'Foundation THE STORY BEHIND THE “FOUNDATION”\r'

'By ISAAC ASIMOV\r\nThe date was August 1, 1941. World struggle II had been raging for two courses. France had f every last(predicate)en, the Battle of Britain had been fought, and the Soviet Union had just been invaded by Nazi Germany. The shelling of Pearl Harbor was quartet months in the future.\r\n exclusively on that day, with Europe in flames, and the evil fill in of Adolf Hitler app arently f exclusivelying over all the world, what was mainly on my mind was a meeting toward which I was hastening.\r\nI was 21 geezerhood old, a fine-tune student in chemistry at capital of S come inh Carolina University, and I had been writing science fabrication professionally for 3 years. In that clipping, I had change fin stories to John Campbell, editor of astonish, and the fifth story, â€Å"Nightfall,” was ab go forth to come in in the September 1941 issue of the magazine. I had an fitting to see Mr. Campbell to tell him the plot of a smart story I was planning to w rite, and the catch was that I had no plot in mind, non the disembowel of iodin.\r\nI thitherfore tried a cheat I some whiles use. I opened a leger at random and spate up free association, graduation with whatalways I premier saw. The book I had with me was a collection of the gigabit and Sullivan plays. I happened to open it to the picture of the Fairy fairy of lolanthe throwing herself at the feet of Private Willis. I thought of soldiers, of soldiery empires, of the Roman empire of a astronomical Empire aha!\r\nWhy shouldnt I write of the fall of the astronomical Empire and of the return of feudalism, pen from the viewpoint of individual in the secure days of the arcminute Galactic Empire? after(prenominal) all, I had order Gibbons turn and Fall of the Roman Empire not once, entirely twice.\r\nI was bubbling over by the time I got to Campbells, and my enthusiasm must stand been contracting for Campbell blazed up as I had n forever seen him do. In the course o f an hour we built up the idea of a abundant consequent publication of connected stories that were to take in in intricate detail with the thousand-year period mingled with the First and Second Galactic Empires. This was to be light by the science of psycho record, which Campbell and I thrashed off in the midst of us.\r\nOn August 11, 1941, at that placefore, I began the story of that interregnum and called it â€Å" initiation.” In it, I described how the psychohistorian, Hari Seldon, established a equate of sterns at opposite exterminates of the Universe chthonic such(prenominal)(prenominal) circumstances as to make for certain that the forces of history would bring well-nigh the plunk for Empire after(prenominal) integrity thousand years instead of the xxx thousand that would be required former(a)wise.\r\nThe story was submitted on September 8 and, to make sure that Campbell real meant what he said ab knocked out(p) a serial publication, I force outed à ¢â‚¬Å" cornerst maven” on a cliff-hanger. Thus, it seemed to me, he would be forced to buy a uphold story.\r\nHowever, when I started the second story (on October 24), I effect that I had outsmarted myself. I quickly wrote myself into an impasse, and the rear serial publication would save died an ignominious death had I not had a conversation with Fred Pohl on November 2 (on the Brooklyn Bridge, as it happened). I dont regard as what Fred actually said, barely, whatever it was, it pulled me out of the hole.\r\nâ€Å"foot” appeared in the May 1942 issue of Astounding and the succeeding story, â€Å"Bridle and S tallyle,” in the June 1942 issue.\r\nAfter that there was only the routine trouble of writing the stories. cultivationed the remainder of the decade, John Campbell kept my nose to the grindstone and do sure he got supernumerary Foundation stories.\r\nâ€Å"The monolithic and the Little” was in the August 1944 Astounding, â€Å"The Wedgeâ € in the October 1944 issue, and â€Å"Dead Hand” in the April 1945 issue. (These stories were written maculation I was craping at the Navy special K in Philadelphia.)\r\nOn January 26, 1945, I began â€Å"The Mule,” my personal preferent among the Foundation stories, and the longest only, for it was 50,000 words. It was printed as a two-part serial (the very stolon serial I was ever responsible for) in the November and December 1945 issues. By the time the second part appeared I was in the army.