Aasemoon

Aasemoon edited the bio of Frank Herbert Friday, April 25 2008.

Aasemoon edited the summary of Frank Herbert Friday, April 25 2008.

• Frank Herbert's biography, from the official Dune Novels website:
  
  Frank Herbert (1920-1986) created the most beloved novel in the annals of science fiction, DUNE. He was a man of many facets, of countless passageways that ran through an intricate mind. His magnum opus is a reflection of this, a classic work that stands as one of the most complex, multi-layered novels ever written in any genre. Today the novel is more popular than ever, with new readers continually discovering it and telling their friends to pick up a copy. It has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold almost 20 million copies.
  
  As a child growing up in Washington state, Frank Herbert was curious about everything. He carried around a Boy Scout pack with books in it, and he was always reading. He loved Rover Boys adventures, as well as the stories of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and the science fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs. On his eighth birthday, Frank stood on top of the breakfast table at his family home and announced,"I wanna be a author."
  
  His maternal grandfather, John McCarthy, said of the boy, "It's frightening. A kid that small shouldn't be so smart." Young Frank was not unlike Alia in DUNE, a person having adult comprehension in a child's body. In grade school he was the acknowledged authority on everything. If his classmates wanted to know the answer to something, such as about sexual functions or how to make a carbide cannon, they would invariably say, "Let's ask Herbert. He'll know."
  
  His curiosity and independent spirit got him into trouble more than once when he was growing up, and caused him difficulties as an adult as well. He did not graduate from college because he refused to take the required courses for a major; he only wanted to study what interested him. For years he had a hard time making a living, bouncing from job to job and from town to town. He was so independent that he refused to write for a particular market; he wrote what he felt like writing. It took him six years of research and writing to complete DUNE, and after all that struggle and sacrifice, 23 publishers rejected it in book form before it was finally accepted. He received an advance of only $7,500.
  
  His loving wife of 37 years, Beverly, was the breadwinner much of the time, as an underpaid advertising writer for department stores. Having been divorced from his first wife, Flora Parkinson, Frank Herbert met Beverly Stuart at a University of Washington creative writing class in 1946. At the time they were the only students in the class who had sold their work for publication. Frank had sold two pulp adventure stories to magazines, one to Esquire and the other to Doc Savage. Beverly had sold a story to Modern Romance magazine. These genres reflected the interests of the two young lovers; he the adventurer, the strong, machismo man, and she the romantic, exceedingly feminine and soft-spoken.
  
  Their marriage would produce two sons, Brian, born in 1947, and Bruce, born in 1951. Frank also had a daughter, Penny, born in 1942 from his first marriage. For more than two decades Frank and Beverly would struggle to make ends meet, and there were many hard times. In order to pay the bills and to allow her husband the freedom he needed in order to create, Beverly gave up her own creative writing career in order to support his. They were in fact a writing team, as he discussed every aspect of his stories with her, and she edited his work. Theirs was a remarkable, though tragic, love story—which Brian would poignantly describe one day in DREAMER OF DUNE. After Beverly passed away, Frank married Theresa Shackelford.
  
  In all, Frank Herbert wrote nearly 30 popular books and collections of short stories, including six novels set in the DUNE universe: DUNE, DUNE MESSIAH, CHILDREN OF DUNE, GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, HERETICS OF DUNE, and CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE. All were international bestsellers, as were a number of his other science fiction novels, including THE WHITE PLAGUE and THE DOSADI EXPERIMENT.
  
  His major novels included THE DRAGON IN THE SEA, SOUL CATCHER (his only non-science fiction novel), DESTINATION: VOID, THE SANTAROGA BARRIER, THE GREEN BRAIN, HELLSTROM'S HIVE, WHIPPING STAR, THE EYES OF HEISENBERG, THE GODMAKERS, DIRECT DESCENT, and THE HEAVEN MAKERS. He also collaborated with Bill Ransom to write THE JESUS INCIDENT, THE LAZARUS EFFECT, and THE ASCENSION FACTOR. Frank Herbert's last published novel, MAN OF TWO WORLDS, was a collaboration with his son, Brian.
  
  www.dunenovels.com

Aasemoon edited the summary of Isaac Asimov Friday, April 25 2008.

