Isaac Asimov: Contemporary American Mythmaker

Isaac Asimov: Contemporary American Mythmaker

Isaac Asimov was the twentieth century's most popular and prolific science fiction writer. He was predominantly praised for the variety of his writing. Asimov produced hundreds of books on every conceivable aspect of sci-fi, from short stories about robots to longer novels about planetary settlements, from introductory guides to genetics to scholarly tracts on biochemistry. He also published an autobiography, a short history of biology, historical studies of Roman and Egyptian culture, a guide to Shakespeare, an analysis of Milton's Paradise Lost, a two-volume examination of the Bible (plus a supplement, Animals of the Bible), three collections of rude limericks, several books of essays, several volumes of American history, an academic edition of Gulliver's Travels, a handful of quiz books, a television play called Unseen World and an annotated guide to the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He once explained this by saying: "I never had a thought that I didn't put down on paper." If anyone could possibly doubt Asimov’s legitimacy of being considered mythmaker, then they obviously haven’t examined his background. A man that consumed with such a deep love of knowledge and the desire to relate that knowledge in stories seems an obvious mythmaker. He truly loved being alive and wanted to share that passion and understanding with his fellow man. Myths not only teach a variety of lessons regarding the world that surrounds us, they can also be a celebration of existence. His many diverse writings, from science to religion to humor and lastly to opera are testament to his status as a creator myths.

Arthur C. Clarke commented in The Guardian, "Isaac Asimov must have been one of the greatest educators; with almost half a thousand books on virtually every aspect of science and culture. He stood for knowledge