Literature / Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories

aka: The Complete Stories

Made up of two volumes, these collections were intended to be an exhaustive series of Isaac Asimov's fiction. Volume 1 was first printed in 1990, and Volume 2 was first printed in 1992. No additional volumes have been created yet.

Three previous collections, Earth is Room Enough, Nine Tomorrows and Nightfall and Other Stories, were wholly republished to form the first volume (except for the preface of each story from Nightfall and Other Stories). No collections were wholly republished for volume two.

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Works collected in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories:

Volume 1

• "The Dead Past" (1956)
• "The Foundation of S.F. Success" (1954)
• Franchise (1955)
• "Gimmicks Three" (1956)
• "Kid Stuff" (1953)
• "The Watery Place" (1956)
• "Living Space" (1956)
• "The Message" (1956)
• "Satisfaction Guaranteed" (1951)
• "Hell-Fire" (1956)
• "The Last Trump" (1955)
• "The Fun They Had" (1951)
• "Jokester" (1956)
• "The Immortal Bard" (1954)
• "Someday" (1956)
• "The Author's Ordeal" (1957)
• "Dreaming is a Private Thing" (1955)
• "Profession" (1957)
• "The Feeling of Power" (1958)
• "The Dying Night" (1956)
• "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda" (1957)
• "The Gentle Vultures" (1957)
• "All the Troubles of the World" (1958)
• "Spell My Name with an S" (1958)
• "The Last Question" (1956)
• "The Ugly Little Boy" (1958)
• "Nightfall (1941)"
• "Green Patches" (1950)
• "Hostess" (1951)
• "Breeds There a Man...?" (1951)
• "C-Chute" (1951)
• "In a Good Cause—" (1951)
• "What If— (1952)"
• "Sally" (1953)
• "Flies" (1953)
• "Nobody Here But—" (1953)
• "It's Such a Beautiful Day" (1955)
• "Strikebreaker" (1957)
• "Insert Knob A in Hole B" (1957)
• "The Up-to-Date Sorcerer" (1958)
• "Unto the Fourth Generation" (1959)
• "What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1961)
• "The Machine That Won the War" (1961)
• "My Son, the Physicist" (1962)
• "Eyes Do More Than See" (1965)
• "Segregationist" (1967)
• "I Just Make Them Up, See!" (1958)
• "Rejection Slips" (1959)

Volume 2

• "Not Final!" (1941)
• "The Hazing" (1942)
• "Death Sentence" (1943)
• "Blind Alley" (1945)
• "Evidence" (1946)
• "The Red Queens Race" (1949)
• "Day Of The Hunters" (1950)
• "The Deep" (1952)
• "The Martian Way" (1952)
• "The Monkeys Finger" (1953)
• "The Singing Bell" (1955)
• "The Talking Stone" (1955)
• "Each An Explorer" (1956)
• "Let's Get Together" (1957)
• "Pate De Foie Gras" (1956)
• "Galley Slave" (1957)
• "Lenny" (1958)
• "A Loint Of Paw" (1957)
• "A Statue For Father" (1959)
• "Anniversary" (1959)
• "Obituary" (1959)
• "Rain Rain Go Away" (1959)
• "Star Light" (1962)
• "Founding Father" (1965)
• "The Key" (1966)
• "The Billiard Ball" (1967)
• "Exile To Hell" (1968)
• "Key Item" (1968)
• "Feminine Intuition" (1969)
• "The Greatest Asset" (1972)
• "Mirror Image" (1972)
• "Take A Match" (1972)
• "Light Verse" (1973)
• "Stranger in Paradise" (1974)
• "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him" (1974)
• "The Life And Times Of Multivac" (1975)
• "The Bicentennial Man" (1976)
• "Marching In" (1976)
• "Old Fashioned" (1976)
• "The Tercentenary Incident" (1976)

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Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories contains examples of:

• Anthology: Dr Asimov, in conjunction with Doubleday, began this series with the intent of publishing all of the short fiction he had ever published. The introduction implies the goal of republishing his novels under this title as well.
• Billed Above the Title: Regardless of which title or volume you're looking at, "Isaac Asimov" is sized at one-third of the cover, always making it larger than the rest of the title.
• Divided for Publication: The UK printing by Harper Collins chose to split Volume 1 into their own volumes 1 and 2, without publishing additional volumes for Volume 2 of this collection. The Harper Collins volume 1 ends with "The Last Question" and volume 2 starts with "The Ugly Little Boy".
• Doorstopper:
  • Volume 1 contains over 600 pages, and just under 50 stories/poems.
  • Volume 2 is slightly smaller, with over 500 pages, and only 40 stories/poems.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The Doubleday Volume 1 has two robots, each holding an hourglass, facing each other from opposite sides of the cover.
• Multi-Volume Work: When the first volume was published, it wasn't certain how many volumes it would take to republish all of Dr Asimov's short fiction. The series, being obviously incomplete, may stay that way due to Dr Asimov's death the same year Volume 2 was published.
• Numbered Sequels: The title for each collection is The Complete Stories, while Volume 1 and Volume 2 are subtitles to distinguish between volumes.
• Title 1: Given the popularity of Dr Asimov, it was considered a good investment to try publishing all of his previously published works in a comprehensive format, which necessitated multiple volumes to produce. The second volume was published fifteen months after the first volume.
• Omnibus: Volume 1 was created by choosing three previous collections and reprinting them as a single volume. The foreword is clear that this series was intended to be an omnibus for Dr Asimov's entire publication history.
• Orphaned Series: The introduction of Volume 1 makes it clear that Dr Asimov was intending to work with Doubleday to republish all of his fiction in a format that would make finding stories easy, but having only 88 stories/poems when his short Science Fiction is more than two hundred shows that at least two more volumes would be needed. Once you add in the Mystery Fiction and Poetry counts, the two lonely volumes look very incomplete.

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