to him.)

He acknowledged other writers as superior to himself in talent, saying of [[Harlan Ellison]], "He is (in my opinion) one of the best writers in the world, far more skilled at the art than I am."<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', p. 246.</ref> Asimov disapproved of the [[New Wave science fiction|New Wave]]'s growing influence, stating in 1967 "I want science fiction. I think science fiction isn't really science fiction if it lacks science. And I think the better and truer the science, the better and truer the science fiction".{{r|asimov196708}}

The feelings of friendship and respect between Asimov and [[Arthur C. Clarke]] were demonstrated by the so-called "Clarke–Asimov Treaty of [[Park Avenue]]", negotiated as they shared a cab in New York. This stated that Asimov was required to insist that Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself). Thus, the dedication in Clarke's book ''Report on Planet Three'' (1972) reads: "In accordance with the terms of the Clarke–Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer."

In 1980, Asimov wrote a highly critical review of [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm|title=Review of 1984|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|website=[[New Communist Party of Britain]]|access-date=January 11, 2024}}</ref> Though dismissive of his attacks, James Machell has stated that they "are easier to understand when you consider that Asimov viewed 1984 as dangerous literature. He opines that if communism were to spread across the globe, it would come in a completely different form to the one in 1984, and by looking to Orwell as an authority on totalitarianism, 'we will be defending ourselves against assaults from the wrong direction and we will lose'."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/october-2023-archive | title=Archive &#124; October 2023 }}</ref>

Asimov became a fan of mystery stories at the same time as science fiction. He preferred to read the former because "I read every [science fiction] story keenly aware that it might be worse than mine, in which case I had no patience with it, or that it might be better, in which case I felt miserable".{{r|asimov1973}} Asimov wrote "I make no secret of the fact that in my mysteries I use [[Agatha Christie]] as my model. In my opinion, her mysteries are the best ever written, far better than the Sherlock Holmes stories, and [[Hercule Poirot]] is the best detective fiction has seen. Why should I not use as my model what I consider the best?"<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1995, Bantam Books), p. 379.</ref> He enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, but considered [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] to be "a slapdash and sloppy writer."<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1995, Bantam Books), p. 391.</ref>

Asimov also enjoyed humorous stories, particularly those of [[P. G. Wodehouse]].<ref>Asimov (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 90.</ref>

In non-fiction writing, Asimov particularly admired the writing style of [[Martin Gardner]], and tried to emulate it in his own science books. On meeting Gardner for the first time in 1965, Asimov told him this, to which Gardner answered that he had based his own style on Asimov's.<ref>Asimov, ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Avon, 1980), p. 369.</ref>

== Influence ==
[[Paul Krugman]], holder of a [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Prize in Economics]], stated Asimov's concept of [[Psychohistory (fictional)|psychohistory]] inspired him to become an economist.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/who-are-you-calling-dense/ |title=The Conscience of a Liberal, 'Who Are You Calling Dense?' |access-date=November 18, 2010 |last=Krugman |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Krugman |work=The New York Times |date=August 30, 2010 |archive-date=September 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100908221559/http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/who-are-you-calling-dense/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

John Jenkins, who has reviewed the vast majority of Asimov's written output, once observed, "It has been pointed out that most science fiction writers since the 1950s have been affected by Asimov, either modeling their style on his or deliberately avoiding anything like his style."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asimovreviews.net/NonAsimov/White.html |title=Review of an Asimov biography, 'The Unauthorized Life' |access-date=September 4, 2012 |last=Jenkins |first=John |archive-date=May 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507075220/http://www.asimovreviews.net/NonAsimov/White.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Along with such figures as [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[Karl Popper]], Asimov left his mark as one of the most distinguished [[Interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinarians]] of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nissani|first=M.|title=Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity: The Case for Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Research|url=http://drnissani.net/mnissani/pagepub/10CHEERS.HTM|journal=Social Science Journal|date=1997|volume=34|issue=2|pages=201–216|doi=10.1016/s0362-3319(97)90051-3|access-date=October 8, 2016|archive-date=September 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923233716/http://drnissani.net/mnissani/PAGEPUB/10CHEERS.HTM|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> "Few individuals", writes [[Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering|James L. Christian]], "understood better than Isaac Asimov what [[Synoptic philosophy|synoptic]] thinking is all about. His almost 500 books—which he wrote as a specialist, a knowledgeable authority, or just an excited layman—range over almost all conceivable subjects: the sciences, history, literature, religion, and of course, science fiction."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering|last=Christian|first=James L.|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2011|page=66}}</ref>

