In the spring of 2026, the journal Individuum was published Diary Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was Asimov who invented the Three Laws of Robotics, which – due to the rapid development of artificial intelligence – is becoming more important every year. The book “I Am Asimov” was published in 1994 in English, two years after the writer’s death. This is his third memoir, and it covers Asimov’s entire life. The British edition of The Guardian wrote: “Azimov’s last memoir is his most confessional. This is an inspiring monologue about science, writing and life.” “Medusa” explores how Asimov shaped the science fiction genre into what it is today and what enabled him to become one of the most prolific writers in the United States.
Isaac Asimov was born on January 2, 1920, in Soviet Russia, but moved with his parents to the United States when he was three years old. He remembered almost nothing about his early years in Russia, spoke no Russian and was unfamiliar with Russian culture. As he put it, he was “thoroughly American in his upbringing and behaviour.” The most convincing evidence of this is his biography.
Take, for example, his political views. Asimov recalls that in his youth, social, economic, and political power in the United States belonged to a conservative elite—mostly of northwestern European origin. Among other things, they despised the Jews. Therefore, Asimov admits: “I, a Jew, had to become a liberal.”
Asimov was the first major American writer with an immigrant background who did not mainly use pseudonyms in the spirit of “John Jones.” In the world of popular literature, Jewish writers helped not to hide their origins.
But Asimov’s Jewish origin did not change the main thing: he was primarily interested in American problems. Throughout the book, he details his political disagreements with other Jews, especially American Jews. “I knew Jews who complained endlessly about anti-Semitism [в США]But when they turned to the subject of African Americans, they turned to a petty Hitler without batting an eyelid. When I brought this matter to their attention and objected strongly, they attacked me angrily.”
Asimov’s Americanness is also evident in more worldly traits. Let’s say his vanity is a topic that was much discussed during the writer’s life and after his death. Asimov does not ignore this – the first chapter of his autobiography is called “The Child Prodigy?” But he does not forget to make fun of himself, and that is why this book will definitely make you laugh, more than once.
Asimov is incredibly honest. He recalls without embellishment how his mother could beat him (unlike his father), how he knew nothing about sex before his first marriage (unlike ancient myths), how he despised his mother-in-law (unlike his father-in-law), how he married unsuccessfully the first time (unlike the second), and how he felt ashamed of his son (unlike the daughter he had always adored).
The writer’s American character is also evident in his passion for the strangest American closed clubs and societies of which he has been a member – ever since.
His love for cruises is also indicative. The man devoted an entire chapter of his autobiography to detailing the giant ships he went on cruises, the food he tasted there, and the celebrities he met there.
But the most important thing in Asimov’s resume is his work-life balance. Or rather, the complete replacement of life with work – simply for the reason that you will not achieve success in the United States.
Asimov worked almost without interruption – from childhood until his last days – and could not imagine any other life. His father’s store in Brooklyn, where he stood behind the cash register as a child and then as a teenager. A science laboratory in Boston, where he worked part-time to leave time for writing. Public appearances throughout America remained an important source of income for him until the end of his life. Newspaper and magazine texts – first in marginal publications, then in prestigious publications – which he published regularly during the last twenty years of his life. Finally, books.
While still in his father’s shop, Asimov became addicted to “low-quality writing”—science fiction, which was considered “the most frivolous and disrespectful reading” at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. Then, when it came time to become a writer, he chose this genre. He did not invent romantic tales and frankly admitted that he wrote science fiction for two reasons: for fun and to make money. This combination gave amazing results.
For example, the idea for Asimov’s famous story “Nightfall” came about when he met his then editor, John Campbell, in 1941. The editor read him part of the work of American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, said he disagreed with it, and asked Asimov to write a rebuttal story. “For me it was just another script,” he says. We say that the novel “The Coming of Night” is one of the best stories in the history of literature in the twentieth century.
Asimov tried to make money from literature. To avoid counting the bills in his pocket on his way to the store, to move out of proletarian Brooklyn to bohemian Manhattan, to leave an inheritance to his wife and children, to eat Peking duck at his favorite Chinese restaurant whenever he wanted. For this reason, he worked without interruption – sometimes writing thirteen books a year.
He became one of the most prolific authors in American history, publishing more than 500 books in genres ranging from science fiction to Shakespearean guides, and from nonfiction to crime story collections. In his autobiography, he returns again and again to the theme of literary fertility—understandably so, despite high-profile critics who have reproached him for chart madness.
Asimov’s fertility had another important influence. In essence, he did for science fiction what Hulk Hogan did for wrestling: played a major role in turning the fringe genre into a profitable industry.
Until the 1940s, science fiction was viewed as cheap literature. But after World War II everything changed. “Imagination suddenly became respectable,” Asimov recalls. – First – the atomic bomb, then – the German rockets that revived hope in space travel, then – the electronic computer. All these are the main themes of science fiction, and in the post-war period they became reality.
Other major science fiction writers (Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke) also wrote on these topics, but none of them appeared much on television or in newspapers, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did not want to meet any of them in person, and none of them advised the creators of Star Trek and It did not appear on the BBCExplaining the ownership laws of robots.
Asimov helped turn science fiction into a major literary industry that continues to this day. An industry with its own prestigious awards, its market, great fees, a wide audience without age restrictions, myths and legends.
Asimov’s autobiography is, first and foremost, a story about why a book becomes a book. When he talks about his craft, his text transcends national or ethnic categories and takes on a global dimension. It begins a conversation about why people read and write books at all. This conversation gives his text a unique depth.
Asimov began writing this book in 1990, when his health was increasingly failing: he had already suffered a heart attack and heart surgery, including a triple bypass. But health problems continued, and he increasingly spent his days either in hospital or at home in bed. He understood that he would not live long, and then he had a dream that he remembered in all its details: that he died, he found himself in heaven, he met an angel, and after an awkward conversation, he asked him for a typewriter. “The meaning of this dream is clear to me,” says Asimov. “For me, heaven is writing, and I’ve spent more than half a century in heaven and I’ve always known that.” In other words, a writer’s paradise lasts as long as he or she writes.
Another important example. One day, his first wife learned that he was working on his hundredth book, and she said to him in her heart:
– What’s the use of this? When you die, you will understand how much you missed in life, how many good things you could have saved with your money, and what you did not pay attention to while you were madly writing more and more books. What is the benefit of these hundred books?
Asimov replied:
“When I die, come closer to hear my dying words.” I’ll say: “What a pity! Only a hundred!”
Why don’t you remember Dmitry Prigov here? When you are in an episode of a cult TV show “School of Scandals” Asked why he wrote 35 thousand poems, Dmitry Alexandrovich answered that he had a feeling that he existed above an abyss and in order to stay above this abyss, he needed to constantly throw something onto it – for example, poetry.
It can be assumed that both Isaac Asimov’s bibliography, which numbers more than 500 books, and his autobiography, In a Race with Death, are evidence that writers often write books so as not to fall into the metaphorical abyss. Other words of Asimov speak about this: “Writing for me, as I said above, is perfect solace.”
Alex Mesrobov