• A few literary facts about Isaac Asimov from his official website:
  
  When did he start writing?
  
  When he was eleven years old he began writing The Greenville Chums at College, which he planned to be the first book in a series. After writing only eight chapters about the adventures of boys living in a small town, he gave up after recognizing the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about. However he made a very important discovery in the process. After he wrote the first two chapters, he told the story he had written so far to a friend at school during lunchtime. When he stopped, his friend demanded that he continue. When Asimov explained that he had told him all that he had so far, the friend asked to borrow the book when he was finished reading it. Asimov was astonished to discover that his friend thought that he was retelling a story that he read. The implied compliment impressed him so much that, from that day on, Asimov took himself seriously as a writer.
  
  Asimov's first published writing was a column he did for his high school newspaper. His first accepted piece was a humorous essay entitled Little Brothers , which appeared in The Boys High Recorder, his high school's semi-annual literary publication, in 1934, and is reprinted in Before the Golden Age. He wrote it in a creative writing class he took that year; a class which almost convinced him to give up writing.
  
  What was his first published story?
  
  After John Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected his short stories Cosmic Corkscrew , Stowaway and This Irrational Planet in June, July, and September of 1938, Marooned Off Vesta was accepted for publication by Amazing Stories in October and was published in the March 1939 edition on January 10, 1939.
  
  What awards did he win for his writing?
  
  Asimov was presented a special Hugo award in 1963 for adding science to science fiction for his essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
  The Foundation Series was awarded the Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966.
  The Gods Themselves won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novel in 1973.
  "The Bicentennial Man was awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novelette in 1977.
  Foundation's Edge was presented with the Hugo for best novel in 1983.
  In 1987, he was awarded the special lifetime Nebula Grandmaster award.
  "Gold was presented with the Hugo for best novelette in 1992.
  I. Asimov: A Memoir won the Hugo Award for best nonfiction in 1995.
  "The Mule , the seventh Foundation story published in Astounding Science Fiction (which appeared in book form as part two of Foundation and Empire), was awarded a 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 at the 1996 WorldCon.
  He was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1997.
  He won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award in 1957 for his book Building Blocks of the Universe.
  He was awarded the Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association in 1960 for his book The Living River.
  He received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society in 1965.
  He was presented with the Westinghouse Science Writing Award in 1967.
  He was awarded fourteen honorary doctorate degrees from various universities.
  
  What is Asimov's last book?
  
  Asimov's publishers have on more than one occasion published the Good Doctor's last book as a marketing ploy. The six titles most often so-described are:
  Asimov Laughs Again (the last book he saw published before his death, published in 1992)
  Forward the Foundation (his last Foundation novel, published in 1993)
  Frontiers II (his last -- to date -- essay collection, published in 1993)
  I. Asimov: A Memoir (his last autobiographical volume, published in 1994)
  Gold (his last -- to date -- anthology of science fiction stories, published in 1995)
  Magic (his last -- to date -- anthology of fantasy stories, published in 1996)
  
  All this, however, does not preclude the possibility of more books by Asimov being published in the future. There are, for example, enough uncollected F SF science essays for one more collection. Additional volumes could be published in the Complete Stories series, as well as other anthologies (e.g., The Honest-to-goodness Complete Robot Stories Book)
  
  All we can say for certain is that with his death, Asimov appears to have stopped writing. He has, by no means, stopped publishing. It is therefore probably meaningless to refer to Asimov's last book in absolute chronological terms.
  
  Of his own work, what were Asimov's favorite and least favorite novels? What were his favorite and least favorite stories?
  
  Asimov's favorite novel was The Gods Themselves, largely because of the middle section, which was both absolutely brilliant and included non-humans and sex. (Asimov had often been accused of being unable to write stories with non-humans or sex and therefore leaving them out of his work.)
  