In 2024, [[DARPA]] named one of its programs after Asimov, inspired by his “Three Laws of Robotics.” The program, Autonomy Standards and Ideals with Military Operational Values (ASIMOV), aims to develop benchmarks objectively and quantitatively assessing the ethical challenges and readiness of utilizing autonomous systems for military operations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jamison |first=Miles |date=2024-12-20 |title=DARPA Launches Ethics Program for Autonomous Systems |url=https://executivegov.com/2024/12/darpa-launches-ethics-program-autonomous-systems/ |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=executivegov.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Bibliography{{anchor|Selected_bibliography}} ==
{{redirect|Isaac Asimov bibliography|full lists|Isaac Asimov bibliography (alphabetical)|and|Isaac Asimov bibliography (categorical)|and|Isaac Asimov bibliography (chronological)|and|Isaac Asimov short stories bibliography}}
{{blockquote|Over a space of 40 years, I published an average of 1,000 words a day. Over the space of the second 20 years, I published an average of 1,700 words a day.|Asimov, 1994<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir | year=1994|page=562}}</ref>}}
Depending on the counting convention used,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seiler |first1=Edward |last2=Hatcher |first2=Richard |url=http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#starters1 |title=Just how many books did Asimov write? |publisher=Isaac Asimov Home Page |date=2014 |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016074817/http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#starters1 |url-status=live }}</ref> and including all titles, charts, and edited collections, there may be currently over 500 books in Asimov's bibliography—as well as his individual short stories, individual essays, and criticism. For his 100th, 200th, and 300th books (based on his personal count), Asimov published ''[[Opus 100]]'' (1969), ''[[Opus 200]]'' (1979), and ''[[Opus 300]]'' (1984), celebrating his writing.<ref name="Asimov 1969"/><ref name="Asimov 1979"/><ref name="Asimov 1984"/> An extensive bibliography of Isaac Asimov's works has been compiled by Ed Seiler.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.asimovonline.com/|title=Welcome to AsimovOnline|website=www.asimovonline.com|access-date=July 2, 2002|archive-date=October 27, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027015906/http://www.asimovonline.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>  His book writing rate was analysed, showing that he wrote faster as he wrote more.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ohlsson|first=Stellan|date=November 1, 1992|title=The Learning Curve for Writing Books: Evidence from Professor Asimov|url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00051.x|journal=Psychological Science|language=en|volume=3|issue=6|pages=380–382|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00051.x|s2cid=143699055|issn=0956-7976|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

An online exhibit in [[West Virginia University Libraries]]' virtually complete Asimov Collection displays features, visuals, and descriptions of some of his more than 600 books, games, audio recordings, videos, and wall charts. Many first, rare, and autographed editions are in the Libraries' Rare Book Room. Book jackets and autographs are presented online along with descriptions and images of children's books, science fiction art, multimedia, and other materials in the collection.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/collections/exhibits/asimov/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103061742/http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/collections/exhibits/asimov/ |archive-date=January 3, 2014 |title=WVU Libraries Asimov Collection}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/collections/rare-books|title=West Virginia and Regional History Center &#124; Rare Books|website=wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu|access-date=July 25, 2020|archive-date=August 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803125001/https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/collections/rare-books|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Science fiction ===
==== "Greater Foundation" series ====
{{Main|Robot series|l1=''Robot'' series|Galactic Empire series|l2=''Galactic Empire'' series|Foundation (book series)|l3=''Foundation'' series}}
The ''Robot'' series was originally separate from the ''Foundation'' series. The Galactic Empire novels were published as independent stories, set earlier in the same future as ''Foundation''. Later in life, Asimov synthesized the ''Robot'' series into a single coherent "history" that appeared in the extension of the ''Foundation'' series.<ref>Asimov, I. ''Prelude to Foundation'' (Grafton, 1989), p. 9.</ref>

All of these books were published by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday & Co]], except the original Foundation trilogy which was originally published by Gnome Books before being bought and republished by Doubleday.
* '''The Robot series:'''
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=The Caves of Steel |date=1954 |isbn=0-553-29340-0|title-link=The Caves of Steel }} (first [[Elijah Baley]] SF-crime novel)
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=The Naked Sun |date=1957 |isbn=0-553-29339-7|title-link=The Naked Sun }} (second Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=The Robots of Dawn |date=1983 |isbn=0-553-29949-2|title-link=The Robots of Dawn }} (third Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Robots and Empire |date=1985 |isbn=978-0-586-06200-5|title-link=Robots and Empire }} (sequel to the Elijah Baley trilogy)
* '''Galactic Empire novels:'''
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Pebble in the Sky |date=1950 |isbn=0-553-29342-7|title-link=Pebble in the Sky }} (early Galactic Empire)
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=The Stars, Like Dust |date=1951 |isbn=0-553-29343-5|title-link=The Stars, Like Dust }} (long before the Empire)
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=The Currents of Space |date=1952 |isbn=0-553-29341-9|title-link=The Currents of Space }} (Republic of Trantor still expanding)
* '''Foundation prequels:'''
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Prelude to Foundation |date=1988 |isbn=0-553-27839-8|title-link=Prelude to Foundation }}
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Forward the Foundation |date=1993 |isbn=0-553-40488-1|title-link=Forward the Foundation }}
* '''Original ''Foundation'' trilogy:'''
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Foundation |date=1951 |isbn=0-553-29335-4|title-link=Foundation (Isaac Asimov novel) }}
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Foundation and Empire |date=1952 |isbn=0-553-29337-0|title-link=Foundation and Empire }} (also published with the title 'The Man Who Upset the Universe' as a 35¢ Ace paperback, D-125, in about 1952)
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Second Foundation |date=1953 |isbn=0-553-29336-2|title-link=Second Foundation }}
* '''Extended Foundation series:'''
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Foundation's Edge |date=1982 |isbn=0-553-29338-9|title-link=Foundation's Edge }}
** {{cite book <!-- Citation bot bypass-->|title=Foundation and Earth |date=1986 |isbn=0-553-58757-9|title-link=Foundation and Earth }}

==== Lucky Starr series (as Paul French) ====
{{Main|Lucky Starr series}}
All published by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday & Co]]
* ''[[David Starr, Space Ranger]]'' (1952)
* ''[[Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids]]'' (1953)
* ''[[Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus]]'' (1954)
* ''[[Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury]]'' (1956)
* ''[[Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter]]'' (1957)
* ''[[Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn]]'' (1958)

