Years of life: from 01/02/1920 to 04/06/1992

Legendary American writer- science fiction writer, one of the geniuses of the 20th century. Author of about 500 books, mostly fiction (primarily in the genre of science fiction, but also in other genres: fantasy, detective, humor) and popular science (in a variety of areas - from astronomy and genetics to history and literary criticism).

Isaac Asimov (real name Isaac Ozimov) was born on January 2, 1920 in Russia, in Petrovichi, a town located very close to Smolensk. His parents, Judah and Anna, immigrated to the States in 1923, bringing with them Isaac and his younger sister. The family settled in Brooklyn, where the father bought a candy store in 1926. Religious education the family spent quite a bit of time, and Isaac became an atheist early on - something he never hid or imposed on anyone. In 1928, Asimov's father achieved naturalization, which meant that Isaac also became a US citizen. After receiving secondary education, Azimov, at the request of his parents, tried to become a doctor. This turned out to be beyond his strength: the sight of blood made him feel sick. Then Isaac made an attempt to enter the most prestigious college of Columbia University, but did not make it past the interview, writing in his autobiography that he was talkative, unbalanced and did not know how to impress people good impression. He was accepted into Seth Low Junior College in Brooklyn. A year later, this college closed and Asimov ended up at Columbia University - however, as a simple student, and not a student at an elite college. On July 25, 1945, Isaac Asimov married Gertrude Bluegerman, whom he had met several months earlier.

Among the most famous works writer - novels "Caves of Steel" (1954), "The End of Eternity" (1955), "The Naked Sun" (1957), "The Gods Themselves" (1972), the grand cycle "Foundation" (or "Academy", 1963-1986) , as well as a series of stories in which the famous three laws of robotics were formulated for the first time.

It is alleged that Isaac Asimov came up with the idea for the Foundation series (Academy) while sitting on the subway when his eye accidentally fell on a picture depicting a Roman legionnaire with a background of starships. Allegedly, it was after this that Asimov decided to describe the galactic empire from the point of view of history, economics, psychology and sociology.

According to rumors, the novel Foundation (Academy) made a huge impression on Osama bin Laden and even influenced his decision to create the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Bin Laden likened himself to Hari Seldon, who controls the society of the future through pre-planned crises. Moreover, the title of the novel when translated into Arabic sounds like Al Qaida and, thus, could be the reason for the name of bin Laden's organization.

Isaac Yudovich Azimov. Born on January 2, 1920 in the village of Petrovichi, Shumyachsky district, Smolensk region, RSFSR (Russia). Died in New York on April 6, 1992.

Who it?

First of all, Isaac Asimov is an American science fiction writer. During his 72 year life he wrote almost 500 books. Agree, incredible performance. And these are not only books in the science fiction genre, he also wrote about the Bible, about Literature, and, of course, about Science. The writer himself was a biochemist by training, and therefore, like any scientist, he loved science very much and also knew how to in simple language write about her. More than half of his books are non-fiction. So he can be called a successful popularizer of science.

But the writer did not just write productively a large number of books, he wrote them very well, having perfectly mastered this skill. This is proven by numerous various awards in English literature. Asimov became a multiple winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. And some of his works won 3 awards at once.

The author is also famous for the fact that in his works he came up with how a person and a robot should interact, introducing into the basis of the work of the brain of robots, the so-called three laws of robotics, which almost everyone has heard of at least once. In those days, people were afraid of robots, and in various works they were evil. As for Asimov, they are kind and “deeply decent,” unlike people. Asimov generally had an extremely positive outlook on life.

His works also contain such new concepts as “robotics”, “positronic” (about the robot’s brain) and “psychohistory” (the science of predicting behavior large masses from the series “Foundation”). These new words have become firmly established in many languages ​​of the world.

Birth story

As Azimov himself claims, his real name is Isaac Yudovich Ozimov. However, all of his relatives who remained in the USSR are Asimovs.

The future writer was born near Smolensk on the territory of the USSR (then still the RSFSR) into a Jewish family in 1920. The exact date of birth is unknown due to the difference between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars, but Asimov himself preferred to celebrate his birthday on January 2. He did not know Russian; his family spoke Yiddish (the Jewish language of the Germanic group). In 1923, his parents emigrated with him to the United States, fleeing the revolution, where they settled in Brooklyn, a borough of New York.

Education

Talented since childhood

Isaac learned to read when he was not even 5 years old, and at the age of 7 he was already a regular visitor to the library. He read a lot. I went to school at the age of 5, and amazed everyone with my abilities so much that I was able to skip classes and finish the whole school course at 15 years old with all sorts of differences.

After receiving secondary education, at the request of his parents, he tried to become a doctor. But Isaac realized that this was not for him, he was afraid of blood, he felt bad. And instead, he tried to enter the most prestigious college, Columbia University. But he didn’t pass the interview and entered a junior college in Brooklyn.

But a year later this college was closed, and Azimov ended up at Columbia University, but not as a student, but as a free listener. But already in 1939, at the age of 19, he received a bachelor's degree, and in 1941 he became a master's degree in chemistry.

From 1942 to 1945 he worked as a chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. After which he served in the army until 1946.

After the army in 1948, he returned to study and completed graduate school, receiving a doctorate in chemistry. And the next year he got a job as a teacher at Boston University School of Medicine, where he first became an assistant professor in 1951, then an associate professor in 1955, and was promoted to professor in 1979.

