First published by Isaac Asimov in 1969, this Science Fiction Genre Anthology collects twenty of Dr Asimov's stories, written between 1940 and 1970. The introduction invites the reader to compare the writing styles of each story, since "Nightfall (1941)" is widely considered his best work, but Dr Asimov hopes to see that his writing has improved in the decades since he began. Each story is prefaced by an introduction, usually describing Dr Asimov's personal history and how it related to writing the story in question. Most of all, he includes information on what had inspired him to try one concept or another.
Urania republished this book in three parts; issues #568, #569, and #570.
Works collected in Nightfall and Other Stories:
- "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)
Nightfall and Other Stories provides examples of:
- Advertising by Association: The 1984 Del Rey cover references the relatively recent publication of Foundation's Edge.
- The Annotated Edition: Isaac Asimov writes a one-two page preface for each of the stories to add a bit more Real Life context to each of his tales.
- Billed Above the Title:
- The 1969 Doubleday cover includes Dr Asimov's name above the title, but in much smaller font to give weight to the work's title, Nightfall.
- The 1970 Fawcett Crest cover includes the tagline, Dr Asimov's name, and then the title of the work.
- The 1973 German translation includes the tagline, Dr Asimov's name, and then the title of the story (for each of the three volumes it was split into). The 1982 publisher did the same thing, but credited each of the volumes as being reprints to Utopia magazine.
- The 1976 Dutch translation puts Dr Asimov's name in the same size and font as the title in the top banner of the cover.
- The 1984 Del Rey cover includes Dr Asimov's name above the tagline and title, at twice the font size.
- The 1991 Grafton cover has Dr Asimov's name in large font across the top of the cover and then the title in smaller font.
- Boxed Set: A 1978 Italian translation sold Nightfall and Other Stories and Buy Jupiter And Other Stories as a two-volume box set.
- Divided for Publication:
- Urania dedicated three issues to republishing this collection; #568, #569, and #570.
- Panther, a UK publisher, split this collection into two parts; Nightfall One and Nightfall Two. The first book contains five of the stories ("Nightfall (1941)", "Green Patches", "Hostess", "Breeds There a Man...?", and "C-Chute"), while the second book contains the other fifteen.
- The 1973 German translation by Pabel split this collection into three volumes, each with a different tile; Und Finsternis wird kommen..., Der Todeskanal, and Vergangene Zukunft.
- Inspiration for the Work: Dr Asimov discusses the inspirations for many of the works in this collection, or at least sharing a personal memory that the story inspires.
- Mythology Gag: During the introduction of "C-Chute", Dr Asimov references Dimension X and 2000 Plus, because they had made episodes based on three of his works. He mentions "Nightfall" and "C-Chute", which indicates that he's confused Dimension X with its successor series; X Minus One (which had "Nightfall", "C-Chute", and "Hostess" as episodes).
- Next Sunday A.D.: When it comes to Science Fiction that is accurate enough to appear in current newspapers, Dr Asimov calls it "tomorrow fiction", and dislikes it
because of how quickly it can become obsolete. - Publisher-Chosen Title: Dr Asimov discusses this several times, although he invariably changes the name back to his own Working Title for a collection like this.
- Shout-Out:
- During the introduction of "Breeds There a Man...?", Dr Asimov cites On the Beach as an example of what he calls "tomorrow fiction"; fiction that is as realistic as showing up in tomorrow's newspapers.
- During the introduction of "C-Chute", Dr Asimov cites Othello, quoting from the play.
- During the introduction of "In a Good Cause—", Dr Asimov quotes the titular character from Shakespeare's Richard III, part of the "I am determined to prove a villain"-speech.
- During the introduction of "What Is This Thing Called Love?", Dr Asimov makes a reference to a fictional title in The Bobbsey Twins series; The Bobbsey Twins in Outer Space.
- During the introduction to "My Son, the Physicist", Dr Asimov obliquely references "The Green Hills of Earth", due to the way Robert A. Heinlein broke out of the
Sci Fi Ghetto and into popular newspapers. - Dr Asimov mentions Playboy in a few introductions, sometimes as the Inspiration for the Work and sometimes as a contrast for non-genre magazines publishing short stories.
- Tagline:
- "Thrilling, Terrifying Tales from the Master of Science Fiction" — 1970 Fawcett Crest cover
- "20 SF Stories" — 1970 Rapp & Whiting cover
- Title 1: Because Panther chose to split this book into two for their UK audience, they named the different volumes Nightfall One and Nightfall Two.
- Title Drop Anthology: "Nightfall" is the first of the twenty stories contained in the collection and is also featured on the cover.
- The Tower: The Grafton cover depicts the Observatory of "Nightfall (1941)" as a lone bronze tower in a vast desert landscape during the early stages of the eclipse.
