Isaac Asimov A CHOICE OF CATASTROPHES First Edition
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Isaac Asimov A CHOICE OF CATASTROPHES First Edition
First UK edition, first print hardback of A CHOICE OF CATASTROPHES: The Disasters That Threaten Our World, by Isaac Asimov and published by Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., London in 1980.The book is in very good condition (Clean black cloth boards with silver lettering on spine which has minor creasing to the bottom edges of the spine) with only slight wear to the dust jacket, which is not price clipped (minor creasing to the edges and some tanning to jacket flaps, slight yellow patch on the front flap and inside the front board together with slight peeling probably caused by tape or a sticker). Internally, the pages are clean and tight and there are no tears and no inscriptions. There is minor foxing to the page ends and the very slightest spinal lean.
Multi award winner Isaac Asimov is widely considered a master of hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers during his lifetime. He was born in Russia, in 1920. His family immigrated to the United States in 1923 and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where they owned and operated a candy store. Asimov became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of eight. As a youngster he discovered his talent for writing, producing his first original fiction at the age of eleven. He went on to become one of the world's most prolific writers, publishing nearly 500 books in his lifetime. Asimov was not only a writer; he also was a biochemist and an educator. He studied chemistry at Columbia University, earning a B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. In 1951, Asimov accepted a position as an instructor of biochemistry at Boston University's School of Medicine even though he had no practical experience in the field. His exceptional intelligence enabled him to master new systems rapidly, and he soon became a successful and distinguished professor at Columbia and even co-authored a biochemistry textbook within a few years.
Asimov won numerous awards and honors for his books and stories, and he is considered to be a leading writer of the Golden Age of science fiction. While he did not invent science fiction, he helped to legitimize it by adding the narrative structure that had been missing from the traditional science fiction books of the period. He also introduced several innovative concepts, including the thematic concern for technological progress and its impact on humanity. Asimov is probably best known for his Foundation series, which includes Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. In 1966, this trilogy won the Hugo award for best all-time science fiction series. In 1983, Asimov wrote an additional Foundation novel, Foundation's Edge, which won the Hugo for best novel of that year. Asimov also wrote a series of robot books that included I, Robot, and eventually he tied the two series together. He won three additional Hugos, including one awarded posthumously for the best non-fiction book of 1995, I. Asimov. Nightfall was chosen the best science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1979, Asimov wrote his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. He continued writing until just a few years before his death from heart and kidney failure on April 6, 1992.
"The unbelievably prolific Isaac Asimov has once again succeeded in transforming complex scientific theories and principles into fascinating, informative entertainment. In A Choice of Catastrophes Asimov turns his encyclopaedic mind and his distinctive pen to all the potential disasters that threaten the existence of our civilisation.
Mr. Asimov defines five classes of Catastrophes: (1) The entire universe might so change its properties as to become uninhabitable; (2) Something might happen to the sun that would spell our doom; (3) The Earth itself might undergo the kind of convulsion that would make life impossible on it; (4) Something (perhaps man-made) might destroy human life upon the Earth; and (5) Civilization as we know it might be destroyed, interrupting the advance of technology and condemning humanity to a primitive life.
As only he can, Mr. Asimov makes remarkably clear such complicated concepts as black holes, quasars and supernovas; explains the properties of the sun; discusses the bombardment of the Earth by meteorites and other extra-terrestrial objects; deals with the more familiar threats from volcanoes, earthquakes, continental drift and climatic change; and focuses on the awesome impact of a nuclear war.
The author ends on the reassuring yet stern note that those calamities that are most imminent are those we can control. In fact, says Mr. Asimov, 'it may well be that there is not a catastrophe of the imminent sort that is not avoidable. And certainly the chances of avoiding one increase if we stare the catastrophe boldly in the face and estimate its dangers'.
A Choice of Catastrophes is a prime example of the kind of original, thorough and exciting work we have come to expect from Isaac Asimov, the champion of popular-science writers."
365 pages.
ISBN: 0 09 141240 4
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Isaac Asimov A CHOICE OF CATASTROPHES First Edition