It's Been a Good Life

New one-volume autobiography spans Asimov's life for the first time!As one of the most gifted and prolific writers of the twentieth century Isaac Asimov became legendary for his inexhaustible creativity wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and talent for explaining complex subjects in clear concise prose. While regaling his readers with an incredible opus of almost five hundred entertaining and illuminating science fiction and nonfiction books he also found time to write a three-volume autobiography. Now these volumes have been condensed into one by Asimov's wife Janet who also shares excerpts from letters he wrote to her. Together these writings provide an intimate portrait of a creative genius whose love of learning and playing with ideas is evident on every page. Reading this autobiography is like sitting down with Isaac Asimov and experiencing his witty engaging and brilliant personality firsthand. We are treated to many marvelous stories about his upbringing in Depression-era Brooklyn his early fascination with the new science fiction pulp magazines the thrill of his first published story the creation of his well-known story Nightfall the genesis of the Foundation series and the evolution of his creative life as a writer. He also reveals his inner thoughts about and experiences with various luminaries in science and science fiction. Above all Asimov's autobiography conveys unbounded enthusiasm for his craft the infectious joy of learning and creating complete intellectual honesty his strong humanist convictions and his infinite fund of good humor and optimism even at the end of his life - all told in the lively clear writing style that was his trademark. Although Janet Jeppson Asimov concludes this work with a shocking revelation about her husband's death the volume is clearly intended as a celebration - as the title suggests - of a wonderful creative life. As a poignant coda to this work Janet has appended one short story that was Isaac's favorite and his 400th essay on this thoughts about science.