\r\nAfter I got out of the army, I wrote â€Å"Now You s determination off It” which appeared in the January 1948 issue. By this time, though, I had grown well-worn of the Foundation stories so I tried to end them by setting up, and solving, the mystery of the location of the Second Foundation. Campbell would present none of that, however. He forced me to deepen the ending, and made me promise I would do one more(prenominal) than Foundation story.\r\nWel l, Campbell was the kind of editor who could not be denied, so I wrote one more Foundation story, vowing to myself that it would be the last. I called it â€Å"?And Now You Dont,” and it appeared as a ternion-part serial in the November 1949, December 1949, and January 1950 issues of Astounding.\r\nBy hencece, I was on the biochemistry faculty of Boston University crop of Medicine, my first book had just been publish, and I was compulsive to move on to new things. I had spend eight years on the Foundation, written nine-spot stories with a total of about 220,000 words. My total fee for the series came to $3,641 and that seemed enough. The Foundation was over and done with, as far as I was concerned.\r\nIn 1950, however, hardback science fiction was just coming into existence. I had no objection to progress toing a undersize more bills by having the Foundation series reprinted in book form. I offered the series to Doubleday (which had already promulgated a science-f iction act by me, and which had contracted for an other) and to Little-Brown, entirely two rejected it. In that year, though, a small publishing firm, gnome pinch, was beginning to be active, and it was ready to do the Foundation series as collar books.\r\nThe publisher of Gnome felt, however, that the series began too abruptly. He persuaded me to write a small Foundation story, one that would serve as an introductory section to the first book (so that the first part of the Foundation series was the last written).\r\nIn 1951, the Gnome Press form of Foundation was publish, containing the introduction and the first four stories of the series. In 1952, Foundation and Empire appeared, with the fifth and sixth stories; and in 1953, Second Foundation appeared, with the seventh and eighth stories. The three books together came to be called The Foundation Trilogy.\r\nThe mere event of the existence of the Trilogy pleased me, but Gnome Press did not fill the financial clout or the publishing knowhow to get the books distributed properly, so that few copies were sold and fewer fluid stipendiary me royalties. (Nowadays, copies of first editions of those Gnome Press books sell at $50 a copy and up?but I still get no royalties from them.)\r\nAce Books did put out paperback editions of Foundation and of Foundation and Empire, but they changed the prenomens, and utilize cut versions. Any money that was involved was paid to Gnome Press and I didnt see ofttimes of that. In the first decade of the existence of The Foundation Trilogy it may have earned something want $1500 total.\r\nAnd yet there was some foreign interest. In other(a) 1961, Timothy Seldes, who was then my editor at Doubleday, told me that Doubleday had real a request for the Portuguese rights for the Foundation series and, since they werent Doubleday books, he was passing them on to me. I sighed and said, â€Å"The heck with it, Tim. I dont get royalties on those books.”\r\nSeldes wa s horrified, and instantly set about getting the books away from Gnome Press so that Doubleday could publish them instead. He paid no guardianship to my loudly expressed fears that Doubleday â€Å"would lose its shirt on them.” In August 1961 an agreement was reached and the Foundation books became Doubleday property. Whats more, Avon Books, which had published a paperback version of Second Foundation, set about obtaining the rights to all three from Doubleday, and put out nice editions.\r\nFrom that moment on, the Foundation books took off and began to earn increasing royalties. They have sold well and steadily, both in hardcover and softcover, for two decades so far. Increasingly, the earn I received from the readers spoke of them in senior high school praise. They received more attention than all my other books put together.\r\nDoubleday as well published an omnibus volume, The Foundation Trilogy, for its Science Fiction Book confederation. That omnibus volume has bee n continuously featured by the Book Club for over twenty years.\r\nMatters reached a climax in 1966. The fans organizing the World Science Fiction Convention for that year (to be held in Cleveland) decided to award a Hugo for the best all-time series, where the series, to qualify, had to consist of at to the lowest degree three connected novels. It was the first time such a category had been set up, nor has it been repeated since. The Foundation series was nominated, and I felt that was going to have to be glory enough for me, since I was sure that Tolkiens â€Å"Lord of the Rings” would win.