ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601050078
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY PAUL DELLINGER
YOURS, ISAAC ASIMOV. Edited by Stanley Asimov. Doubleday. $24.95.
Subtitled ``A Lifetime of Letters,'' this 300-page-plus compilation of Isaac Asimov's notes and postcards to hundreds of correspondents is obviously a labor of love.
All that Asimov ever wanted to be was a writer, and in that he was fabulously successful. More than 470 books bear his name, ranging from his early science fiction to explanations of science and technology for the layman as well as side trips into history, Shakespeare, religion and lecherous limericks.
In a writing career launched with a magazine short story in 1939 and continuing beyond his death in 1992 (he had books of autobiography, humor, fiction and science in the publishing pipeline), he achieved a personal style which made it seem as though he were speaking directly to individual readers. Many responded with letters totaling more than 90,000, and, incredibly, Asimov answered an estimated 90 percent of them.
Asimov's younger brother, Stanley, after 40 years at Newsday where he advanced to vice president for editorial administration, decided that a nice retirement project would be to edit a volume of Isaac's many letters to fans, fellow authors, scientists, actors and politicians - the list seemed endless. Stanley Asimov admits he never realized the extent of the project until he was into it.
He arranged the letter excerpts by topic and provided brief introductions where needed. The result is one last glimpse into the multi-faceted mind of Isaac Asimov, reflecting his sense of humor, self-doubts and triumphs, warmth and self-deprecating wit, insights into the future and uncompromising atheism even as he sensed his own impending demise.
Sadly, Stanley Asimov died in 1995, after spending his final two years on this book. But the brothers Asimov left readers with one last literary legacy, one which does credit to them both.
Paul Dellinger covers Pulaski| County and Southwest Virginia for this paper.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Isaac Asimov promoting a game he created in 1988.|by CNB