Yesterday’s mail brought a copy of Tor’s hardcover reissue of Isaac Asimov’s The Currents of Space, a novel which was originally published in 1952, and which I likely first read in the late ’60s. I haven’t read it since. I have no idea whether it would hold up today, or how differently its story would be perceived by the adult me as opposed to my teen self.

But what I’m thinking most about isn’t any possible changed reaction to the novel, but rather my very different reaction the dedication.

Asimov dedicated the book—

To David, who took his time coming, but was worth waiting for

Isaac’s son David was born in 1951, the year before The Currents of Space was released. When I first read those words, I probably paid them little attention. What teenager would? But I can now imagine Isaac having written the words to that dedication while filled with a father’s pride, and with hope for the future they would have together, not knowing that their relationship would turn out to be a rocky one. (more…)

I interviewed Isaac Asimov on November 7, 1972—Election Day—for my high school alternative newspaper, Kong. I found the tape recently and discovered to my horror that in 1975, I recorded over the first 31 minutes of the interview with a second interview with Steve Gerber. All that remains of my Asimov interview are these concluding five minutes.

Please don’t hate me … but you’re free to hate the 19-year-old me who’d reused the tape!

I’m the one who asks the first complete question about the collection The Early Asimov, and it’s Asimov, of course, who answers. The third voice my high school classmate Eric Shalit.