Tag Archives: Isaac Asimov

John W. Campbell, Jr. at 105

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On this day in 1910, John W. Campbell entered the world.  It was a very different world when he left it on July 11, 1971.  He envisioned much of that world and much of what followed his passing.JohnWCampbell-WhoGoesThere-314x218

John Campbell was arguably the most influential science fiction and fantasy editor of the 20th Century.  (Feel free to disagree in the comments.)  Campbell began writing science fiction for the pulps.  At first he published space opera under his own name.  Not content to be a well regarded writer in the field, he began publishing moody, thoughtful stories under the name Don A. Stuart.  He took the pen name from his wife’s maiden name, Dona Stuart.  His most famous story under either byline is “Who Goes There?” by Don A. Stuart, which was filmed as The Thing From Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011). Continue reading →

Asimov and the Editorial Hand of John W. Campbell

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The Winds of ChangeI said in my post on Asimov’s birthday a few days ago that I was going to read some stories from The Winds of Change.  I did, getting through the first four stories before my eyelids grew heavy.  The third story is the oldest in the book, “Belief” from 1953.  Asimov notes in his introduction to the story that this was its first appearance in one of his American collections.  (The reasons are beyond the scope of this post.)

I thought I had read it somewhere, perhaps in The Great SF Stories, but the ISFDB said otherwise.  It did, however, show that the story had been published in a later collection, The Alternate Asimov’s.  I had a copy I had picked up years ago that I’d never read, primarily because I didn’t have time to read the original and final versions of the novels The End of Eternity and Pebble in the Sky.  The Alternate Asimovs contains the original versions of those novels.  It also contains both version of the novelette “Belief”.

It seems the version of the story John W. Campbell, Jr. published in Astounding wasn’t Asimov’s preferred version.   Campbell required Asimov to rewrite the ending significantly.  I read the original version, and found the experience quite enlightening. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Isaac Asimov

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Isaac_AsimovIf he were alive, Isaac Asimov would have celebrated his 94th birthday today.  I never had the privilege of meeting Dr. Asimov, but I grew up reading his works.  I’ve not read everything he wrote, but I’ve read quite a bit.  I’m speaking of his science fiction here, not his total output.  Wikipedia says he wrote over 500 books.

It’s also National Science Fiction Day, which I think is quite appropriate.

Asimov was one of the first science fiction authors I read when I graduated to adult science fiction.  This would have been in junior high.  (I’ve always been ahead of my time.)  I think I came across one of his robot stories in an anthology edited by Robert Silverberg that was in the school library.  It wasn’t long before I was hunting down his short fiction (in addition to his robot stories), the Foundation series, and some of his other novels.  His later Foundation novels were among the first science fiction I purchased new in hardcover that wasn’t a book club edition.

The Winds of ChangeIt’s been quite a while since I read any of Asimov’s work.  As I stated in my reading goals post, I want to get back to basics  this year and reread some of the works and authors that first attracted me to science fiction.  I picked up a paperback copy of The Winds of Change a few months ago in a second hand shop.  It’s a later collection, and I haven’t read it.  I’ve loved the colors on the cover for years and finally gave in to temptation and bought it.  I think I’ll spend some time this evening reading it and raising a glass to the legacy of Isaac Asimov.