Love for work

Even during his school years, Azimov was instilled with a love of work. When the family's second son, Stanley, was born, Isaac had to help his father. Every day at six in the morning he got up and went to deliver newspapers. And after school he ran home and stood behind the counter until late. The Azimovs then had their own confectionery shop, which was bought by their father. If he saw Isaac being late from school or reading a book, he immediately accused him of laziness. Thus, the habit of work remained with the writer for the rest of his life. In his autobiography he wrote:

I worked ten hours, seven days a week, all of which time I spent in the shop. Even when circumstances forced me to leave for a couple of minutes, the question began to torment me: Lord, what’s it like in the shop?

Because of this, the writer was deprived of communication with his peers, did not make friends, including with girls, and this continued for quite a long time. But the lack of communication was later more than made up for. Later, as a guest at numerous conferences, he was a lover of flirting with women, and was as good at it as he was at everything else.

By the way, it was then, in the shop, that the future science fiction writer became acquainted with science fiction (SF). He was 9 years old when SF magazines began appearing on the shelves of the store. The father considered such reading inappropriate for his son, but later Isaac managed to convince his father that since the word “science” was in the magazine “Science Wonder Stories”, then the content must be useful.

Career and path to world fame

In 1938, his favorite SF magazine was Astounding, to which he often sent letters. And it was there that he sent his first story, and went there in person, without entrusting this matter to the mail. The story was rejected, but the magazine's editor-in-chief, 28-year-old John W. Campbell, living legend in the flesh for Isaac, devoted an entire hour to talking with the eighteen-year-old boy. And gave him some advice. The next two stories were also rejected, but after four months he sent his third story to another magazine, “Amazing Stories,” which was accepted and Asimov received his first fee - $64. Campbell only accepted Asimov's sixth story, which won third place in the magazine's reader vote, beating even some generally recognized masters.

Later in 1940, everything Asimov wrote was published somewhere. Years later, he tried to thank Campbell for his help, but he did not accept it, saying that he had given advice to hundreds of young writers, but how many of them became Asimov?

Interestingly, because of Campbell, Asimov completely abandoned aliens in his works. The fact is that the editor’s views were such that he did not believe in the equality of people and also believed that a person would beat all sorts of “aliens” out there, and often the stories were rewritten by the editors after the purchase. And some were not accepted at all. As a consequence, in the Foundation Universe, the entire galaxy is populated exclusively by humans. But the stories about robots talked about the relationship between man and machine, and the theme of people’s superiority over someone else did not make sense.

By the way, it was Campbell who helped formulate the three laws of robotics, and Asimov ceded the authorship to him, and even later dedicated the collection “I, Robot” to him. Campbell himself said that he only got them from Asimov’s stories.

In 1941, the famous story “The Coming of Night” was written, which many years later became a full-fledged novel. And it was in this year that Asimov came up with the idea of ​​stories about the Galactic Empire, by analogy with the Roman Empire, about its life and fall. The first story was called “Foundation” and was received with restraint, but the second and subsequent ones did not fall below second place in the reader vote.

In 1942, there was war and Campbell introduced Asimov to another famous science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, who was then serving in the army in the navy in Philadelphia, where he received an invitation to the position of chemist, where he received a good salary. But in 1946, Azimov was called up for regular service in the army, as a private. Where he was a clerk in the unit that prepared the test nuclear bomb in the Pacific Ocean. And yet, until 1945, Isaac wrote several more stories in the “Foundation” universe, for which he received good fees.

When he returned to Columbia University, he continued to work on his dissertation and discovered his strong teaching skills. And in 1948, he first tried his hand at journalism and, to the writer’s surprise, the article had big success, especially among chemist scientists, which even helped him when applying for his doctorate.

In 1949 he wrote his last story from the “Foundation” series, ending the series (for 32 years). And then he received a contract to publish his first book - the novel “Pebble in the Sky”.

The publisher liked the novel and the sequels were subsequently published: “Stars Like Dust” and “Cosmic Currents”. He was also offered to publish a series of fiction for teenagers, which could become the basis for a television series. Since Asimov did not like any television program of this kind, he did not want anything like this to be associated with him, and for the only time in his career he was published under the pseudonym Paul French.

Other publishing houses also showed interest in Asimov, and a collection of his stories about robots was published in one book, “I, Robot,” and then the entire “Foundation” series in three volumes. This series became the most popular of Asimov's books, and still sells millions of copies.

In 1952 new way The popular science book for teenagers “The Chemistry of Life” opened his career. And it was followed by other books on a similar topic. Here is what Asimov writes about this:

One day, when I came home, I admitted to myself that I like to write journalism... Not just with knowledge of the matter, not just to make money - but much more than that: with pleasure...

In 1954, Asimov was offered to write a novel about robots, which he did not want to do, because he only wrote stories about them, but he was given the idea of ​​​​writing a detective novel, knowing his love for this genre. This is how one of the writer’s best novels, “Steel Caves,” appeared, which became the beginning of a new series of novels about robots. Few people managed to successfully combine detective story with science fiction, and Asimov is one of the few who did it perfectly.

In 1958, Azimov left teaching activities and began to focus only on writing. At this point, he already had a bunch of publishers who wanted to work with him. And he began to write journalism, which then brought him more money than science fiction. This is because it was possible to write more for journalism and use already accumulated material. All this captivated the writer so much that he decided to become the best popularizer of science in the world. In the same year, he was offered to write a permanent column in the magazine “Fantasy and Science Fiction,” which he wrote all his life, writing 399 articles there.

• "The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science" ("Guide to Science for an Intelligent Man") 1960
• "Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology" ("Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology", 1964)

He was also interested in history, wrote about ancient Greece, Egypt and the Roman Empire. And even, being an atheist, he wrote about the Bible.