==== Norby Chronicles (with Janet Asimov) ====
{{Main|Norby}}
All published by Walker & Company
* ''[[Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot]]'' (1983)
* ''Norby's Other Secret'' (1984)
* ''Norby and the Lost Princess'' (1985)
* ''Norby and the Invaders'' (1985)
* ''Norby and the Queen's Necklace'' (1986)
* ''Norby Finds a Villain'' (1987)
* ''Norby Down to Earth'' (1988)
* ''Norby and Yobo's Great Adventure'' (1989)
* ''Norby and the Oldest Dragon'' (1990)
* ''Norby and the Court Jester'' (1991)

==== Novels not part of a series ====
Novels marked with an asterisk (*) have minor connections to [[Foundation universe|''Foundation'' universe]].
* ''[[The End of Eternity]]'' (1955), [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] (*)
* ''[[Fantastic Voyage]]'' (1966), [[Bantam Books]] (paperback) and [[Houghton Mifflin]] (hardback) (a novelization of the movie)
* ''[[The Gods Themselves]]'' (1972), Doubleday
* ''[[Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain]]'' (1987), Doubleday (not a sequel to ''Fantastic Voyage,'' but a similar, independent story)
* ''[[Nemesis (Asimov)|Nemesis]]'' (1989), Bantam Doubleday Dell (*)
* ''[[Nightfall (Asimov novelette and novel)|Nightfall]]'' (1990), Doubleday, with [[Robert Silverberg]] (based on "Nightfall", a 1941 short story written by Asimov)
* ''Child of Time'' (1992), Bantam Doubleday Dell, with Robert Silverberg (based on "[[The Ugly Little Boy]]", a 1958 short story written by Asimov)
* ''[[The Positronic Man]]'' (1992), Bantam Doubleday Dell, with Robert Silverberg (*) (based on ''[[The Bicentennial Man]]'', a 1976 novella written by Asimov)

==== Short-story collections ====
{{see also|Isaac Asimov short stories bibliography}}
* {{cite book |title=I, Robot |date=1950 |publisher=Gnome Books initially, later [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday & Co]] |isbn=0-553-29438-5|title-link=I, Robot }}
* {{cite book |title=The Martian Way and Other Stories |date=1955 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-8376-0463-X|title-link=The Martian Way and Other Stories }}
* {{cite book |title=Earth Is Room Enough |date=1957|publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-449-24125-4|title-link=Earth Is Room Enough }}
* {{cite book |title=Nine Tomorrows |date=1959|publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-449-24084-3|title-link=Nine Tomorrows }}
* {{cite book |title=The Rest of the Robots |date=1964 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-09041-2|title-link=The Rest of the Robots }}
* {{cite book |title=Through a Glass, Clearly |date=1967|publisher=[[New English Library]]|isbn=0-86025-124-1|title-link=Through a Glass, Clearly }}
* {{cite book |title=Asimov's Mysteries |date=1968|publisher=Doubleday |title-link=Asimov's Mysteries}}
* {{cite book |title=Nightfall and Other Stories |date=1969 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-449-01969-1|title-link=Nightfall and Other Stories }}
* {{cite book |title=The Early Asimov |date=1972|publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-449-02850-X|title-link=The Early Asimov }}
* {{cite book |title=The Best of Isaac Asimov |date=1973 |publisher=Sphere |isbn=0-7221-1256-4|title-link=The Best of Isaac Asimov }}
* {{cite book |title=Buy Jupiter and Other Stories |date=1975|publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-05077-1|title-link=Buy Jupiter and Other Stories }}
* {{cite book |title=The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories|publisher=Doubleday |date=1976 |isbn=0-575-02240-X|title-link=The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories }}
* {{cite book |title=The Complete Robot |date=1982|publisher=Doubleday |title-link=The Complete Robot}}
* {{cite book |title=The Winds of Change and Other Stories |date=1983 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-18099-3|title-link=The Winds of Change and Other Stories }}
* {{cite book |title=The Edge of Tomorrow |date=1985 |publisher=Tor |isbn=0-312-93200-6|title-link=The Edge of Tomorrow (1985 book) }}
* {{cite book |title=The Alternate Asimovs |date=1986|publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-19784-5|title-link=The Alternate Asimovs }}
* {{cite book |title=The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov |date=1986|publisher=Doubleday |title-link=The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov}}
* {{cite book |title=Robot Dreams |date=1986|publisher=Byron Preiss |isbn=0-441-73154-6|title-link=Robot Dreams (short story collection) }}
* {{cite book |title=Azazel |date=1988|publisher=Doubleday |title-link=Azazel (Asimov)#Azazel, the collection}}
* {{cite book |title=Robot Visions |date=1990|publisher=Byron Preiss|isbn=0-451-45064-7|title-link=Robot Visions }}
* {{cite book|title=Gold|date=1995|publisher=Harper Prism|isbn=0-553-28339-1|title-link=Gold (Asimov book)}}
* {{cite book|title=Magic|date=1996|publisher=Harper Prism|isbn=0-00-224622-8|title-link=Magic (short story collection)}}

=== Mysteries ===
==== Novels ====
* ''[[The Death Dealers]]'' (1958), [[Avon Books]], republished as ''A Whiff of Death'' by [[Walker & Company]]
* ''[[Murder at the ABA]]'' (1976), Doubleday, also published as ''Authorized Murder''