  His least favorite novel was The Stars Like Dust. It was scheduled for serialization in Galaxy, then edited by Horace Gold. Gold absolutely insisted on including a subplot about the characters ransacking the Galaxy for an ancient document which would utterly revolutionize their political order. In the end, it turns out that the document is gur Pbafgvghgvba bs gur Havgrq Fgngrf (rot-13 coding added as spoiler protection, as if this sub-par novel could be truly spoiled by giving away plot points).
  
  Asimov loathed the subplot and bitterly resented being forced to add it. He offered to his editor at Doubleday, Walter Bradbury, to remove it for the hardcover publication, but Bradbury liked the subplot and insisted it be left in.
  
  Then to add insult to injury, when the first paperback edition was published by Ace, they changed the title (for the worse) and totally gutted the novel, to the point that Asimov could hardly recognize it.
  
  Asimov's three favorite stories were (in order): The Last Question , The Bicentennial Man , and The Ugly Little Boy (all found in The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, among other places).
  
  Among his least favorite stories were:
  
  Black Friar of the Flame (found in The Early Asimov). The story was his first attempt at a future historical and was bounced around from editor to editor until it was finally published. It was revised a half-a-dozen times and rejected ten times in a two-year-period. Asimov was so bitter over the story's history that he swore never again to revise anything more than twice, and he would even fight over having to do a second revision.
  
  (This is his least favorite story among those that most Asimov fans are likely to have ever read. He also implies in The Early Asimov that it is his least favorite story of all time, but this is clarified in In Joy Still Felt.)
  
  His all-time least favorite story was The Portable Star (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1955). He disliked it so much, he never authorized its anthologization. He describes it as a sleazy attempt to cash in on the new interest in sex in sf started by Philip Jose Farmer's 1952 story, The Lovers."
  
  He also published a story, A Woman's Heart in the June 1957 Satellite which he considered so trivial that he never included it in any of his collections.
  
  Asimov's Speech - Answer For Humanity:
  
  
  

Aasemoon edited the summary of Isaac Asimov Friday, April 25 2008.

• A few literary facts about Isaac Asimov from his official website:
  
  When did he start writing?
  
  When he was eleven years old he began writing The Greenville Chums at College, which he planned to be the first book in a series. After writing only eight chapters about the adventures of boys living in a small town, he gave up after recognizing the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about. However he made a very important discovery in the process. After he wrote the first two chapters, he told the story he had written so far to a friend at school during lunchtime. When he stopped, his friend demanded that he continue. When Asimov explained that he had told him all that he had so far, the friend asked to borrow the book when he was finished reading it. Asimov was astonished to discover that his friend thought that he was retelling a story that he read. The implied compliment impressed him so much that, from that day on, Asimov took himself seriously as a writer.
  
  Asimov's first published writing was a column he did for his high school newspaper. His first accepted piece was a humorous essay entitled Little Brothers , which appeared in The Boys High Recorder, his high school's semi-annual literary publication, in 1934, and is reprinted in Before the Golden Age. He wrote it in a creative writing class he took that year; a class which almost convinced him to give up writing.
  
  What was his first published story?
  
  After John Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected his short stories Cosmic Corkscrew , Stowaway and This Irrational Planet in June, July, and September of 1938, Marooned Off Vesta was accepted for publication by Amazing Stories in October and was published in the March 1939 edition on January 10, 1939.
  
  What awards did he win for his writing?
  
  Asimov was presented a special Hugo award in 1963 for adding science to science fiction for his essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
  The Foundation Series was awarded the Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966.
  The Gods Themselves won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novel in 1973.
  "The Bicentennial Man was awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novelette in 1977.
  Foundation's Edge was presented with the Hugo for best novel in 1983.
  In 1987, he was awarded the special lifetime Nebula Grandmaster award.
  "Gold was presented with the Hugo for best novelette in 1992.
  I. Asimov: A Memoir won the Hugo Award for best nonfiction in 1995.
  "The Mule , the seventh Foundation story published in Astounding Science Fiction (which appeared in book form as part two of Foundation and Empire), was awarded a 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 at the 1996 WorldCon.
  He was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1997.
  He won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award in 1957 for his book Building Blocks of the Universe.
  He was awarded the Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association in 1960 for his book The Living River.
  He received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society in 1965.
  He was presented with the Westinghouse Science Writing Award in 1967.
  He was awarded fourteen honorary doctorate degrees from various universities.
  