By the early seventies, having written a hundred books, he was already considered the best popularizer of science in the world, he was well received everywhere, in all universities, where he sometimes lectured, in all publishing houses, at conventions and parties. He was a ladies' man and loved to flirt with pretty women on various kinds events. He also used this reputation in his books: ("Lustful Old Man", 1971) and "Lecherous Limericks" ("Lecherous Limericks", 1975)

Asimov became literary phenomenon, Very extraordinary personality, a recognized genius. He was sure that everyone should be interested in the same thing as he was, in everything he said, wrote and thought. And perhaps he was right. Everyone knew about him. Any book or magazine with his name was doomed to success. Each A new book Asimov helped sell his other books, expanding his fan base. And he already wrote very easily.

Including not abandoned and science fiction, compiled numerous anthologies.

And in 1972 he began writing science fiction novels again. Having returned beautifully, having released the best novel, according to critics, “The Gods Themselves,” which took all possible awards.

Further, in honor of his name and with his consent, a new science fiction magazine “Asimov’s” was opened, which, by the way, is successfully published to this day. There he was not the editor-in-chief, but wrote only a small column. But he promised that as soon as there was something sci-fi for the magazine format, they would have it.

By 1982, he returned to the Foundation series, releasing a sequel, Foundation Crisis, written specifically in the style of 30 years earlier, the novel was received exceptionally well.

In 1984, the writer had already published two hundred books. And all his subsequent novels become bestsellers:

Asimov is turning into a very rich writer, if before he wrote a lot of journalism, including for financial reasons, now each of his new science fiction novels brings him more than ten popular science books. His face becomes recognizable, he is the first of the writers to appear on television and in commercials. He supports many aspiring authors with his name, gives away ideas, and by this time money and fame no longer interested him, and he did not have mansions or yachts, but only a typewriter and a quiet room with curtained windows.

Towards the end of his life, in collaboration with Robert Silverberg, he reworked three of his famous stories in the novels “Nightfall”, “The Bicentennial Man” and “The Ugly Boy”.

And in the spring of 1993, after the death of the writer, his last book“I, Asimov” is the third volume of his autobiography, which he dictated to his wife already in the hospital.

Personal life

In 1942, on Valentine's Day, on a blind date, he met his future wife Gertrude Blugerman. And a few months later, on July 26, they got married. At that time, Asimov lived in Philadelphia and worked as a chemist in the navy. Then, after the service, they went to live in Boston in 1949. They had two children, a son, David (1951), and a daughter, Robin Joan (1955). But it so happened that their marriage slowly fell apart over the decades. They eventually separated in 1970 and officially divorced three years later on November 16, 1973. The divorce was painful, including from a financial point of view - it cost the writer 50 thousand dollars (at that time this was a lot of money). In his autobiography, he took the blame entirely on himself, saying that he could not be called a good husband, that he was selfish and was only concerned with his books.

Almost immediately after the divorce, he married Janet Opill Jeppson (November 30, 1973), a psychiatrist whom he met at the New York World Convention back in 1956. He will stay with her. Janet Asimov would later help publish several of his books after his death, including his final autobiography.

How did the writer die?

Back in 1977, Azimov suffered a stroke, and in 1983 he underwent successful heart surgery. But later it turned out that the blood donor was HIV infected. The writer hid about this disease because it could have a negative impact on him and his family; then there was discrimination against HIV-infected people in society. After death, the family decided not to disclose the real reason death, because at this time, one famous American tennis player spoke about his illness, which he also received after surgery, and this caused a lot of discussion in society. The doctors insisted on secrecy. Ten years later, when most of Asimov's doctors were no longer alive, Janet Asimov published the real cause of death in one of the editions of his last autobiography.

Asimov himself said that he hoped to die by falling face down on a typewriter keyboard. And in one of the interviews, when he was asked what he would do if he was told that he had six months to live, he replied “I will type faster.” But he spent his last weeks in hospital and was kept alive by medications. And on April 6, 1992, Isaac Asimov left us. According to his will, the body was cremated and the ashes were scattered.

The front pages of many newspapers wrote about his death. And two weeks later, CNN released a retrospective program about his career and life. Before this, this was done only for politicians and movie stars. National Radio aired his 1988 interview, and his own words became his obituary.

For the first time, the whole world mourned the passing of a science fiction writer.

It is said that his last words were:

It was a good life

It was interesting? Tell your friends about Asimov.

• From Petrovichi to New York
• An unusual child
• About the science of the past and future
• Geniuses work in silence

Isaac Asimov has lived enough quiet life, without great shocks, but, as he himself said, “this was compensated by the charming literary style” inherent in him. The author, who does not have false modesty, believed that his books did not create a sensation, although here one can disagree with Asimov - the books did not bring people to the streets, did not provoke revolutions, but they pulled in and absorbed readers, they stunned. The author’s unbridled imagination, the fullness and plausibility of the worlds he invented, as well as the simplicity with which the writer explained complex scientific terms.

Success story, Biography of Isaac Asimov

From Petrovichi to New York

Despite the fact that Isaac Asimov was born in Russia, in the village of Petrovichi, Smolensk region, he was neither Russian nor Russian. The exact date he did not know his birth, he chose January 2, 1920 as such a day, celebrating his name day on the second day of the New Year. He didn’t know Russian either; it was customary in the family to speak Yiddish; although parents Yuda Aronovich and Anna-Rakhil Isaakovna used Russian in conversations that they did not want to involve their children in. WITH three years Asimov already lived among the Americans - in 1923 the family emigrated to the United States, and five years later the Asimovs received citizenship.

Life in Russia in the post-revolutionary years was extremely difficult: lack of food, epidemics - a situation on the brink of survival, and Isaac was a tiny baby - a little more than two kilograms at birth, so his parents did not have much hope that he would survive. But he was not only resilient, but was the only surviving child in the area when a pneumonia epidemic broke out there. Fleeing the new revolutionary reality, the Asimovs decided to emigrate to the United States when Anna-Rakhil's brother, who had already settled in New York, offered them help.

