Isaac Asimov Home Page

Welcome to the Isaac Asimov Home Page. Here you'll find a comprehensive collection of resources pertaining to Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), the quintessential author, who in his lifetime wrote over 500 books that enlightened, entertained, and spanned the realm of human knowledge.

The Isaac Asimov FAQ

For a German translation of the FAQ, see Bálint Krizsán's site.

The Isaac Asimov Memorial Panel Debate

The topic of the 2005 debate was "The Enigma of Alien Solar Systems", and concerned the question of why alien solar systems look so much different from our own. Since the discovery in the last decade of planets orbiting around stars other than our own sun, most of the solar systems that have been found seem to consist of planets the size of Jupiter or larger orbiting their host stars at a distance no farther than Mercury orbits the Sun. Panelists discussed why these other solar systems look so different from ours.

The debate was once again moderated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium.

Each of the four previous debates were presented to a standing-room only audience. The first debate, on the "Theory of Everything", took place at the museum on February 13, 2001; the second, on "The Search For Life in the Universe", was held June 10, 2002; the third, on "The Big Bang", took place on April 22, 2003; and the fourth, on "The Dark Side", concerning everything that is dark and mysterious in the universe, was held on April 21, 2004.

Thanks to the many contributors, the Isaac Asimov Memorial Fund continues to grow. If you would like to participate in this extraordinary opportunity to perpetuate Isaac's memory and support the cause of science education, please read the details.

An article from Rotunda, the newsletter of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, profiles the career of Dr. Janet Jeppson Asimov, her involvement with the museum, and the establishment of the Isaac Asimov Memorial Fund.

I, Robot, starring Will Smith

The film is billed as "suggested by Isaac Asimov's book", meaning that it incorporates some elements of the robot stories that appeared in Asimov's 1950 short story collection. The film started as a screenplay titled "Hardwired" by screenwriter Jeff Vintar. Then, with the permission of Asimov's estate, the title was changed and the story modified to use some characters and plot elements from Asimov's stories. The final product clearly contains some of Asimov's ideas, but a story that belongs to Vintar and fellow screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

If the movie is your first exposure to Asimov's work, and you would like to learn more about Isaac Asimov, this site might help you to do so.

What does the new movie have in common with Asimov's writings?

• The title: I, Robot

  I, Robot is the title of Asimov's first collection of short stories. It consists of nine stories about positronic robots, united by a consistent narrative in which a reporter interviews the character Susan Calvin about her life working with robots. Oddly enough, Asimov did not come up with the title, but rather his publisher "appropriated" the title from a short story by Eando Binder that was published in 1939. New editions of I, Robot, featuring a still from the movie on the cover, have recently been published, and are on sale at amazon.com and other locations.

• The Three Laws of Robotics

  The movie faithfully quotes Asimov's three laws of robotics:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

  Asimov developed the Three Laws (with the help of his editor John W. Campbell) because he was tired of the science fiction stories of the 1920s and 1930s in which the robots, like Frankenstein's creation, turned on their creators and became dangerous monsters. The positronic brains of Asimov's robots were designed around the Three Laws, so that it was impossible for the robots to function without them. There were enough ambiguities in the Three Laws to make for interesting stories, but there was only one story in the collection, "Little Lost Robot", in which a robot posed any sort of danger to a human being. In the movie, the robots run amok and become dangerous monsters despite (or is it because of?) the Three Laws. There are no loopholes in Asimov's stories that would allow the behavior exhibited by the robots in the movie.

  The Three Laws and the behavior of robots that resulted from their use became an implicit aspect of numerous science fiction stories that followed Asimov's popular positronic robot series. Researchers who later designed and built robots have said that utilizing principles akin to the Three Laws is simply common sense. But today not everyone believes that the Three Laws are sufficient or desirable for robots of the future. The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence has a website which explores the Three Laws from an academic perspective and gives reasons why they may not be the last word in robotic design.