==== Short-story collections ====
===== Black Widowers series =====
{{Main|Black Widowers}}
* ''[[Tales of the Black Widowers]]'' (1974), Doubleday
* ''[[More Tales of the Black Widowers]]'' (1976), Doubleday
* ''[[Casebook of the Black Widowers]]'' (1980), Doubleday
* ''[[Banquets of the Black Widowers]]'' (1984), Doubleday
* ''[[Puzzles of the Black Widowers]]'' (1990), Doubleday
* ''[[The Return of the Black Widowers]]'' (2003), [[Carroll & Graf]]

===== Other mysteries =====
* ''[[Asimov's Mysteries]]'' (1968), Doubleday
* ''[[The Key Word and Other Mysteries]]'' (1977), Walker
* ''[[The Union Club Mysteries]]'' (1983), Doubleday
* ''[[The Disappearing Man and Other Mysteries]]'' (1985), Walker
* ''[[The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov]]'' (1986), Doubleday

=== Nonfiction ===
==== Popular science ====
=====Collections of Asimov's essays for ''F&SF''=====
The following books collected essays which were originally published as monthly columns in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction]]'' and collected by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday & Co]]
# ''[[Fact and Fancy]]'' (1962)
# ''[[View from a Height]]'' (1963)
# ''[[Adding a Dimension]]'' (1964)
# ''[[Of Time and Space and Other Things]]'' (1965)
# ''[[From Earth to Heaven]]'' (1966)
# ''[[Science, Numbers, and I]]'' (1968)
# ''[[The Solar System and Back]]'' (1970)
# ''[[The Stars in Their Courses]]'' (1971)
# ''[[The Left Hand of the Electron]]'' (1972)
# ''[[The Tragedy of the Moon]]'' (1973)
# ''Asimov On Astronomy'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1974) {{ISBN|978-0-517-27924-3}}
# ''Asimov On Chemistry'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1974)
# ''[[Of Matters Great and Small]]'' (1975)
# ''Asimov On Physics'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1976) {{ISBN|978-0-385-00958-4}}
# ''[[The Planet That Wasn't]]'' (1976)
# ''Asimov On Numbers'' (updated version of essays in previous collections) (1976)
# ''[[Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright]]'' (1977)
# ''[[The Road to Infinity]]'' (1979)
# ''[[The Sun Shines Bright (book)|The Sun Shines Bright]]'' (1981)
# ''[[Counting the Eons]]'' (1983)
# ''[[X Stands for Unknown]]'' (1984)
# ''[[The Subatomic Monster]]'' (1985)
# ''[[Far as Human Eye Could See]]'' (1987)
# ''[[The Relativity of Wrong]]'' (1988)
# ''Asimov on Science: A 30 Year Retrospective 1959–1989'' (1989) (features the first essay in the introduction)
# ''[[Out of the Everywhere]]'' (1990)
# ''[[The Secret of the Universe]]'' (1991)

=====Other general science essay collections=====
* ''[[Only a Trillion]]'' (1957), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-441-63121-6}}; (1976) revised and updated ed.
* ''[[Is Anyone There?]]'' (1967), Doubleday, {{ISBN|0-385-08401-3}} (which includes the article in which he coined the term "[[spome]]")
* ''[[Today and Tomorrow and—]]'' (1973), Doubleday
* ''Science Past, Science Future'' (1975), Doubleday, {{ISBN|978-0-385-09923-3}}
* ''[[Please Explain]]'' (1975), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|978-0-440-96804-7}}
* ''Life and Time'' (1978), Doubleday
* ''The Roving Mind'' (1983), [[Prometheus Books]], new edition 1997, {{ISBN|1-57392-181-5}}
* ''The Dangers of Intelligence'' (1986), Houghton Mifflin
* ''Past, Present and Future'' (1987), Prometheus Books, {{ISBN|978-0-87975-393-1}}
* ''The Tyrannosaurus Prescription'' (1989), Prometheus Books
* ''Frontiers'' (1990), Dutton
* ''Frontiers II'' (1993), Dutton