An unusual child

The Asimovs lived very poorly in Brooklyn until they used the money they saved to open their own business - a candy store. Isaac learned to read and speak English before Yuda Aronovich: he asked his older schoolchildren to show them the letters, and then began to read all the signs in a row: “When my father discovered that his preschooler son could read and, moreover, learned to do so own initiative, he was amazed. It was probably then that he first began to suspect that I was an unusual child. (He thought this way all his life, which did not stop him from criticizing me without hesitation for my many mistakes.) And since my father thought that I was unusual, his understanding gave me a reason to think about my unusualness myself. . Indeed, Isaac considered himself a child prodigy.

He studied well and showed his “ego the size of the Empire State Building” (a 102-story skyscraper on the island of Manhattan), admiring both his strengths and weaknesses. Among his innate abilities were an almost photographic memory, a quick mind and quick wit. Asimov understood everything quickly and thoroughly. He did not think of hiding his brilliant mind from his classmates, and because he showed off, and at the same time he was weak and the youngest in the class, he became a “scapegoat.” Only with age did Asimov learn not to put himself in the foreground, but he no longer needed to assert himself - he proved his unusualness with a large number of books written on completely different topics, becoming one of the most famous science fiction writers.

A candy store is a cradle for a science fiction writer

Isaac Asimov's first job was in his father's candy store. The store worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, and it was there that Asimov learned what a daily routine was and how to live according to it. Working in the store made him disciplined throughout his life - already becoming famous writer, Asimov started the day at 6 am so that by 7.30 he could already be working on a new book.

In addition to confectionery, the store sold magazines with science fiction stories, where the future science fiction author first learned what science fiction is. He read magazines avidly, and at the age of 11 he wrote his first fantastic story. A passionate reader, he wrote down the story to read himself, and at 16 received his first typewriter as a gift from his father. It was second-hand, but it gave 18-year-old Isaac the opportunity to publish his first story, which he submitted to the magazine. The editor did not accept the first opus, but the second story, “Captured by Vesta,” was published in the magazine five months later - October 21, 1938 - Asimov remembered this date for the rest of his life, and he also remembered the fee - $64 for a story of 6,400 words.

“Luck smiled on me because at birth I received an efficient brain that works tirelessly. He is able to think clearly and turn thoughts into words. There is absolutely no merit in this. I got happy ticket, winning the genetic sweepstakes."

Transformation of zoologist into writers

By the time the story was first published, Azimov had already graduated from high school and entered college. Asimov's initial major in college was zoology, but after refusing to dissect a stray cat, he switched to chemistry. His career in science was successful: 1941 - master's degree in chemistry, 1948 - doctorate in biochemistry. In a 7-year span, Asimov worked for three years as a chemist at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, where his colleague was another future celebrity, Robert Heinlein. Within a few decades, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke would be called the “Big Three” science fiction writers.

After World War II, Asimov enlisted in the army, where he rose to the rank of corporal thanks to his proficiency with a typewriter, and in 1946 he narrowly avoided participating in nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.

During the decade following his doctorate, Isaac Asimov worked at Boston University School of Medicine and wrote novels, and in 1958 he decided to be only a writer - by then his royalties already exceeded the salary of a scientist. He stopped lecturing on a regular basis, but continued to be friends with the University: “Every year I give a lecture that opens the biochemistry course. Free, of course. This is some introduction that I try to make interesting. Both secretaries and students attend this lecture. I hope they like it, I certainly do.”.

About the science of the past and future

Isaac Asimov's career as a novelist began in 1950 and ended in 1958 with the release of the science fiction novel The Naked Sun. His first novel was 1950's A Grain of Sand in the Sky, but a year earlier, a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, he and his colleagues had written a college textbook, Biochemistry and Human Metabolism, which went through three editions. It was then that Asimov realized that he could explain scientific information well - step by step, accessible language. And if he can explain science, then he can also explain the Bible, and history, and everything in the world! Therefore, gradually the amount fantasy books, written by Asimov, decreased, and the number of popular science works increased, but in 1982 he returned to fiction and published the novel “Academy on the Edge of Death.” The novel was included in the “Foundation” cycle, the title of which, translated into Russian, is different variants Academy, Foundation, Foundation, and received a Hugo Award in 1983 and a Nebula Award nomination in 1982. Over the next 10 years until his death, Asimov published several more backstories and sequels to existing novels, tying them into a single, fascinating story.

The writer believed that his most striking contribution to literature and science was the “Foundation” cycle, as well as the three laws of robotics, which the writer formulated gradually, introducing them into different stories, which he later combined into the collection “I, Robot”.

However, Asimov was modest in this. Oxford Dictionary in English credits Isaac Asimov with the invention of the words "positronic brain", "psychohistory" and "robotics", although the writer argued that "robotics" is a common derivation of the word "robot", similar to the words "mechanics" and "hydraulics".

Geniuses work in silence

There were two signs hanging on the door of Isaac Asimov's office: “Keep quiet, please” and “Genius at work.” There was silence a necessary condition for Asimov, he was undoubtedly a workaholic and needed a lot of concentration. The immodest Asimov did not agree with the word “genius”: “I am one of the most versatile writers in the world, and the greatest popularizer of many disciplines.” . Indeed, from Bible study and developmental implications different areas sciences to Shakespeare and the history of France - such is the range of Asimov's books.