  What is Asimov's last book?
  
  Asimov's publishers have on more than one occasion published the Good Doctor's last book as a marketing ploy. The six titles most often so-described are:
  Asimov Laughs Again (the last book he saw published before his death, published in 1992)
  Forward the Foundation (his last Foundation novel, published in 1993)
  Frontiers II (his last -- to date -- essay collection, published in 1993)
  I. Asimov: A Memoir (his last autobiographical volume, published in 1994)
  Gold (his last -- to date -- anthology of science fiction stories, published in 1995)
  Magic (his last -- to date -- anthology of fantasy stories, published in 1996)
  
  All this, however, does not preclude the possibility of more books by Asimov being published in the future. There are, for example, enough uncollected F SF science essays for one more collection. Additional volumes could be published in the Complete Stories series, as well as other anthologies (e.g., The Honest-to-goodness Complete Robot Stories Book)
  
  All we can say for certain is that with his death, Asimov appears to have stopped writing. He has, by no means, stopped publishing. It is therefore probably meaningless to refer to Asimov's last book in absolute chronological terms.
  
  Of his own work, what were Asimov's favorite and least favorite novels? What were his favorite and least favorite stories?
  
  Asimov's favorite novel was The Gods Themselves, largely because of the middle section, which was both absolutely brilliant and included non-humans and sex. (Asimov had often been accused of being unable to write stories with non-humans or sex and therefore leaving them out of his work.)
  
  His least favorite novel was The Stars Like Dust. It was scheduled for serialization in Galaxy, then edited by Horace Gold. Gold absolutely insisted on including a subplot about the characters ransacking the Galaxy for an ancient document which would utterly revolutionize their political order. In the end, it turns out that the document is gur Pbafgvghgvba bs gur Havgrq Fgngrf (rot-13 coding added as spoiler protection, as if this sub-par novel could be truly spoiled by giving away plot points).
  
  Asimov loathed the subplot and bitterly resented being forced to add it. He offered to his editor at Doubleday, Walter Bradbury, to remove it for the hardcover publication, but Bradbury liked the subplot and insisted it be left in.
  
  Then to add insult to injury, when the first paperback edition was published by Ace, they changed the title (for the worse) and totally gutted the novel, to the point that Asimov could hardly recognize it.
  
  Asimov's three favorite stories were (in order): The Last Question , The Bicentennial Man , and The Ugly Little Boy (all found in The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, among other places).
  
  Among his least favorite stories were:
  
  Black Friar of the Flame (found in The Early Asimov). The story was his first attempt at a future historical and was bounced around from editor to editor until it was finally published. It was revised a half-a-dozen times and rejected ten times in a two-year-period. Asimov was so bitter over the story's history that he swore never again to revise anything more than twice, and he would even fight over having to do a second revision.
  
  (This is his least favorite story among those that most Asimov fans are likely to have ever read. He also implies in The Early Asimov that it is his least favorite story of all time, but this is clarified in In Joy Still Felt.)
  
  His all-time least favorite story was The Portable Star (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1955). He disliked it so much, he never authorized its anthologization. He describes it as a sleazy attempt to cash in on the new interest in sex in sf started by Philip Jose Farmer's 1952 story, The Lovers."
  
  He also published a story, A Woman's Heart in the June 1957 Satellite which he considered so trivial that he never included it in any of his collections.

Aasemoon edited the summary of Isaac Asimov Friday, April 25 2008.