=====Other science books by Asimov=====
* ''[[The Chemicals of Life (book)|The Chemicals of Life]]'' (1954), [[Abelard-Schuman]] {{ISBN|978-0-451-62418-5}}
* ''[[Inside the Atom]]'' (1956), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-200-71444-0}}
* ''[[Building Blocks of the Universe]]'' (1957; revised 1974), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-200-71099-2}}
* ''[[The World of Carbon (book)|The World of Carbon]]'' (1958), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-02-091350-4}}
* ''[[The World of Nitrogen (book)|The World of Nitrogen]]'' (1958), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-02-091400-6}}
* ''[[Words of Science and the History Behind Them]]'' (1959), [[Houghton Mifflin]] {{ISBN|978-0-395-06571-6}}
* ''[[The Clock We Live On (book)|The Clock We Live On]]'' (1959), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-200-71100-5}}
* ''[[Breakthroughs in Science]]'' (1959), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|978-0-395-06561-7}}
* ''[[Realm of Numbers]]'' (1959), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|978-0-395-06566-2}}
* ''[[Realm of Measure]]'' (1960), Houghton Mifflin
* ''[[The Wellsprings of Life]]'' (1960), Abelard-Schuman, {{ISBN|978-0-451-03245-4}}
* ''[[Life and Energy]]'' (1962), Doubleday, {{ISBN|978-0-380-00942-8}}
* ''[[The Genetic Code]]'' (1962), The Orion Press
* ''[[The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation]]'' (1963), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|978-0-451-02430-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-451-62707-0}} (revised)
* ''[[The Human Brain: Its Capacities and Functions (book)|The Human Brain: Its Capacities and Functions]]'' (1963), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|978-0-451-62867-1}}
* ''Planets for Man'' (with [[Stephen H. Dole]]) (1964), [[Random House]], reprinted by [[RAND]] in 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-8330-4226-2}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_books/CB183-1/ |title=Planets for Man |publisher=RAND |date=September 15, 2010 |access-date=June 23, 2012 |archive-date=July 14, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714130318/http://www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_books/CB183-1/ |url-status=live |last1=Dole |first1=Stephen H. |last2=Asimov |first2=Isaac }}</ref>
* ''[[An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule]]'' (1965), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|978-0-395-06575-4}}
* ''[[The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science]]'' (1965), [[Basic Books]]
** The title varied with each of the four editions, the last being ''Asimov's New Guide to Science'' (1984) {{ISBN|978-0-14-017213-3}}
* ''[[The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar (book)|The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar]]'' (1966), Walker, {{ISBN|978-0-380-01596-2}}
* ''[[The Neutrino (book)|The Neutrino]]'' (1966), Doubleday, [[ASIN]] B002JK525W
* ''[[Understanding Physics Vol. I, Motion, Sound, and Heat]]'' (1966), Walker, {{ISBN|978-0-451-00329-4}}
* ''[[Understanding Physics Vol. II, Light, Magnetism, and Electricity]]'' (1966), Walker, {{ISBN|978-0-451-61942-6}}
* ''[[Understanding Physics Vol. III, The Electron, Proton, and Neutron]]'' (1966), Walker, {{ISBN|978-0-451-62634-9}}
* ''[[Photosynthesis (book)|Photosynthesis]]'' (1969), Basic Books, {{ISBN|978-0-465-05703-0}}
* ''[[Our World in Space (book)|Our World in Space]]'' (1974), New York Graphic, {{ISBN|978-0-8212-0434-4}}
* ''[[Eyes on the Universe: A History of the Telescope]]'' (1976), Andre Deutsch Limited, {{ISBN|0-233-96760-5}}
* ''[[The Collapsing Universe (book)|The Collapsing Universe]]'' (1977), Walker, {{ISBN|0-671-81738-8}}
* ''[[Extraterrestrial Civilizations]]'' (1979), Crown, {{ISBN|978-0-449-90020-8}}
* ''A Choice of Catastrophes'' (1979), Simon & Schuster, {{ISBN|978-0-671-22701-2}}
* ''[[Visions of the Universe]]'' with illustrations by [[Kazuaki Iwasaki]] (1981), Cosmos Store, {{ISBN|978-0-939540-01-3}}
* ''[[Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos]]'' (1982), Crown, {{ISBN|978-0-517-54667-3}}
* ''[[The Measure of the Universe]]'' (1983), Harper & Row
* ''[[Think About Space: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?]]'' with co-author Frank White (1989), Walker
* ''[[Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery]]'' (1989), Harper & Row, second edition adds content thru 1993, {{ISBN|978-0-06-270113-8}}
* ''Beginnings: The Story of Origins'' (1989), Walker
* ''[[Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space]]'' (1991), Random House, {{ISBN|978-0-449-22059-7}}
* ''[[Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos]]'' (1991), Dutton, {{ISBN|978-1-4395-0900-5}}
* ''[[Mysteries of Deep Space: Quasars, Pulsars and Black Holes]]'' (1994) {{ISBN|978-0-8368-1133-9}}
* ''[[Earth's Moon (Asimov)|Earth's Moon]]'' (1988), [[Gareth Stevens]], revised in 2003 by [[Richard Hantula]] {{ISBN|978-1-59102-122-3}}
* ''[[The Sun (Asimov)|The Sun]]'' (1988), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2003 by [[Richard Hantula]] {{ISBN|978-1-59102-122-3}}
* ''[[The Earth (Asimov)|The Earth]]'' (1988), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2004 by Richard Hantula {{ISBN|978-1-59102-177-3}}
* ''[[Jupiter (Asimov)|Jupiter]]'' (1989), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2004 by Richard Hantula {{ISBN|978-1-59102-123-0}}
* ''[[Venus (Asimov)|Venus]]'' (1990), Gareth Stevens, revised in 2004 by Richard Hantula {{ISBN|978-0-8368-3877-0}}

==== Literary works ====
All published by Doubleday
* ''[[Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare]]'', vols I and II (1970), {{ISBN|0-517-26825-6}}
* ''Asimov's Annotated "[[Don Juan (Byron)|Don Juan]]"'' (1972)
* ''Asimov's Annotated "[[Paradise Lost]]"'' (1974)
* ''Familiar Poems, Annotated'' (1976)
* ''Asimov's The Annotated "[[Gulliver's Travels]]"'' (1980)
* ''Asimov's Annotated "[[Gilbert and Sullivan]]"'' (1988)

==== The Bible ====
* ''Words from Genesis'' (1962), [[Houghton Mifflin]]
* ''Words from the Exodus'' (1963), Houghton Mifflin
* ''[[Asimov's Guide to the Bible]]'', vols I and II (1967 and 1969, one-volume ed. 1981), Doubleday, {{ISBN|0-517-34582-X}}
* ''The Story of Ruth'' (1972), Doubleday, {{ISBN|0-385-08594-X}}
* ''In the Beginning'' (1981), Crown