Was he the most prolific writer in the world? Asimov himself answered: “No, there are other authors, the most famous of them is Georges Simenon, but he only writes novels.” . Indeed, among the books French writer there is no work entitled “Introduction to the use of the slide rule”, “The energy of life. From spark to photosynthesis”, “The building material of the Universe: The entire Galaxy in the periodic table”, and Asimov has it. The average volume of Asimov's book is 70,000 words, the number of books is about 500, it turns out that he wrote 35 million words for his books alone - but volume and quantity are not the most important thing in a writer's work - “And the best part is that everything I write gets published.”.

For his 65th birthday, Isaac Asimov not only did not slow down, he began to write even faster than before. His first 100th book, which was published in January 1950, took the writer 237 months, that is, almost 20 years. He worked on the 200th book, which appeared in print in March 1979, for 113 months, that is, about 9.5 years. The 300th book, Opus 300, was completed in 69 months, that is, in less than 6 years.

Asimov always looked up from his typewriter with great reluctance. And when he couldn’t reach the keys, he took a pen and paper and could easily compose short story. Of all the movements, he preferred walking, and most of all, walking indoors: “I have a machine on which I stand for half an hour and make all the movements that imitate the movements of an athlete on cross-country skis, but all this happens in the warmth and comfort of my apartment.” . Going on such a ski run, Asimov could take a book with him: he read and reread Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie.

Isaac Asimov spent almost his entire life in his office, which he kept in extraordinary cleanliness and order, typing his texts on a typewriter - 90 words per minute, and with great reluctance to tear himself away from work, saying that he was “really happy only when working.” To questions about how it turns out to be so fruitful, Azimov answered: “I make no effort to write more poetically or in a higher literary style. I just try to write clearly and fortunately I have the ability to think clearly, so I write what I think and it comes out well straight away.”

Secrets of Isaac Asimov's mastery

Asimov created drafts on a typewriter, then typed the text on a computer and made corrections only once: “This is not because of high ego,” he explained: “I still have so much to write that if I sit too long on one book, I won’t have time to do everything.” . He worked on each book from start to finish, without resorting to the services of assistants.

Love for the chosen business and amazing performance, combined with an incredible interest in life in all aspects of its manifestation - these are the facts with which the writer explained his skill: “All I do is keep writing. I will soon be 65, and I feel like a child trying to tell Grandfather Time something. But I feel that if you keep writing, that skill will stay with you forever, just like people who keep themselves in good physical fitness“At 65 they can do things that I couldn’t do at 20.” . But, like any talented creative person, Asimov was tormented by the thought that he would never write better than that, which has already been done. Despite the fact that for many decades the publishing house did not reject a single work, the writer was haunted by a nightmare: “I dream of my publishers getting together and saying that Asimov has written himself off. Then they draw straws to choose who will bring me this bad news.". 

“How to become a truly prolific author? The very first requirement is that a person must have passion for the writing process. I mean; that he must have a passion for what happens between thinking about a book and finishing it.”

About airplanes, politics and religion

In his dislike of looking away from the typewriter, Asimov went to extremes. He could go to a mountain resort, giving in to his wife's demands, and spend all his days in his room, typing a new novel. But he traveled little, believing that if there is a chance of survival as a result of a train crash, then flying is an unfair undertaking, because if the plane crashes you will die. Ironically, it was he, Isaac Asimov, who wrote science fiction about battles between interplanetary ships, about travelers in time and hyperspace and in distant nebulae, who had never boarded a plane in his life.

Despite his enormous passion for work, his occupation did not become an obstacle to communicating with the world: Asimov was a very popular person, he had many friends, he was a loving father of his two children and remained very close to his parents until their death.

Asimov gave many interviews, was president of the American Humanist Association, and always claimed to be a humanist and rationalist, opposing prejudice and pseudoscience. Regarding religion, in a 1982 interview, when asked “Are you an atheist?” Isaac Asimov replied: “Undoubtedly, I am an atheist. I thought about this for a long time. I considered myself an atheist for many years, but one day I felt that it was intellectually irresponsible to talk about atheism because it assumed knowledge that in reality did not exist. It’s better to say not “atheist”, but humanist and agnostic. Therefore, I decided that I was both an emotional and sane creature. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t have proof that God doesn’t exist, but I also can’t prove that he does exist, so I don’t want to waste my time on that.”

However, in his autobiography, Isaac Asimov discussed religion: “If I were not an atheist, I would believe that God saves people by assessing their merits in life, and not their spoken words. I think that this God would prefer an honest and virtuous atheist, rather than a churchman broadcasting on TV, whose every word is “God, God, God,” and whose deed is dirt, dirt, dirt.”

Azimov did not hide his political views. He was a liberal who opposed US involvement in the Vietnam War. In television interviews he did not hide his opinion about the country's highest officials. For example, he called President Richard Nixon a “crook and a liar,” and about the heroes of the American counterculture of the 60s, he said that they were riding an emotional wave that would ultimately leave them on the shores of a “spiritual country without people” from where there would be return.

The writer passed away on April 6, 1992 at the age of 72; the official statement stated that the cause of death was heart and kidney failure. 10 years after his death, it became known from the published autobiographical book “It’s Been a Good Life” that the disease developed against the background of the AIDS virus, which was introduced into the writer’s blood in 1977 during heart surgery.

In addition to the most interesting science fiction novels and exciting popular science books, Isaac Asimov left earthlings his message about friendship, hatred and love: “History has reached a point where humanity is no longer allowed to be at odds. People on Earth must be friends. I have always tried to emphasize this in my works... I don’t think it is possible to make all people love each other, but I would like to destroy hatred between people. And I quite seriously believe that science fiction is one of the links that helps unite humanity. The problems that we raise in science fiction become pressing problems of all humanity... The science fiction writer, the reader of science fiction, science fiction itself serve humanity.”