• A few literary facts about Isaac Asimov from his official website: When did he start writing? When he was eleven years old he began writing The Greenville Chums at College, which he planned to be the first book in a series. After writing only eight chapters about the adventures of boys living in a small town, he gave up after recognizing the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about. However he made a very important discovery in the process. After he wrote the first two chapters, he told the story he had written so far to a friend at school during lunchtime. When he stopped, his friend demanded that he continue. When Asimov explained that he had told him all that he had so far, the friend asked to borrow the book when he was finished reading it. Asimov was astonished to discover that his friend thought that he was retelling a story that he read. The implied compliment impressed him so much that, from that day on, Asimov took himself seriously as a writer. Asimov's first published writing was a column he did for his high school newspaper. His first accepted piece was a humorous essay entitled "Little Brothers", which appeared in The Boys High Recorder, his high school's semi-annual literary publication, in 1934, and is reprinted in Before the Golden Age. He wrote it in a creative writing class he took that year; a class which almost convinced him to give up writing. What was his first published story? After John Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected his short stories "Cosmic Corkscrew", "Stowaway" and "This Irrational Planet" in June, July, and September of 1938, "Marooned Off Vesta" was accepted for publication by Amazing Stories in October and was published in the March 1939 edition on January 10, 1939. What awards did he win for his writing? Asimov was presented a special Hugo award in 1963 for "adding science to science fiction" for his essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The Foundation Series was awarded the Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966. The Gods Themselves won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novel in 1973. "The Bicentennial Man" was awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novelette in 1977. Foundation's Edge was presented with the Hugo for best novel in 1983. In 1987, he was awarded the special lifetime Nebula Grandmaster award. "Gold" was presented with the Hugo for best novelette in 1992. I. Asimov: A Memoir won the Hugo Award for best nonfiction in 1995. "The Mule", the seventh Foundation story published in Astounding Science Fiction (which appeared in book form as part two of Foundation and Empire), was awarded a 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 at the 1996 WorldCon. He was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1997. He won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award in 1957 for his book Building Blocks of the Universe. He was awarded the Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association in 1960 for his book The Living River. He received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society in 1965. He was presented with the Westinghouse Science Writing Award in 1967. He was awarded fourteen honorary doctorate degrees from various universities. What is Asimov's last book? Asimov's publishers have on more than one occasion published the Good Doctor's "last" book as a marketing ploy. The six titles most often so-described are: Asimov Laughs Again (the last book he saw published before his death, published in 1992) Forward the Foundation (his last Foundation novel, published in 1993) Frontiers II (his last -- to date -- essay collection, published in 1993) I. Asimov: A Memoir (his last autobiographical volume, published in 1994) Gold (his last -- to date -- anthology of science fiction stories, published in 1995) Magic (his last -- to date -- anthology of fantasy stories, published in 1996) All this, however, does not preclude the possibility of more books by Asimov being published in the future. There are, for example, enough uncollected F&SF science essays for one more collection. Additional volumes could be published in the "Complete Stories" series, as well as other anthologies (e.g., "The Honest-to-goodness Complete Robot Stories Book"). All we can say for certain is that with his death, Asimov appears to have stopped writing. He has, by no means, stopped publishing. It is therefore probably meaningless to refer to Asimov's "last" book in absolute chronological terms. Of his own work, what were Asimov's favorite and least favorite novels? What were his favorite and least favorite stories? Asimov's favorite novel was The Gods Themselves, largely because of the middle section, which was both absolutely brilliant and included non-humans and sex. (Asimov had often been accused of being unable to write stories with non-humans or sex and therefore leaving them out of his work.) His least favorite novel was The Stars Like Dust. It was scheduled for serialization in Galaxy, then edited by Horace Gold. Gold absolutely insisted on including a subplot about the characters ransacking the Galaxy for an ancient document which would utterly revolutionize their political order. In the end, it turns out that the document is "gur Pbafgvghgvba bs gur Havgrq Fgngrf" (rot-13 coding added as spoiler protection, as if this sub-par novel could be truly "spoiled" by giving away plot points). Asimov loathed the subplot and bitterly resented being forced to add it. He offered to his editor at Doubleday, Walter Bradbury, to remove it for the hardcover publication, but Bradbury liked the subplot and insisted it be left in. Then to add insult to injury, when the first paperback edition was published by Ace, they changed the title (for the worse) and totally gutted the novel, to the point that Asimov could hardly recognize it. Asimov's three favorite stories were (in order): "The Last Question", "The Bicentennial Man", and "The Ugly Little Boy" (all found in The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, among other places). Among his least favorite stories were: "Black Friar of the Flame" (found in The Early Asimov). The story was his first attempt at a "future historical" and was bounced around from editor to editor until it was finally published. It was revised a half-a-dozen times and rejected ten times in a two-year-period. Asimov was so bitter over the story's history that he swore never again to revise anything more than twice, and he would even fight over having to do a second revision. (This is his least favorite story among those that most Asimov fans are likely to have ever read. He also implies in The Early Asimov that it is his least favorite story of all time, but this is clarified in In Joy Still Felt.) His all-time least favorite story was "The Portable Star" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1955). He disliked it so much, he never authorized its anthologization. He describes it as a sleazy attempt to cash in on the new interest in sex in sf started by Philip Jose Farmer's 1952 story, "The Lovers." He also published a story, "A Woman's Heart" in the June 1957 Satellite which he considered so trivial that he never included it in any of his collections.