==== Autobiography ====
{{main|Autobiographies of Isaac Asimov}}
* ''In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954'' (1979, [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]])
* ''In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978'' (1980, Doubleday)
* ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994, Doubleday)
* ''[[It's Been a Good Life]]'' (2002, [[Prometheus Books]]), condensation of Asimov's three volumes of autobiography, edited by his widow, [[Janet Asimov|Janet Jeppson Asimov]]

==== History ====
All published by [[Houghton Mifflin]] except where otherwise stated
* ''The Kite That Won the Revolution'' (1963), {{ISBN|0-395-06560-7}}
* ''The Greeks: A Great Adventure'' (1965)
* ''The Roman Republic'' (1966)
* ''The Roman Empire'' (1967)
* ''The Egyptians'' (1967)
* ''The Near East'' (1968)
* ''The Dark Ages'' (1968)
* ''Words from History'' (1968)
* ''The Shaping of England'' (1969)
* ''Constantinople: The Forgotten Empire'' (1970)
* ''The Land of Canaan'' (1971)
* ''The Shaping of France'' (1972)
* ''The Shaping of North America: From Earliest Times to 1763'' (1973)
* ''The Birth of the United States: 1763–1816'' (1974)
* ''Our Federal Union: The United States from 1816 to 1865'' (1975), {{ISBN|0-395-20283-3}}
* ''The Golden Door: The United States from 1865 to 1918'' (1977)
* ''[[Asimov's Chronology of the World]]'' (1991), [[HarperCollins]], {{ISBN|0-06-270036-7}}
* ''[[The March of the Millennia]]'' (1991), with co-author Frank White, Walker & Company, {{ISBN|0-8027-7391-5}}

==== Humor ====
*  ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'' (1971) (As Dr. A), Walker & Company, {{ISBN|0-451-07199-9}}
* ''[[Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor]]'' (1971), [[Houghton Mifflin]], {{ISBN|0-395-57226-6}}
* ''[[Lecherous Limericks]]'' (1975), Walker, {{ISBN|0-449-22841-X}}
* ''More Lecherous Limericks'' (1976), Walker, {{ISBN|0-8027-7102-5}}
* ''Still More Lecherous Limericks'' (1977), Walker, {{ISBN|0-8027-7106-8}}
* ''Limericks, Two Gross'', with John Ciardi (1978), Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-04530-7}}
* ''A Grossery of Limericks'', with [[John Ciardi]] (1981), Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-33112-1}}
* ''Limericks for Children'' (1984), Caedmon
* ''Asimov Laughs Again'' (1992), [[HarperCollins]]

==== On writing science fiction ====
* ''Asimov on Science Fiction'' (1981), Doubleday
* ''Asimov's Galaxy'' (1989), Doubleday

==== Other nonfiction ====
* ''[[Opus 100]]'' (1969), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|0-395-07351-0}}
* ''[[Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology]]'' (1964), Doubleday (revised edition 1972, {{ISBN|0-385-17771-2}})
* ''[[Opus 200]]'' (1979), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|0-395-27625-X}}
* ''Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts'' (1979), Grosset & Dunlap, {{ISBN|0-517-36111-6}}
* ''[[Opus 300]]'' (1984), Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|0-395-36108-7}}
* ''[[Our Angry Earth]]: A Ticking Ecological Bomb'' (1991), with co-author [[Frederik Pohl]], Tor, {{ISBN|0-312-85252-5}}.

== Television, music, and film appearances ==
* ''[[I Robot (album)|I Robot]]'', a concept album by [[the Alan Parsons Project]] that examined some of Asimov's work
* ''The Last Word'' (1959)<ref>Asimov, I. ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Avon, 1980), p. 167.</ref>
* ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'', four appearances 1968–71<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Joy Still Felt |pages=464, 520–521, 569–570}}</ref>
* ''[[The Nature of Things]]'' (1969)<ref>{{Citation|title="The Nature of Things" Episode dated 31 December 1969 (TV Episode 1969) – IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0657757/|language=en-US|access-date=September 14, 2021}}</ref>
* [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] coverage of [[Apollo 11]], 1969, with [[Fred Pohl]], interviewed by [[Rod Serling]]<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hsu|first=Tiffany|date=July 15, 2019|title=The Apollo 11 Mission Was Also a Global Media Sensation|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/business/media/apollo-11-television-media.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/business/media/apollo-11-television-media.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=September 14, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[David Frost]] interview program, August 1969. Frost asked Asimov if he had ever tried to find God and, after some initial evasion, Asimov answered, "God is much more intelligent than I am—let him try to find me."<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Joy Still Felt |pages=502–503}}</ref>
* [[BBC Horizon]] "It's About Time" (1979), show hosted by [[Dudley Moore]]
* ''Target ... Earth?'' (1980)
* ''The David Letterman Show'' (1980)<ref>{{Citation|title=Isaac Asimov on The David Letterman Show, October 21, 1980| date=August 20, 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=365kJOsFd3w| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/365kJOsFd3w| archive-date=December 11, 2021 | url-status=live|language=en|access-date=September 11, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[NBC]] TV ''Speaking Freely'', interviewed by [[Edwin Newman]] (1982)
* ARTS Network talk show hosted by [[Studs Terkel]] and [[Calvin Trillin]], approximately (1982)
* ''Oltre New York'' (1986)<ref>{{Citation|title=Oltre New York (TV Movie 1986) – IMDb|date=October 10, 1986|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293887/|language=en-US|access-date=September 13, 2021}}</ref>
* ''Voyage to the Outer Planets and Beyond'' (1986)<ref>{{Citation|title=Voyage to the Outer Planets and Beyond (Video 1986) – IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284626/|language=en-US|access-date=September 12, 2021}}</ref>
* ''[[Gandahar (film)|Gandahar]]'' (1987), a French animated science-fiction film by [[René Laloux]]. Asimov wrote the English translation for the film.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet |title=Animated 'Light Years' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/15/movies/review-film-animated-light-years.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=September 8, 2020 |date=May 15, 1988 |archive-date=October 28, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028151558/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/15/movies/review-film-animated-light-years.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Light Years |url=http://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/58823 |website=AFI Catalog |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=September 8, 2020 |archive-date=June 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605003102/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,300,600,700&subset=all |url-status=live }}</ref><!-- Need more details to elaborate on Asimov's involvement. Must expand using the wiki page for the movie
 -->
* [[Bill Moyers]] interview (1988)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Isaac Asimov on His Faith in the Power of Human Reason|url=https://billmoyers.com/content/isaac-asimov-on-his-faith-in-the-power-of-human-reason/|access-date=September 13, 2021|website=BillMoyers.com|language=en-US}}</ref>
* ''Stranieri in America'' (1988)<ref>{{Citation|title=Stranieri in America (TV Movie 1988) – IMDb|date=May 5, 1988|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294944/|language=en-US|access-date=September 12, 2021}}</ref>