• U.S. Robotics

  The movie centers on robots built by United States Robotics, the corporation whose full name is U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. in Asimov's stories. In the movie, the corporation is run by Lawrence Robertson. In the short story collection, Lawrence Robertson receives only a brief mention in the introduction as being the first president of the corporation; several generations of his offspring run the company as the story timeline progresses.

• The character Susan Calvin

  Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist for U.S. Robots, was a central character of the story collection. Calvin was brilliant, logical, and strong-willed, but was not considered attractive or even very feminine. In the movie, Calvin is portrayed by the young and beautiful actress Bridget Moynahan.

• The character Alfred Lanning

  In Asimov's stories, Lanning is the Director of Research at U.S. Robots, and a prominent character. In the movie, Lanning is the creator of the NS-5 robot, and dies near the beginning of the story.

• The Nestor series of robots

  The movie features the NS-5 robot, successor to the NS-4 in the Nestor series. Asimov's story "Little Lost Robot" concerned a robot in the Nestor series, the NS-2, which has a modified First Law which allows it to allow a human being to come to harm through inaction.

• A police detective who is uncomfortable with robots

  In the movie, Will Smith plays detective Del Spooner, who has a deep-seated distrust of robots. There are no such detectives in Asimov's short stories, but Asimov also wrote a series of novels featuring positronic robots, and there is a detective in them named Elijah Baley who is not very fond of robots. Baley is not alone in his feelings about robots; robots on Earth are blamed for stealing jobs and causing unemployment. In the novel The Caves of Steel, a roboticist is murdered, but rather than hunting down a robot, Baley is paired with one as a partner in his murder investigation. Baley's partner, the robot Daneel Olivaw, manages to change his perspective on robots, and reappears as a central figure in several later novels.

There was an earlier attempt at a movie version of I, Robot, but it never made it to the screen. In 1969 the rights were optioned to Hollywood, but no progress was made toward making a movie until 1977, when Harlan Ellison, an award-winning author and friend of Asimov, was hired to write a screenplay. Ellison worked on it for a year, and created a screenplay that Asimov thought would make a truly marvelous film. But Hollywood did not have the nerve to make a movie from that screenplay, and the project was shelved. Ellison regained control of his work, and it was published in 1987 as I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay.

If I, Robot has raised your interest in Isaac Asimov's robots, you may want to take a look at some of his robot short story collections and novels.

Short Story Collections:

• I, Robot
• The Rest of the Robots
• The Complete Robot (a single collection of most of Asimov's pre-1982 robot stories)
• Robot Dreams
• Robot Visions

• The Caves of Steel
• The Naked Sun
• The Robots of Dawn
• Robots and Empire

New Black Widower's Collection: The Return of the Black Widowers

A new collection of Isaac Asimov's Black Widower mystery stories was published by Carroll & Graf in November 2003, with a paperback edition due in December 2005. The Return of the Black Widowers features six stories that have never appeared in a Black Widowers's collection, plus ten of the best previously collected Black Widower stories. It also includes an introduction by Asimov's close friend, author Harlan Ellison; a pastiche about the Black Widowers; and an essay by Asimov about how he came to write the Black Widowers stories. Also appearing in the collection is a new Black Widowers story, "The Last Story", written by Charles Ardai, the editor of the collection, for the December 2002 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Asimov's death and the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of the first Black Widowers story. The Return of the Black Widowers can be ordered from amazon.com.

