Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1922)
For 50 years, Isaac Asimov's tone of voice as a writer was the one that all the other voices of science fiction either obeyed or shifted from — sometimes with an eloquence he could not have achieved.
Asimov began writing while in his late teens, and by 1940 had already embarked upon his three most famous works: "Strange Playfellow" (1940), the first story in the Robot series, during the course of which he articulated the “Three Laws of Robotics”; "Nightfall" (1941), probably the most famous American science fiction story of all time; and "Foundation," the first installment of the celebrated series of the same name. Originally conceived as a single extended tale, the Foundation series established the Galactic Empire as a template for almost every future history generated in the field from 1940 onwards. It was recognized in 1965 with a Hugo award for Best All-Time Series.
From 1958 onwards, however, Asimov's work was primarily non-fiction, including a popular-science column in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The column appeared continuously for 399 unbroken issues, winning Asimov a special Hugo award in 1963 for "adding science to science fiction." Though his presence in the science fiction world would remain intermittent, his reputation continued to grow, and in 1977 he helped found the first successful new American science fiction magazine since 1950, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. The publication soon became — and remains — one of the two or three dominant journals in the field.
In the 1980s, Asimov returned to science fiction, publishing a series of novels that bridged the Robot and Foundation sequences, creating one overarching series. In total, he eventually published over 400 books on subjects ranging from science to the Bible, winning every major award in the science fiction genre, including a Nebula Grand Master Award in 1986. Next to Robert Heinlein, he was the most influential American science fiction writer of his era.
Selected Bibliography:
I, Robot (1951)
Foundation (1951)
Foundation and Empire (1952)
Second Foundation (1953)
The Caves of Steel (1954)
The End of Eternity (1955)
The Gods Themselves (1972)
The Bicentennial Man (1976)
The Complete Robot (1982)
The Robots of Dawn (1983)
Courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Copyright © John Clute and Peter Nicholls 1993. 1999, published by Orbit, an imprint of the Time Warner Book Group UK.
Asimov began writing while in his late teens, and by 1940 had already embarked upon his three most famous works: "Strange Playfellow" (1940), the first story in the Robot series, during the course of which he articulated the “Three Laws of Robotics”; "Nightfall" (1941), probably the most famous American science fiction story of all time; and "Foundation," the first installment of the celebrated series of the same name. Originally conceived as a single extended tale, the Foundation series established the Galactic Empire as a template for almost every future history generated in the field from 1940 onwards. It was recognized in 1965 with a Hugo award for Best All-Time Series.
From 1958 onwards, however, Asimov's work was primarily non-fiction, including a popular-science column in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The column appeared continuously for 399 unbroken issues, winning Asimov a special Hugo award in 1963 for "adding science to science fiction." Though his presence in the science fiction world would remain intermittent, his reputation continued to grow, and in 1977 he helped found the first successful new American science fiction magazine since 1950, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. The publication soon became — and remains — one of the two or three dominant journals in the field.
In the 1980s, Asimov returned to science fiction, publishing a series of novels that bridged the Robot and Foundation sequences, creating one overarching series. In total, he eventually published over 400 books on subjects ranging from science to the Bible, winning every major award in the science fiction genre, including a Nebula Grand Master Award in 1986. Next to Robert Heinlein, he was the most influential American science fiction writer of his era.
Selected Bibliography:
I, Robot (1951)
Foundation (1951)
Foundation and Empire (1952)
Second Foundation (1953)
The Caves of Steel (1954)
The End of Eternity (1955)
The Gods Themselves (1972)
The Bicentennial Man (1976)
The Complete Robot (1982)
The Robots of Dawn (1983)
Courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Copyright © John Clute and Peter Nicholls 1993. 1999, published by Orbit, an imprint of the Time Warner Book Group UK.
posted by Capricorne @ 20:30
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