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Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) is a true legend of the “golden age” of American science fiction. He devoted almost his entire life to literature: over four hundred books, including special studies and popular science works, came from his pen. The point, of course, is not the quantity; among science fiction writers there are more prolific ones. But, unlike most of his colleagues, Asimov did not follow hackneyed clichés - he gushed original ideas, each of which was capable of giving rise to an entire direction in science fiction.

And it's all about him

No matter how trivial it may sound, Asimov’s biography already looks like a fascinating novel. He was born in Soviet Russia, in the town of Petrovichi near Smolensk. This fateful event took place on January 2, 1920, and already in 1923 the Ozimov family (that was the original surname of his parents) emigrated to the United States. Literary career Asimov's work began sixteen years later, with the short story "Lost at Vesta," published in Amazing Stories. Since then, publications have poured in one after another, and Isaac soon became one of the most active figures in American fandom, a regular at forums and conventions, the soul of society, charming and courtly. Literature studies did not interfere and scientific career. Yesterday's emigrant, he managed to graduate brilliantly high school, then - the chemistry department of Columbia University, quickly get academic degree and by 1979 become a professor at his alma mater.

Michael Whelan, master fantastic painting, illustrated many of Asimov's books. These works decorate our article.

However, Isaac Asimov's main achievements undoubtedly lie in the field of literature. Here, however, there was some luck involved. The first person from the world of science fiction that young Isaac personally met was John Wood Campbell. The legendary editor of Astouding SF magazine played an invaluable role in the development of American fiction of the “golden age”, personally nurturing an entire generation of brilliant writers - from Robert Heinlein to Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore. Campbell not only had an amazing nose for talent, but also literally bombarded his favorites with a whole hail of ideas, many of which were embodied in the novels and stories of those whom we today call SF classics. Of course, John Campbell could not ignore Asimov, although only the ninth of the stories proposed by Isaac saw the light of day on the pages of his magazine. Like many of his comrades, the writer retained a lifelong gratitude to Campbell, the man thanks to whom American science fiction made a giant evolutionary leap in just a few years.

A lot of articles and books have been written about the work of Isaac Asimov - including a two-volume memoir of the writer himself. One listing of it literary awards would take several pages in small font. Asimov has won five Hugos (1963, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1983) and two Nebulas (1972, 1976) - the most respected awards in world science fiction. However, what is more important is that his numerous books are still translated and republished all over the world - including works created more than half a century ago.

I am a robot

The first thing that comes to mind when the name Isaac Asimov is heard is the image of a robot in world science fiction. No, of course, Asimov did not invent robots. This word comes from the Czech language, it was first used by Karel Capek in his famous play “R.U.R.”, calling it artificial people intended for the most menial, hard and unskilled work. The very image of an artificial person, alive but devoid of a soul, came to us from stories about the Golem and Frankenstein’s monster. However, it was Asimov who proposed perfect way once and for all to protect humanity from the very possibility of a “revolt of the machines.” If in magazine fiction of the 1920s a maddened android was one of the main enemies of humanity (along with beetle-eyed monsters and maniac scientists), then with the advent of “Saint Isaac” the robot turned from a crafty slave into an indispensable assistant and faithful confidant of man. All it took was the introduction of the Three Laws, hardwired, so to speak, into the BIOS of the positronic brain of every intelligent machine!

I think it would not be amiss to recall these Laws once again. According to the First, a robot cannot cause harm to a person or, through inaction, allow a person to be harmed. According to the Second, one must obey all orders that a person gives, except in cases where these orders contradict the First Law. And finally, according to the Third, a robot must take care of its safety to the extent that this does not contradict the First and Second Laws. The positronic brain is physically incapable of violating any of these principles - it is on them that its structure is based.

Isaac Asimov's first story about robots appeared in 1940 on the pages of a science fiction magazine. The story was called “Strange Buddy”, or “Robbie”, and told about the fate of an unusual robot - touching and very human. This work was followed by a second, third, fourth... And already in 1950, Isaac Asimov’s series of stories “I, Robot” was published as a separate book, which determined the development of the topic of intelligent machines for many years to come.

Foundation and founders

“If only you knew from what rubbish poetry grows, knowing no shame...” wrote Anna Akhmatova. Isaac Asimov's interest in robots was caused by quite prosaic reasons. For all his merits, John Wood Campbell, who for a long time remained Asimov’s main publisher, had radical views and believed that from any conflict with aliens, a representative of the “superior” human race must certainly emerge victorious. These boundaries were too narrow for Isaac, moreover, they contradicted his beliefs. And the writer found a brilliant solution: from now on, in the works that he proposed to Campbell, there were no aliens at all, which means there was no corresponding conflict. However, this does not mean that Asimov completely abandoned the space theme. On the contrary, works whose action took place on distant planets came out from his pen one after another. Only these worlds were inhabited not by “little green men,” but by the same people, descendants of earthly settlers.

The most famous Asimov cycle, which began during this period, was “Foundation” (also known in Russian translations as “Foundation” and “Academy”). The novels, inspired by Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, depict perhaps the most impressive future story in 20th-century science fiction. The First Empire of the human race fell under its own weight. Science and the arts are declining, the army is falling apart, the provinces are declaring themselves independent states, the connection between them is lost - in a word, new Dark Ages. Of course, the optimist Asimov does not lose faith in progress: sooner or later the world will become united again and the standards of the Second Empire will rise above all worlds. But is it possible to calculate how the situation will develop and reduce the Dark Ages to a minimum? The great mathematician Hari Seldon, the inventor of the science of psychohistory, the creator of the Foundation - a community that would become the embryo of the Second Empire of mankind - takes on this.

