The Story Behind the Foundation

On August 1, 1941, when I was a lad of twenty-one, I
was a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University and had been
writing science fiction professionally for three years. I was hastening
to see John Campbell, editor of Astounding¹ , to whom I had sold
five stories by then. I was anxious to tell him a new idea I had for a
science fiction story.

It was to write a historical novel of the future; to tell the story of
the fall of the Galactic Empire. My enthusiasm must have been catching²,
for Campbell grew as excited as I was. He didn't want me to write a
single story. He wanted a series of stories, in which the full history
of the thousand years of turmoil³ between the fall of the First Galactic
Empire and the rise of the Second Galactic Empire was to be outlined. It
would all be illuminated⁴ by the science of "psychohistory" that Campbell
and I thrashed out between us.

The first story appeared in the May 1942 Astounding and the second
story appeared in the June 1942 issue. They were at once popular and
Campbell saw to it that I wrote six more stories before the end of the
decade. The stories grew longer, too. The first one was only twelve
thousand words long. Two of the last three stories were fifty thousand
words apiece.

By the time the decade was over, I had grown tired of the series,
dropped it, and went on to other things. By then, however, various
publishing houses were beginning to put out hardcover science fiction
books. One such house was a small semiprofessional firm, Gnome⁵ Press. They
published my Foundation series in three volumes: Foundation (1951); Foundation and Empire (1952); and Second Foundation (1953). The three books together came to be known as The Foundation
Trilogy .

The books did not do very well, for Gnome Press did not have the
capital with which to advertise and promote them. I got neither statements
nor royalties⁶ from them.

In early 1961, my then-editor at Doubleday, Timothy Seldes, told
me he had received a request from a foreign publisher to reprint the
Foundation books. Since they were not Doubleday books, he passed the
request on to me.

I shrugged⁷ my shoulders. "Not interested, Tim. I don't get royalties
on those books."

Seldes was horrified⁸, and instantly set about getting the rights
to the books from Gnome Press (which was, by that time, moribund) and
in August of that year, the books (along with I, Robot ) became
Doubleday property.

From that moment on, the Foundation series took off and began to earn
increasing royalties. Doubleday published the Trilogy in a single
volume and distributed them through the Science Fiction Book Club. Because
of that the Foundation series became enormously well-known.

In the 1966 World Science Fiction Convention, held in Cleveland, the
fans were asked to vote on a category of "The Best All-Time Series." It
was the first time (and, so far, the last) the category had been included
in the nominations⁹ for the Hugo Award. The Foundation Trilogy won the award, which further added to the popularity of the series.

Increasingly, fans kept asking me to continue the series. I was polite
but I kept refusing. Still, it fascinated me that people who had not
yet been born when the series was begun had managed to become caught up
in it.

Doubleday, however, took the demands far more seriously than I
did. They had humored me for twenty years but as the demands kept
growing in intensity¹⁰ and number, they finally lost patience. In 1981,
they told me that I simply had to write another Foundation novel and,
in order to sugar-coat the demand, offered me a contract at ten times
my usual advance.

Nervously¹¹, I agreed. It had been thirty-two years since I had written
a Foundation story and now I was instructed to write one 140,000 words
long, twice that of any of the earlier volumes and nearly three times
as long as any previous individual story. I re-read The Foundation
Trilogy and, taking a deep breath, dived into the task.

The fourth book of the series, Foundation's Edge , was published
in October 1982, and then a very strange thing happened. It appeared in
the New York Times bestseller list at once. In fact, it stayed on that
list for twenty-five weeks, much to my utter astonishment¹². Nothing like
that had ever happened to me.

Doubleday at once signed me up to do additional novels and I wrote
two that were part of another series, The Robot Novels  And
then it was time to return to the Foundation.

So I wrote Foundation and Earth, which begins at the very moment
that Foundation's Edge ends, and that is the book you now hold. It might
help if you glanced over Foundation's Edge just to refresh your memory,
but you don't have to. Foundation and Earth stands by itself. I hope
you enjoy it.

 Isaac Asimov, New York City, 1986

1 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

3 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

4 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

5 gnome   

n.土地神；侏儒，地精

参考例句：

• The Swedes do not have Santa Claus.What they have is Christmas Gnome.瑞典人的圣诞节里没有圣诞老人，但他们却有一个圣诞守护神。
• Susan bought a garden gnome to decorate her garden.苏珊买了一个土地神像来装饰她的花园。

6 royalties   

特许权使用费

参考例句：

• I lived on about £3,000 a year from the royalties on my book. 我靠着写书得来的每年约3，000英镑的版税生活。 来自辞典例句
• Payments shall generally be made in the form of royalties. 一般应采取提成方式支付。 来自经济法规部分

7 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

9 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

10 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

11 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

12 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。