\r\nIt didnt. The Foundation series won, and the Hugo I received for it has been sitting on my bookcase in the livingroom ever since.\r\nIn among all this litany of advantage, both in money and in fame, there was one annoying side-effect. Readers couldnt encourage but notice that the books of the Foundation series cover only three hundred-plus years of the thousand-year hiatus between Empires. That meant the Foundation series â€Å"wasnt make outed.” I got innumerable letter from readers who asked me to finish it, from others who demanded I finish it, and still others who imperil dire vengeance if I didnt finish it. worsened yet, various editors at Doubleday over the years have pointed out that it might be wise to finish it.\r\nIt was flattering, of course, but irritating as well. Years had passed, then decades. Back in the 1940s, I had been in a Foundation-writing mood. Now I wasnt. Starting in the belated 1950s, I had been in a more and more nonfiction-writing mood.\r\nThat didnt mean I was writing no fiction at all. In the 1960s and 1970s, in fact, I wrote two science-fiction novels and a mystery novel, to produce zilch of well over a hundred short stories but about eighty percent of what I wrote was nonfiction.\r\nOne of the most indefatigable nags in the issue of finishing the Foundation series was my trustworthy friend, the vast science-fict ion generator, Lester del Rey. He was constantly telling me I ought to finish the series and was just as constantly suggesting plot devices. He even told Larry Ashmead, then my editor at Doubleday, that if I refused to write more Foundation stories, he, Lester, would be willing to take on the task.\r\nWhen Ashmead mentioned this to me in 1973, I began another Foundation novel out of clear desperation. I called it â€Å"Lightning Rod” and managed to write fourteen pages in the first place other tasks called me away. The fourteen pages were put away and additional years passed.\r\n In January 1977, Cathleen Jordan, then my editor at Doubleday, suggested I do â€Å"an important book a Foundation novel, perhaps.” I said, â€Å"Id rather do an autobiography,” and I did 640,000 words of it.\r\nIn January 1981, Doubleday apparently lost its temper. At least, Hugh ONeill, then my editor there, said, â€Å"Betty Prashker wants to see you,” and marched me into her office. She was then one of the senior editors, and a sweet and gentle person.\r\nShe squandered no time. â€Å"Isaac,” she said, â€Å"you are going to write a novel for us and you are going to shrink a contract to that effect.”\r\nâ€Å"Betty,” I said, â€Å"I am already working on a jumbo science book for Doubleday and I have to retool the Biographical Encyclopedia for Doubleday and â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"It can all wait,” she said. â€Å"You are going to sign a contract to do a novel. Whats more, were going to give you a $50,000 advance.”\r\nThat was a stunner. I dont like large advances. They put me under too great an obligation. My average advance is something like $3,000. Why not? Its all out of royalties.\r\nI said, â€Å"Thats way too frequently money, Betty.”\r\nâ€Å"No, it isnt,” she said.\r\nâ€Å"Doubleday will lose its shirt,” I said.\r\nâ€Å"You keep telling us that all the time. It wont.”\r\nI said , desperately, â€Å"All right. Have the contract read that I dont get any money until I notify you in writing that I have begun the novel.”\r\nâ€Å"Are you crazy?” she said. â€Å"Youll neer start if that clause is in the contract. You get $25,000 on signing the contract, and $25,000 on delivering a completed manuscript.”\r\nâ€Å"But suppose the novel is no good.”\r\nâ€Å"Now youre being silly,” she said, and she ended the conversation.\r\nThat night, fondle LoBrutto, the science-fiction editor at Doubleday called to express his pleasure. â€Å"And remember,” he said, â€Å"that when we say ‘novel we mean ‘science-fiction novel, not anything else. And when we say ‘science-fiction novel, we mean ‘Foundation novel and not anything else.”\r\nOn February 5, 1981, I signed the contract, and at heart the week, the Doubleday accounting system cranked out the check for $25,000.\r\nI moaned that I was not my own master any longer and Hugh ONeill said, cheerfully, â€Å"Thats right, and from now on, were going to call every other week and say, ‘Wheres the manuscript?” (But they didnt. They left me strictly alone, and never even asked for a progress report.)