The pictures of the death and collapse of the greatest Empire, talentedly drawn by the writer, are impressive. But Asimov’s main discovery in this cycle is, of course, psychohistory itself. “Without trying to predetermine the actions of individuals, she formulated certain mathematical laws according to which human society developed,” this is how the hero of the novel explains its essence. For thousands of years, the creation of such a science has remained the dream of those in power. Today, oracles and fortune tellers, Pythias and augurs, Tarot cards and coffee grounds have been replaced by the eldest child of Progress - almighty Science. Whatever they can use to predict the approximate direction of development of society - at least a few months in advance, until the next elections... Alas, sociologists and political scientists have not learned to confidently predict the future...
As for “Foundation,” the fate of this cycle turned out quite happily. At the 24th WorldCon in 1966, Foundation won the Hugo Award for "best science fiction series of all time." During the voting, Asimov's novels beat out both the most popular "History of the Future" by Robert Heinlein and "The Lord of the Rings" by John R. R. Tolkien, whose name has already made its name in the English-speaking world.

Steel Caves

A fantastic detective story is a very special genre. It combines the features of a traditional detective novel and fantasy, and is therefore often criticized on both sides. Connoisseurs detective genre fantastic assumptions irritate, fans of science fiction are embarrassed by the rigid structure inevitable for a detective story. However, writers persistently return to this direction, again and again forcing cohorts of elusive criminals and brilliant detectives to take up the case. And one of the generally recognized classics of the fantastic detective story is again considered to be the unsurpassed and many-sided Isaac Asimov.

The novels “Caves of Steel”, “The Naked Sun” and “Robots of the Dawn” about police officer Elijah Bailey and his partner R. Daniel Olivo are, in a sense, a continuation of the “I, Robot” series. The detective story itself is akin to an intricate chess game, but Asimov added an additional unknown to this equation - robots. One of them, the balanced and reserved detective Daniel Olivo, becomes the main character of all the novels in the trilogy. Other robots invariably come under suspicion or become key witnesses in cases that a couple of investigators have to unravel. The move, it should be noted, is the most ingenious. The behavior of thinking machines is strictly determined by the Three Laws - and, nevertheless, robots every now and then find themselves involved in crimes with fatal. Moreover, the difficult foreign policy situation requires finding the culprit in record time...

The list of Asimov's fantastic detective stories is not limited to the trilogy. However, it was she who entered the annals and became a constant role model. And not only in the USA and England, but also in Russia. “Steel Caves” was first published in Russian in 1969, in one of the volumes of Detlit’s “Library of Adventures”, with a foreword by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - and immediately sold in three hundred thousand copies. Not every modern author bestsellers can boast similar success. And, in general, deservedly so: although hundreds of writers have tried their hand at the field of fantastic detective fiction over the past years, Asimov’s works still remain an ideal example of the genre.

The Beginning of Eternity

Another direction in which the American writer left a clear mark is chronoopera, literature about time travel. The time machine has been a staple theme in SF since time immemorial. IN modern fiction there is an astronomical number of variations on this theme, including many classics: “And Thunder struck...” by Ray Bradbury, “Time Patrol” by Poul Anderson, “Let the Dark Never Fall” by Sprague De Camp... But Isaac Asimov’s “The End of Eternity” ranks among This row has one of the most honorable places. Just as one can easily recognize a poet from Bradbury’s texts, one can easily recognize a natural scientist in the author of “The End of Eternity.” Having meticulously and ruthlessly logically examined the situation with time travel, Azimov designed an organization that would inevitably arise in a world where going to the past or future is no more difficult than going to your aunt in Saratov.

Eternity - kind of totalitarian state, which exists outside the main time stream and uses a time machine to correct history. Its main goal is to preserve society unchanged, to insure ordinary people from global disasters and upheavals. And at the same time, maintaining the status quo, Eternity deprived humanity of the future and actually froze the progress of civilization for millennia. Alas, it is global shocks, wars and disasters that force society to move forward. Complete peace leads civilization to decay and death...

Not all writers share Isaac Asimov's skepticism. For more than half a century, Eternity has been revived again and again in the novels of other authors, under new names: Time Patrol (in Paul Anderson), Sand Center (in “Dinosaur Coast” by Keith Laumer), and so on and so forth. Most of these organizations, however, do not so much correct the history of mankind as monitor its integrity. The fear of the anarchy that would reign in a time crowded with travelers without visas is too great. If one butterfly, crushed in the past, comes back to haunt the present with a change in the political system in America, how can the history of another Yankee, showing up at the court of King Arthur with a machine gun at the ready, be able to distort the history?.. It was this fear that Isaac Asimov felt before others - and played brilliantly in his novel .

Classics and contemporaries

Design of the Asimov monument (work by Michael Whelan)

Undoubtedly, Isaac Asimov’s contribution to the collection of ideas and plots of science fiction is not limited to this. He came up with a planet whose inhabitants see the stars only once every few millennia and was the first to send his heroes to a microcosm; he suggested that Neanderthals had telepathy and in an ironic way described the development of computing systems; back in the 1950s he spoke about the threat of nuclear war and contacts with the inhabitants of a parallel world...

Today, several thousand science fiction novels are published annually in the USA and England, and a good third of these works can be classified as SF. But in order to understand what “science fiction writers” prefer to write about, it is not at all necessary to read all these books. If you are interested in what ideas Western fiction writers are actively developing today, re-read Asimov's collected works. I assure you: all the diversity of modern science fiction is reflected in his works, like the ocean in a drop of water.