Aasemoon edited the summary of Isaac Asimov Friday, April 25 2008.

• A few literary facts about Isaac Asimov from his official website: When did he start writing? When he was eleven years old he began writing The Greenville Chums at College, which he planned to be the first book in a series. After writing only eight chapters about the adventures of boys living in a small town, he gave up after recognizing the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about. However he made a very important discovery in the process. After he wrote the first two chapters, he told the story he had written so far to a friend at school during lunchtime. When he stopped, his friend demanded that he continue. When Asimov explained that he had told him all that he had so far, the friend asked to borrow the book when he was finished reading it. Asimov was astonished to discover that his friend thought that he was retelling a story that he read. The implied compliment impressed him so much that, from that day on, Asimov took himself seriously as a writer. Asimov's first published writing was a column he did for his high school newspaper. His first accepted piece was a humorous essay entitled "Little Brothers", which appeared in The Boys High Recorder, his high school's semi-annual literary publication, in 1934, and is reprinted in Before the Golden Age. He wrote it in a creative writing class he took that year; a class which almost convinced him to give up writing. What was his first published story? After John Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected his short stories "Cosmic Corkscrew", "Stowaway" and "This Irrational Planet" in June, July, and September of 1938, "Marooned Off Vesta" was accepted for publication by Amazing Stories in October and was published in the March 1939 edition on January 10, 1939. What awards did he win for his writing? Asimov was presented a special Hugo award in 1963 for "adding science to science fiction" for his essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The Foundation Series was awarded the Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966. The Gods Themselves won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novel in 1973. "The Bicentennial Man" was awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novelette in 1977. Foundation's Edge was presented with the Hugo for best novel in 1983. In 1987, he was awarded the special lifetime Nebula Grandmaster award. "Gold" was presented with the Hugo for best novelette in 1992. I. Asimov: A Memoir won the Hugo Award for best nonfiction in 1995. "The Mule", the seventh Foundation story published in Astounding Science Fiction (which appeared in book form as part two of Foundation and Empire), was awarded a 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 at the 1996 WorldCon. He was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1997. He won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award in 1957 for his book Building Blocks of the Universe. He was awarded the Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association in 1960 for his book The Living River. He received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society in 1965. He was presented with the Westinghouse Science Writing Award in 1967. He was awarded fourteen honorary doctorate degrees from various universities. What is Asimov's last book? Asimov's publishers have on more than one occasion published the Good Doctor's "last" book as a marketing ploy. The six titles most often so-described are: Asimov Laughs Again (the last book he saw published before his death, published in 1992) Forward the Foundation (his last Foundation novel, published in 1993) Frontiers II (his last -- to date -- essay collection, published in 1993) I. Asimov: A Memoir (his last autobiographical volume, published in 1994) Gold (his last -- to date -- anthology of science fiction stories, published in 1995) Magic (his last -- to date -- anthology of fantasy stories, published in 1996) All this, however, does not preclude the possibility of more books by Asimov being published in the future. There are, for example, enough uncollected F&SF science essays for one more collection. Additional volumes could be published in the "Complete Stories" series, as well as other anthologies (e.g., "The Honest-to-goodness Complete Robot Stories Book"). All we can say for certain is that with his death, Asimov appears to have stopped writing. He has, by no means, stopped publishing. It is therefore probably meaningless to refer to Asimov's "last" book in absolute chronological terms. Of his own work, what were Asimov's favorite and least favorite novels? What were his favorite and least favorite stories? Asimov's favorite novel was The Gods Themselves, largely because of the middle section, which was both absolutely brilliant and included non-humans and sex. (Asimov had often been accused of being unable to write stories with non-humans or sex and therefore leaving them out of his work.) His least favorite novel was The Stars Like Dust. It was scheduled for serialization in Galaxy, then edited by Horace Gold. Gold absolutely insisted on including a subplot about the characters ransacking the Galaxy for an ancient document which would utterly revolutionize their political order. In the end, it turns out that the document is "gur Pbafgvghgvba bs gur Havgrq Fgngrf" (rot-13 coding added as spoiler protection, as if this sub-par novel could be truly "spoiled" by giving away plot points). Asimov loathed the subplot and bitterly resented being forced to add it. He offered to his editor at Doubleday, Walter Bradbury, to remove it for the hardcover publication, but Bradbury liked the subplot and insisted it be left in. Then to add insult to injury, when the first paperback edition was published by Ace, they changed the title (for the worse) and totally gutted the novel, to the point that Asimov could hardly recognize it. Asimov's three favorite stories were (in order): "The Last Question", "The Bicentennial Man", and "The Ugly Little Boy" (all found in The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, among other places). Among his least favorite stories were: "Black Friar of the Flame" (found in The Early Asimov). The story was his first attempt at a "future historical" and was bounced around from editor to editor until it was finally published. It was revised a half-a-dozen times and rejected ten times in a two-year-period. Asimov was so bitter over the story's history that he swore never again to revise anything more than twice, and he would even fight over having to do a second revision. (This is his least favorite story among those that most Asimov fans are likely to have ever read. He also implies in The Early Asimov that it is his least favorite story of all time, but this is clarified in In Joy Still Felt.) His all-time least favorite story was "The Portable Star" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1955). He disliked it so much, he never authorized its anthologization. He describes it as a sleazy attempt to cash in on the new interest in sex in sf started by Philip Jose Farmer's 1952 story, "The Lovers." He also published a story, "A Woman's Heart" in the June 1957 Satellite which he considered so trivial that he never included it in any of his collections.