Autobiography: It's Been a Good Life

In late March, 2002, Prometheus Books published It's Been a Good Life, an autobiography edited by Janet Jeppson Asimov. The new book was compiled from selections made from the three previous autobiographical volumes In Memory Yet Green (1979), In Joy Still Felt (1980), and I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994). The book also features "A Way of Thinking", Asimov's 400th essay for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which Janet put together from conversations they had and letters they had exchanged during many years of correspondence. In addition, there are excerpts from those letters sprinkled throughout the book. The result is a portrait of the life of Isaac Asimov, the writer, humanist, thinker, wit, and bon vivant, which lovingly illustrates why he was able to truthfully say "It's been a good life". The book also includes an epilogue in which Janet Jeppson Asimov reveals for the first time that Isaac's 1992 death from heart and kidney failure was a consequence of AIDS contracted from a transfusion of tainted blood during his December 1983 triple-bypass operation. She explains how and when he learned he had the disease, and why his doctors convinced him to keep it a secret from the public. The epilogue includes a description of Asimov's final days, together with some poignant passages that describe his views of life and death. [There have been some erroneous published reports stating that it was Janet Asimov who convinced her husband to keep the fact that he had contracted AIDS a secret. This is absolutely untrue. In fact it was Asimov's doctors who urged that the matter be kept a secret. See Janet's April 4, 2002 letter to Locus magazine.] The book can be purchased online from amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

Lists of Asimov's Works

• A catalogue of Asimov book titles, arranged by categories in the same fashion as in his autobiographies. (55k)

• A list of Asimov's book titles, numbered in order of authorship, as known or estimated. (54k)

• A "big list" of all known editions [that is, known by the list compiler, Ed Seiler] of Asimov's books, in order of publication. This includes title, publisher, year of publication, number of pages, size, Library of Congress call number, Dewey number, ISBN, and Library of Congress card catalog number. (183k)
  Note: This file has been formatted for 132 columns.

• The "big list" in alphabetical order by title. (183k)
  Note: This file has been formatted for 132 columns.

• A guide to Asimov's short fiction. Every short story Asimov ever wrote is listed here. Indexes are provided that list works in each genre in order of publication, and an alphabetical index of titles lets you find an entry for any Asimov story title. Entries for each story cite where the story was first published, and list Asimov's collections and the anthologies in which the story appears. (77k)

• A guide to Asimov's essays. Over 1600 of Asimov's essays are listed here, including the subject of the essay, the publication in which the essay first appeared, and a list of Asimov's collections in which the essay appeared. Indexes list the essays chronologically for each major series (e.g. the science essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), and also group the essays by subject, in order to help you find any essay Asimov wrote on any given subject. (151k)

• A list of books and articles about Asimov. (6k)

• Johnny Pez's Insanely Complete Fiction List
  A chronology of events in Isaac Asimov's positronic robot and Foundation stories, compiled by Johnny Pez.

• A list of worlds mentioned in the Foundation series. (5k)

• A list of Asimov works available on other media: records, audio tapes, videotapes, computer software, and board games. (14k)

Sources for Obtaining Asimov's Books

• Amazon.com Books: With over two-and-a-half million titles available, there is a good chance that you can find most of Asimov's books that are currently in print at Amazon.

• The Advanced Book Exchange represents large numbers of independent used book dealers, and is a good source for hard-to-find books.

• The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America offers out-of-print, collectible, and hard to find books. They are an association of booksellers who collectively sell books on the Internet. . Their selection of books by Asimov often includes a number of titles you may not have seen elsewhere.

• AddAll offers searching and price comparisons.

• Powell's Book Store is a large store in Oregon (reputed to be the largest bookstore west of the Mississippi) that has a website.

• The Science Fiction Book Club sells its own editions of many of Asimov's science fiction books at discount prices.

• The Internet Bookshop is a source for books published in the U.K.

• The Bargain Book Warehouse is another source of discounted books in print.

• And last, but not least, don't forget your local library as a source for borrowing books for reading.

Publishers of Asimov's Books on the Web

• Prometheus Books published several of Asimov's essay collections.

• Random House, whose Bantam Spectra imprint publishes most of Asimov's science fiction titles that are currently in print.

• Doubleday (Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc.) has published more of Asimov's books than any other publisher.

• Gareth Stevens Publishing has published 50 of Asimov's books for young people on science, technology, and explorers.

• HarperCollins, published several of the more recent titles.

• HarperCollins UK, whose Voyager imprint includes a substantial number of Asimov's books published in the UK.

• Penguin Putnam Inc., published Asimov's books under several different imprints.

