Review of Yours, Isaac Asimov

There was no one better at writing about science than Isaac Asimov. He wrote hundreds of books on science, history, religion and culture, as well as many excellent works of mystery and science fiction. Such was his popularity that when he died on April 6, 1992, the news made the evening broadcasts and the front pages of newspapers around the world.

He also wrote thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of letters. He corresponded regularly with fellow writers and other prominent people, and he almost never failed to reply to letters from fans. But he also tended to discard those letters. It is something of a fluke that any were saved. But thanks to the Isaac Asimov Collection at Boston University, Asimov's alma mater, and to three years of work by his brother Stanley, we have this volume.

It reveals facets of Isaac Asimov that the public seldom saw. His puckish sense of humor and his facility with limericks were well known, as were many of his philosophical stands; perhaps the principal one is his opposition to superstition and pseudoscience in all their guises. But these letters reveal that Asimov was also humble, where many had seen him as vain and arrogant; generous, where some perceived him as a tightwad; and chaste, where his habit of flirting with women on social occasions led many to believe him a lecher. (Note that there were few sex scenes in his fiction1, because he felt them unnecessary. Note too that he was twice married, and had two children.) Surprisingly for a man who in imagination traversed the spaces between galaxies and the deeps of time, he was also afraid to fly, and generally a homebody. He seldom travelled or took vacations; his favorite activity was sitting at one or another typewriter in his New York residence and putting words on paper.

Of course, Asimov wrote his autobiography (published as two volumes: In Memory Yet Green and In Joy Still Felt) as well as a later memoir. Those books undoubtedly reveal much about his life and personal character. Yet this one is worth reading for its insight into the daily activities of the man who clearly holds the crown as the premier science writer of the twentieth century.

1 Two exceptions are mentioned in this book. The first was called The Sensuous Dirty Old Man and published under the pseudonym "Dr. A". This was a parody of the "how-to-make-love" books then flooding the market. The second was The Gods Themselves. In this science fiction novel, individuals of a three-sexed alien race mate and merge to become one mature individual. The sex scene is thus essential to the plot.
I know of one other case. The hero of The End of Eternity is a virgin until adulthood, when he is finally seduced by a woman who has fallen in love with him. Here, too, the sex is integral to the plot. And it is, of course, tastefully handled.

YOURS, ISAAC ASIMOV: A Lifetime of Letters Stanley Asimov (editor) New York: Doubleday, 1995				Rating: 5.0 High
ISBN-13 978-0-385-47624-9
ISBN 0-385-47624-8	332pp.	SC	$12.95

YOURS, ISAAC ASIMOV

Reviewed 12/16/2000