Aasemoon edited the summary of Isaac Asimov Friday, April 25 2008.

• A few literary facts about Isaac Asimov from his official website: When did he start writing? When he was eleven years old he began writing The Greenville Chums at College, which he planned to be the first book in a series. After writing only eight chapters about the adventures of boys living in a small town, he gave up after recognizing the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about. However he made a very important discovery in the process. After he wrote the first two chapters, he told the story he had written so far to a friend at school during lunchtime. When he stopped, his friend demanded that he continue. When Asimov explained that he had told him all that he had so far, the friend asked to borrow the book when he was finished reading it. Asimov was astonished to discover that his friend thought that he was retelling a story that he read. The implied compliment impressed him so much that, from that day on, Asimov took himself seriously as a writer. Asimov's first published writing was a column he did for his high school newspaper. His first accepted piece was a humorous essay entitled "Little Brothers", which appeared in The Boys High Recorder, his high school's semi-annual literary publication, in 1934, and is reprinted in Before the Golden Age. He wrote it in a creative writing class he took that year; a class which almost convinced him to give up writing. What was his first published story? After John Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected his short stories "Cosmic Corkscrew", "Stowaway" and "This Irrational Planet" in June, July, and September of 1938, "Marooned Off Vesta" was accepted for publication by Amazing Stories in October and was published in the March 1939 edition on January 10, 1939. What awards did he win for his writing? Asimov was presented a special Hugo award in 1963 for "adding science to science fiction" for his essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The Foundation Series was awarded the Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966. The Gods Themselves won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novel in 1973. "The Bicentennial Man" was awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for best novelette in 1977. Foundation's Edge was presented with the Hugo for best novel in 1983. In 1987, he was awarded the special lifetime Nebula Grandmaster award. "Gold" was presented with the Hugo for best novelette in 1992. I. Asimov: A Memoir won the Hugo Award for best nonfiction in 1995. "The Mule", the seventh Foundation story published in Astounding Science Fiction (which appeared in book form as part two of Foundation and Empire), was awarded a 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 at the 1996 WorldCon. He was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1997. He won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award in 1957 for his book Building Blocks of the Universe. He was awarded the Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association in 1960 for his book The Living River. He received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society in 1965. He was presented with the Westinghouse Science Writing Award in 1967. He was awarded fourteen honorary doctorate degrees from various universities. What is Asimov's last book? Asimov's publishers have on more than one occasion published the Good Doctor's "last" book as a marketing ploy. The six titles most often so-described are: Asimov Laughs Again (the last book he saw published before his death, published in 1992) Forward the Foundation (his last Foundation novel, published in 1993) Frontiers II (his last -- to