The books and the wall
Yesterday, I published an essay titled “Asimov’s Empire, Asimov’s Wall” on the website Public Books, in which I discuss Isaac Asimov’s history of groping and engaging in other forms of unwanted touching with women at conventions, in the workplace, and in private over the course of many decades. It’s a piece that I’ve had in mind for a long time, and I’ve come to think of it as a lost chapter of Astounding, which I might well have included in the book if I had delivered the final draft a few months later than I actually did. (I’m also very glad that the article includes the image reproduced above, which I found after going through thousands of photos in the Jay Kay Klein archive.) The response online so far has been overwhelming, including numerous firsthand accounts of his behavior, and I hope it leads to more stories about Asimov, as well as others. There’s a lot that I deliberately didn’t cover here, and it deserves to be taken further in the right hands.
Read it from FB. Thanks for publishing this article
DGM
January 8, 2020 at 7:34 am
That was a really good piece of writing. Congratulations on getting it published. Maybe it can be included in a future printing of your book Astounding.
Benjamin David Steele
January 8, 2020 at 8:36 am
I hope it will be!
nevalalee
January 8, 2020 at 10:11 am
I saw Mr. Asimov behave in this manner during the 1970s.
W. Master
January 9, 2020 at 11:50 am
This is one of the best articles I’ve ever read. Thank you so much for writing it. The section about his behavior undermining creative young women and discouraging their continued engagement is such an important lesson for everyday life and every professional field. It feels too familiar.
Aaron Miller
January 9, 2020 at 9:15 pm
Thanks so much!
nevalalee
January 9, 2020 at 9:24 pm
I can’t Raymond F. Jones’s Noise Level in paperback anywhere. Is it only available as an e-book?
Shawn Vandegenachte
March 8, 2020 at 9:37 am
Good question! It hasn’t been as widely anthologized or reprinted as you might expect:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?55972
Your best bet might be to find it in a used copy of The Astounding/Analog Reader, a great collection, which is where I first read it.
nevalalee
March 8, 2020 at 12:16 pm
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Horo
May 28, 2020 at 2:09 pm
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Christine
November 1, 2020 at 2:25 pm