• Tor Books only published one of Asimov's books, but their Web page provides information about their science fiction and fantasy books, and has links to other SF resources on the Web.

• Houghton Mifflin Company has published 44 of Asimov's books, but there is no mention of him at their website.

Reviews

• Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov is a collection of John Jenkins' reviews of every one of Isaac Asimov's books. Well, he hasn't actually reviewed all of Asimov's books yet, but he's working on it. John offers his views of what he likes and dislikes in Asimov's books from the point of view of a dedicated Asimov enthusiast, and provides a graphical rating system that neatly summarizes his evaluations for both the Asimov fan and the intended audience of each book. He has included reviews of Asimov's short fiction. John's opinions are highly personal, comprehensive, and clearly written, and definitely worth a look.

• Search the science fiction review archives of the Science Fiction Resource Guide to view their collection of reviews of Asimov's books.

• A brief review of Forward the Foundation by Matthew B. Tepper.

A Graph of Asimov's Book Publications

Some Items of Interest

Isaac Asimov's Birthplace

Essays by Johnny Pez

The publishing history of the Positronic Robot and Foundation stories:

• Part 1: 1940-1941
• Part 2: 1941-1944
• Part 3: 1944-1951
• Part 4: 1954-1976
• Part 5: 1973-1988
• Part 6: 1989-1993

The publishing history of the Positronic Robot and Empire novels, 1947-1958

The Rise and Fall of the Spacers

Articles from the Encyclopedia Galactica:

• Terminus

A Piece of History

Cosmic Corkscrew

Asimov and Religion

Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Other Asimov Resources

• The Encyclopedia Galactica is the ultimate reference work for the universe detailed in Isaac Asimov's robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation stories. Providing information on people, chronology, robotics, and other topics, it is published by the Encyclopedia Galactic Publishing Co., via the efforts of Mike Carlin of Bristol, England.

• The Imperial Galaxy, a gallery of original artwork illustrating the Foundation universe, brought to us by Slawek Wojtowicz.

• In the early sixties, Asimov regularly contributed book reviews to The Horn Book, a children's literary review journal, who marked their 75th anniversary in October 1999. At their virtual history exhibit is a letter from Asimov to an editor at Horn Book, after he received an unexpectedly large payment, asking to make sure that he wasn't overpaid.

• On September 25, 1987, Asimov was interviewed by Terry Gross for the National Public Radio program Fresh Air. A RealAudio version of the 27-minute interview can be found at the New York Times website. To listen to this interview, you'll need the RealAudio player, which can be downloaded from the RealNetwork site.

• The Life & Times section of the New York Times website also features articles by and about Asimov, as well as reviews of Asimov's books that appeared in the Times (registration required).

• Excerpts from I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, presented by Time Warner Electronic publishing. The introduction to the book and the text of the first nineteen camera shots are provided, and all 16 of the book's full-color paintings by Mark Zug are available for display as GIFs or higher quality JPEG images.

• Science Fiction writer Michael A. Burstein, winner of the 1997 John Campbell Award for Best New Writer, remembers Isaac Asimov in "Asimov and Me", first published in the Fanzine Mimosa in December 1997.

• A 1988 interview with Asimov by Slawek Wojtowicz, a science fiction fan from Poland.

• The transcript of a lecture by Asimov on the future of humanity.

• An obituary for Isaac that appeared in Newsday.

• A chronology of Asimov's Susan Calvin stories, robot novels, galactic empire novels and Foundation series.

• An essay by Robert J. Sawyer on why the Three Laws of Robotics aren't used in the real world.

A Few Science Fiction Resources

• The Science Fiction resource guide offers links to a multitude of science fiction resources on the net.

• The Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, Combined Edition by William Contento should help you find an enormous number of science fiction stories and anthologies published before 1984, and Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror: 1984-1998 covers everything since then.

• Science Fiction Weekly, a professional electronic publication of science fiction news, reviews and short stories.

Edward Seiler
ejseiler@earthlink.net