\r\nNearly four months passed while I took care of a vast number of things I had to do, but about the end of May, I picked up my own copy of The Foundation Trilogy and began reading.\r\nI had to. For one thing, I hadnt read the Trilogy in thirty years and while I remembered the familiar plot, I did not remember the details. Besides, before beginning a new Foundation novel I had to immerse myself in the style and atmosphere of the series.\r\nI read it with mounting uneasiness. I kept time lag for something to happen, and nobody ever did. All three volumes, all the nearly quarter of a million words, consisted of thoughts and of conversations. No action. No physical suspense.\r\nWhat was all the fuss about, then? Why did ever yone want more of that stuff? To be sure, I couldnt help but notice that I was turning the pages eagerly, and that I was upset when I undone the book, and that I wanted more, but I was the author, for goodness sake. You couldnt go by me.\r\nI was on the edge of decision making it was all a terrible mistake and of pressure on giving back the money, when (quite by accident, I swear) I came across some sentences by science-fiction writer and critic, James Gunn, who, in connection with the Foundation series, said, â€Å" motion and romance have lower-ranking to do with the success of the Trilogy virtually all the action takes place offstage, and the romance is almost invisible but the stories provide a detective-story fascination with the permutations and reversals of ideas.”\r\nOh, well, if what was needed were â€Å"permutations and reversals of ideas,” then that I could supply. terror receded, and on June 10, 1981, I dug out the fourteen pages I had written more than eight years before and reread them. They sounded good to me. I didnt remember where I had been headed back then, but I had worked out what seemed to me to be a good ending now, and, head start page 15 on that day, I proceeded to work toward the new ending.\r\nI found, to my infinite relief, that I had no trouble getting back into a â€Å"Foundation-mood,” and, tonal from my rereading, I had Foundation history at my finger-tips.\r\n at that place were differences, to be sure:\r\n1) The original stories were written for a science-fiction magazine and were from 7,000 to 50,000 words long, and no more. Consequently, each book in the trilogy had at least two stories and lacked unity. I intended to make the new book a single story.\r\n2) I had a particularly good chance for development since Hugh said, â€Å"Let the book square up its own length, Isaac. We dont mind a long book.” So I planned on 140,000 words, which was nearly three times the length of â€Å"The Mu le,” and this gave me plenty of elbow-room, and I could add all sorts of little touches.\r\n3) The Foundation series had been written at a time when our knowledge of uranology was primitive compared with what it is today. I could take advantage of that and at least mention black holes, for instance. I could also take advantage of electronic computers, which had not been invented until I was half through with the series.\r\nThe novel progressed steadily, and on January 17, 1982, I began final copy. I brought the manuscript to Hugh ONeill in batches, and the unretentive fellow went half-crazy since he insisted on reading it in this broken fashion. On March 25, 1982, I brought in the last bit, and the very next day got the second half of the advance.\r\nI had kept â€Å"Lightning Rod” as my working title all the way through, but Hugh finally said, â€Å"Is there any way of place ‘Foundation into the title, Isaac?” I suggested Foundations at Bay, therefore, and that may be the title that will actually be used. *\r\nYou will have notice that I have said nothing about the plot of the new Foundation novel. Well, naturally. I would rather you buy and read the book.\r\nAnd yet there is one thing I have to acknowledge to you. I generally manage to tie up all the loose ends into one neat little bow-knot at the end of my stories, no matter how complex the plot might be. In this case, however, I noticed that when I was all done, one glaring little item remained unresolved.\r\nI am hoping no one else notices it because it clearly points the way to the continuation of the series.\r\nIt is even viable that I inadvertently gave this away for at the end of the novel, I wrote: â€Å"The End (for now).”\r\nI very much fear that if the novel proves self-made, Doubleday will be at my throat again, as Campbell used to be in the old days. And yet what can I do but hope that the novel is very successful indeed. What a quandary!\r\n*Editors note: The novel was published in October 1982 as Foundations Edge.\r\n'