Remembering Doctor A

[beamjockey]

Today is Isaac Asimov's 87th birthday.

I only met him once, but I read fifty or sixty of his books, so I owe many memories to him.

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I dig your Icon.. Bill and Barry in 3-D!!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

And 87 wouldn't be all that old for him to still be alive, even. Sigh.

I have little idea how many of his books I've read, probably in the same range as you; but it occurs to me that he may be the author that I've read the *smallest* percentage of the works of (that I've read any of at all), because his output was so high (including fiction and non-fiction together).

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

The first Asimov I ever read was his novelization of FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Yeah, Raquel Welch turned me on to Isaac Asimov.

[jeff-duntemann.livejournal.com]

Something munged the text in my comment above. The text in the second paragraph should read:

"I think I became as good a tech writer as I did because I devoured his countless collections of science essays when I was young. His science fiction is pretty damned good. His science writing is without equal."

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Sorry, in attempting to fix this I messed up and deleted the original comment.

Jeff's corrected text should read:

I met him the same day (and at the same event) that you met him (LAcon '84) and he left an indelible impression.

I think I became as good a tech writer as I did because I devoured his countless collections of science essays when I was young. His science fiction is pretty damned good. His science writing is without equal.

(It was Noreascon Two in Boston in 1980, by the way.)

[theengineer.livejournal.com]

I would have *loved* to have met him.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing him at the first worldcon I ever attended, Boston's in 1980. It took a few worldcons before I could get him to autograph anything because the lines were always so darn long. At that first worldcon's autograph session, I eventually noticed that the person right behind me was writer Patricia McKillip. While I was chatting with her, her fellow writer Ellen Kushner showed up and, upon seeing my French edition of I, Robot, with its photo of a young Asimov, exclaimed "He looks like Clark Kent!"

Come to think of it, was the Good Doctor ever seen anywhere near kryptonite?