== Adaptations ==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2024}}
* Several of his stories ("[[The Dead Past]]", "[[Sucker Bait]]", "[[Satisfaction Guaranteed (short story)|Satisfaction Guaranteed]]", "[[Reason (short story)|Reason]]", "[[Liar! (short story)|Liar!]]", and "[[The Naked Sun]]") were adapted as television plays for the first three series of the science-fiction (later horror) anthology series ''[[Out of the Unknown]]'' between 1965 and 1969. Only "The Dead Past" and "Sucker Bait" are known to still exist entirely as 16mm [[telerecordings]]. [[Tele-snaps]], brief audio recordings and video clips exist for "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "The Prophet" (adapted from "Reason"), while only production stills, brief audio recordings and video clips exist for "Liar!". Production stills and an almost complete audio recording exist for "The Naked Sun".<ref name="ScreenRant">Every Isaac Asimov Movie and TV Adaptation Ranked (Including Foundation), Screen Rant. [https://screenrant.com/best-isaac-asimov-book-adaptations-movie-shows-foundation/]</ref>
* ''El robot embustero'' (1966), short film directed by [[Antonio Lara de Gavilán]], based on short story "[[Liar! (short story)|Liar!]]"
* ''A halhatatlanság halála'' (1977), TV movie directed by [[András Rajnai]], based on novel ''[[The End of Eternity]]''
* ''The Ugly Little Boy'' (1977), short film directed by [[Barry Morse]] and Donald W. Thompson, based on novelette ''[[The Ugly Little Boy]]''<ref name="Lecturia">Isaac Asimov: The Ugly Little Boy. Summary and analysis, Lecturia. [https://lecturia.org/en/summaries/isaac-asimov-the-ugly-little-boy-summary-and-analysis/20773/]</ref><ref name="Otherness">Sara Schotland, "Deformed, Neanderthal, and Thoroughly Alien: Exploitation of the Other in Asimov’s 'Ugly Little Boy'," Otherness: Essays and Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, March 2021. [https://otherness.dk/fileadmin/www.othernessandthearts.org/Publications/Journal_Otherness/Otherness_Essays_and_Studies_8.1/9_-_Schotland_-_Deformed_Neandrathal_and_Thoroughly_Alien.pdf]</ref>
* ''[[The End of Eternity (film)|The End of Eternity]]'' (1987), film directed by Andrei Yermash, based on novel ''The End of Eternity''<ref name="ScreenRant" />
* ''[[Nightfall (1988 film)|Nightfall]]'' (1988), film directed by [[Paul Mayersberg]], based on novelette "Nightfall"<ref name="ScreenRant" />
* ''[[Robots (1988 film)|Robots]]'' (1988), film directed by Doug Smith and Kim Takal, based on the [[Robot series|''Robot'' series]]<ref name="ScreenRant" />
* ''[[Robot City (video game)|Robot City]]'' (1995), an [[adventure game]] released for [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[Mac OS]], based on the book series of the same name that consists of science fiction novels written by multiple authors, inspired by the ''Robot'' series.
* ''[[Bicentennial Man (film)|Bicentennial Man]]'' (1999), film directed by [[Chris Columbus (filmmaker)|Chris Columbus]], based on novelette "[[The Bicentennial Man]]" and on novel ''[[The Positronic Man]]''<ref name="ScreenRant" />
* ''[[Nightfall (2000 film)|Nightfall]]'' (2000), film directed by [[Gwyneth Gibby]], based on novelette "Nightfall"<ref name="ScreenRant" />
* ''[[I, Robot (film)|I, Robot]]'' (2004), film directed by [[Alex Proyas]], with very tenuous connections with the short stories of the ''Robot'' series<ref name="Brookings">Peter W. Singer, "Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics Are Wrong," Brookings Institution, July 28, 2016. [https://www.brookings.edu/articles/isaac-asimovs-laws-of-robotics-are-wrong/]</ref>
* ''[[Eagle Eye]]'' (2008), film directed by D. J. Caruso, loosely based on short story "[[All the Troubles of the World]]"<ref name="ScreenRant" />
* ''Formula of Death'' (2012), TV movie directed by Behdad Avand Amini, based on novel ''[[The Death Dealers]]''
* ''Spell My Name with an S'' (2014), short film directed by Samuel Ali, based on short story "[[Spell My Name with an S]]"
* ''[[Foundation (TV series)|Foundation]]'' (2021), series created by [[David S. Goyer]] and [[Josh Friedman]], based on the ''[[Foundation (book series)|Foundation]]'' series<ref>{{cite web | title='Foundation' is an ambitious, uneven adaptation of a sci-fi classic | website=EW.com | date=September 24, 2021 | url=https://ew.com/tv/tv-reviews/foundation-apple-tv/ | access-date=October 1, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Time">Judy Berman, "Asimov Adaptation 'Foundation' Is Gorgeous But Frustrating," Time, September 24, 2021. [https://time.com/6100739/foundation-review-apple/]</ref>

