Isaac Asimov - Its Been a Good Life

Human life is, or should be, an adventure in self-discovery, learning what talents one has and using them successfully. Isaac Asimov knew he'd had this adventure to the fullest and, at the end, said "It's been a good life."

No one but Isaac could tell the genuine story of that good life. Fortunately, he did-in short pieces, letters, and three large, detailed volumes of autobiography. Much of this autobiographical material is now out of print or has never been collected in book form.

At the request of Prometheus Books, I have tried to create a onevolume condensation of his autobiography that is not primarily chronological but concentrates on what Isaac wrote about his life as a writer and as a humanist. I have also used excerpts of letters-only those he wrote to me-and I've added his favorite story and an essay on his thoughts about science.

The epilogue is a revised version of one I wrote for the posthumously published third volume of his autobiography. His daughter, Robyn, and I decided that the new epilogue should reveal the true story of Isaac's final illness and death.

Throughout the book, my own comments and explanations are in brackets.

Janet J. Asimov

I am not impressed by ancestry, since if I could trace my origins to Judas Maccabeus or to King David, that would not add one inch to my stature, either physically, mentally, or ethically. It's even possible that my ancestry might not move in the direction of ancient Israel at all.

About 600 C.E., a Turkish tribe, the Khazars, lived in what is now southern Russia. They established an empire that reached its peak about 750 C.E., [and] about that time, the Khazars adopted Judaism as the state religion, [probably] to keep from falling under the influence of either the Byzantine Christians or the Arab Moslems, who were busily engaged in the first part of their centuries-long duel.

After 965, the Khazars were through as an organized power, but Judaism may have remained, and it may well be that many East European Jews are descended from Khazars and the people they ruled. I may be one of them. Who knows? And who cares?

My mother [Anna Rachel Berman] had blue eyes, and in her youth, light hair. Though my father [Judah] was brown-eyed and brown-haired, there must have been a recessive blue-eyed gene there too, for my brother, my sister, and I all have blue eyes. My hair was brown, but both my brother and sister had reddish hair. My brother's daughter has bright red hair and blue eyes; my own daughter has blond hair and blue eyes. What's more, I've got high Slavic cheekbones.

Where did all this come from? Surely not from any Mediterranean or Turkish people. It had to be of Slavic origin and Scandinavian beyond that-plus a bit of Mongol to account for my B-type blood.

The date of my birth, as I celebrate it, was January 2, 1920. It could not have been later than that. It might, however, have been earlier. Allowing for the uncertainties of the times, of the lack of records, of the Jewish and Julian calendars, it might have been as early as October 4, 1919. My parents were always uncertain and it really doesn't matter.