date -- essay collection, published in 1993) I. Asimov: A Memoir (his last autobiographical volume, published in 1994) Gold (his last -- to date -- anthology of science fiction stories, published in 1995) Magic (his last -- to date -- anthology of fantasy stories, published in 1996) All this, however, does not preclude the possibility of more books by Asimov being published in the future. There are, for example, enough uncollected F&SF science essays for one more collection. Additional volumes could be published in the "Complete Stories" series, as well as other anthologies (e.g., "The Honest-to-goodness Complete Robot Stories Book"). All we can say for certain is that with his death, Asimov appears to have stopped writing. He has, by no means, stopped publishing. It is therefore probably meaningless to refer to Asimov's "last" book in absolute chronological terms. Of his own work, what were Asimov's favorite and least favorite novels? What were his favorite and least favorite stories? Asimov's favorite novel was The Gods Themselves, largely because of the middle section, which was both absolutely brilliant and included non-humans and sex. (Asimov had often been accused of being unable to write stories with non-humans or sex and therefore leaving them out of his work.) His least favorite novel was The Stars Like Dust. It was scheduled for serialization in Galaxy, then edited by Horace Gold. Gold absolutely insisted on including a subplot about the characters ransacking the Galaxy for an ancient document which would utterly revolutionize their political order. In the end, it turns out that the document is "gur Pbafgvghgvba bs gur Havgrq Fgngrf" (rot-13 coding added as spoiler protection, as if this sub-par novel could be truly "spoiled" by giving away plot points). Asimov loathed the subplot and bitterly resented being forced to add it. He offered to his editor at Doubleday, Walter Bradbury, to remove it for the hardcover publication, but Bradbury liked the subplot and insisted it be left in. Then to add insult to injury, when the first paperback edition was published by Ace, they changed the title (for the worse) and totally gutted the novel, to the point that Asimov could hardly recognize it. Asimov's three favorite stories were (in order): "The Last Question", "The Bicentennial Man", and "The Ugly Little Boy" (all found in The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, among other places). Among his least favorite stories were: "Black Friar of the Flame" (found in The Early Asimov). The story was his first attempt at a "future historical" and was bounced around from editor to editor until it was finally published. It was revised a half-a-dozen times and rejected ten times in a two-year-period. Asimov was so bitter over the story's history that he swore never again to revise anything more than twice, and he would even fight over having to do a second revision. (This is his least favorite story among those that most Asimov fans are likely to have ever read. He also implies in The Early Asimov that it is his least favorite story of all time, but this is clarified in In Joy Still Felt.) His all-time least favorite story was "The Portable Star" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1955). He disliked it so much, he never authorized its anthologization. He describes it as a sleazy attempt to cash in on the new interest in sex in sf started by Philip Jose Farmer's 1952 story, "The Lovers." He also published a story, "A Woman's Heart" in the June 1957 Satellite which he considered so trivial that he never included it in any of his collections.

Aasemoon edited the bio of Isaac Asimov Friday, April 25 2008.

Aasemoon changed 's author image Thursday, April 24 2008.