When Isaac Asimov was born, he was surprised to discover that he was born on the territory of Soviet Russia in the town of Petrovichi near Smolensk. He tried to correct this mistake, and three years later, in 1923, his parents moved to New York Brooklyn (USA), where they opened a candy store and lived happily ever after, with sufficient income to finance their son’s education. Isaac became a US citizen in 1928.
It's scary to think what would have happened if Isaac had stayed in the homeland of his ancestors! Of course, it is possible that he would take the place of Ivan Efremov in our fantastic literature, but this is unlikely. Rather, things would have turned out much more gloomy. And so he trained as a biochemist, graduating from Columbia University's chemistry department in 1939, and taught biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine. Since 1979 - professor at the same university. He never forgot his professional interests: he is the author of many scientific and popular science books on biochemistry. But this is not what made him famous throughout the world.
The year he graduated from university (1939), he made his debut in Amazing Stories with the story “Captured by Vesta.” A brilliant scientific mind was combined in Asimov with dreaminess, and therefore he could not be either a pure scientist or a pure writer. He began writing science fiction. And he was especially good at books in which he could theorize, construct intricate logical chains, suggesting many hypotheses, but only one the right decision. These are fantastic detective stories. Asimov's best books somehow contain a detective element, and his favorite heroes - Elijah Bailey and R. Daniel Olivo - are detectives by profession. But even novels that cannot be called 100% detective stories are devoted to uncovering secrets, collecting information, and brilliant logical calculations by unusually smart characters endowed with correct intuition.
Asimov's books take place in the future. This future stretches over many millennia. Here are the adventures of “Lucky” David Starr in the first decades of exploration Solar System, and the settlement of distant planets, starting with the Tau Ceti system, and the formation of the mighty Galactic Empire, and its collapse, and the work of a handful of scientists united under the name of the Academy to create a new, better Galactic Empire, and the growth of the human mind into the universal mind of Galaxia. Asimov essentially created his own Universe, extended in space and time, with its own coordinates, history and morality. And like any creator of the world, he showed a clear desire for epicness. Most likely, he did not plan in advance to turn his science fiction detective story “Caves of Steel” into an epic series. But now the sequel has appeared - “Robots of the Dawn” - it already becomes clear that the chain of individual crimes and accidents that Elijah Bailey and R. Daniel Olivo are investigating is connected with the destinies of humanity.
And yet, even then, Asimov hardly intended to connect the plot of the “Caves of Steel” cycle with the “Academy” trilogy. It happened naturally, as it always does with an epic. It is known that at first the novels about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were not connected with each other, much less with the story of Tristan and Isolde. But over time they came together into something common. It’s the same with Asimov’s novels.
And if an epic cycle is created, then it cannot but have a central epic hero. And such a hero appears. It becomes R. Daniel Olivo. Robot Daniel Olivo. In the fifth part of the “Academy” - the novel “The Academy and the Earth” - he already takes the place of the Lord God, the creator of the Universe and the arbiter of human destinies.
Asimov's robots are the most amazing thing created by the writer. Asimov wrote pure science fiction, in which there is no place for magic and mysticism. And yet, not being an engineer by profession, he does not really amaze the reader’s imagination with technical innovations. And his only invention is more philosophical than technical. Asimov's robots and the problems of their relationships with people are a subject of special interest. It feels like the author thought a lot before writing about this. It is no coincidence that even his science fiction competitors, including those who spoke unflatteringly about him literary talent, recognized his greatness as the author of the Three Laws of Robotics. These laws are also expressed philosophically, and not technically: robots should not harm a person or, by their inaction, allow harm to come to him; robots must obey human orders unless this contradicts the first law; robots must protect their existence if this does not contradict the first and second laws. Asimov doesn't explain how this happens, but he says that no robot can be created without following Three Laws. They are laid down in the very basis, in the technical basis of the possibility of building a robot.
But already from these Three Laws a lot of problems arise: for example, a robot will be ordered to jump into a fire. And he will be forced to do this, because the second law is initially stronger than the third. But Asimov's robots - at least Daniel and others like him - are essentially people, only artificially created. They have a unique and unrepeatable personality, an individuality that can be destroyed at the whim of any fool. Asimov was a smart man. He himself noticed this contradiction and resolved it. And many other problems and contradictions that arise in his books were brilliantly resolved by him. It seems that he enjoyed posing problems and finding solutions.
The world of Asimov's novels is a world of bizarre interweaving of surprise and logic. You will never guess what force is behind this or that event in the Universe, who opposes the heroes in their search for truth, who helps them. The endings of Asimov's novels are as unexpected as the endings of O'Henry's stories. And yet, any surprise here is carefully motivated and justified. Asimov does not and cannot have any mistakes.
Individual freedom and its dependence on higher powers. According to Asimov, there are many powerful forces at work in the Galaxy, much more powerful than people. And yet, in the end, it's all about the people specific people, like the brilliant Golan Trevize from the fourth and fifth books of the Academy. However, what ultimately happens there is still unknown. Asimov's world is open and ever-changing. Who knows where Asimov’s humanity would have come had the author lived a little longer...
The reader, having entered someone else's alarming, huge and full of confrontation Asimov's Universe, gets used to it as to his own home. When Golan Trevize visits the long-forgotten and desolate planets of Aurora and Solaria, where Elijah Bailey and R. Daniel Olivo lived and operated many thousands of years ago, we feel sadness and devastation, as if we are standing on ashes. This is the deep humanity and emotionality of such a seemingly personal and speculative world created by Asimov.
He lived a short life by Western standards - only seventy-two years and died on April 6, 1992 at the New York University Clinic. But over these years he wrote not twenty, not fifty, not one hundred and not four hundred, but four hundred and sixty-seven books, both fiction, scientific and popular science. His work has been recognized with five Hugo Awards (1963, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1983), two Nebula Awards (1972, 1976), as well as many other prizes and awards. One of the most popular American science fiction magazines, Asimov's Science Fiction and Fantasy, is named after Isaac Asimov. There is something to envy.