== References ==
=== Explanatory footnotes ===
{{Notelist|30em}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=isfdb>{{ISFDB name|5}} (ISFDB). Retrieved April 22, 2013.</ref>
}}

=== General and cited sources ===
{{Refbegin}}
* Asimov, Isaac. ''Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor'' (1971), Boston: [[Houghton Mifflin]], {{ISBN|0-395-57226-6}}.
: ''[[In Memory Yet Green]]'' (1979), New York: Avon, {{ISBN|0-380-75432-0}}.
: ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980), New York: Avon {{ISBN|0-380-53025-2}}.
: ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994), {{ISBN|0-385-41701-2}} (hc), {{ISBN|0-553-56997-X}} (pb).
: ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'' (1996), edited by Stanley Asimov. New York: Doubleday {{ISBN|0-385-47624-8}}.
: ''It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), edited by Janet Asimov. {{ISBN|1-57392-968-9}}.
* Goldman, Stephen H., "Isaac Asimov", in ''Dictionary of Literary Biography,'' Vol. 8, Cowart and Wymer eds. (Gale Research, 1981), pp.&nbsp;15–29.
* Gunn, James. "On Variations on a Robot", ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction|IASFM]]'', July 1980, pp.&nbsp;56–81.
: ''Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction'' (1982). {{ISBN|0-19-503060-5}}.
: ''The Science of Science-Fiction Writing'' (2000). {{ISBN|1-57886-011-3}}.
* {{cite book |last=White |first=Michael |title=Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction |date=2005 |isbn=0-7867-1518-9 |publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers}}
* {{ME-ref|Letters}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Booker |editor-first=M. Keith |title=Critical Insights: Isaac Asimov |location=Ipswich, MA |publisher=Salem Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-682-17254-4 |id={{EBSCOhost|127554158|dbcode=lkh}} |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Clute |first=John |author-link=John Clute |chapter=Isaac Asimov |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/companiontoscien0000unse/page/364/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=Seed |editor-first=David |title=A Companion to Science Fiction |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4051-1218-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fiedler |first1=Jean |first2=Jim |last2=Mele |title=Isaac Asimov |date=1982 |isbn=0-8044-2203-6 |publisher=Ungar |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/isaacasimov00fied |ref=none}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Käkelä |first=Jari |title=The Cowboy Politics of an Enlightened Future: History, Expansionism, and Guardianship in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction |location=Helsinki |publisher=University of Helsinki |hdl=10138/166004 |hdl-access=free |year=2016 |isbn=978-951-51-2404-3 |degree=PhD |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor1-first = Joseph D. | editor1-last = Olander | editor2-link = Martin H. Greenberg | editor2-first = Martin H. | editor2-last = Greenberg | title = Isaac Asimov | date = 1974 | publisher = Taplinger Publishing Company | isbn = 978-0-8008-4257-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/isaacasimov00pret |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Patrouch |first=Joseph F. |title=The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-385-08696-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefictionof00patr |url-access=registration |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Touponce |first=William F. |title=Isaac Asimov |date=1991 |isbn=0-8057-7623-0 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |location=Boston |url=https://archive.org/details/isaacasimov00will |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=White |first=Michael |title=Asimov: The Unauthorized Life |date=1994 |isbn=0-14-004130-3 |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth |ref=none}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{sister project links|wikt=no|n=no|author=yes|b=no|v=no|d=Q34981}}
* [http://www.asimovonline.com/ Asimov Online], a vast repository of information about Asimov, maintained by Asimov enthusiast Edward Seiler
* {{ISFDB name|5}}
* {{IBList|type=author|id=80|name=Isaac Asimov}}
* {{OL author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=35316| name=Isaac Asimov}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Isaac Asimov}}
* {{Librivox author |id=656}}
* {{IMDb name|0001920}}
* [http://www.asimovreviews.net/ Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov], reviews of all of Asimov's books
<!-- * {{WikiTree}} I don't think this site (in the case of this person) is accurate. See talk page before restoring this link. -->

{{Isaac Asimov novels}}
{{Asimov story collections}}
{{Asimov mystery collections}}
{{Asimov essay collections}}
{{Robot series}}
{{Foundation series}}
{{Hugo Award Best Novel}}
{{Hugo Award Best Novelette}}
{{Locus Award Best Novel}}
{{Locus Award Best SF Novel}}
{{Locus Award Best Short Story}}
{{Retro Hugo Award Best Short Story}}
{{Nebula Award Best Novel}}
{{Nebula Award Best Novelette}}
{{Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Awards}}
{{Authority control}}

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