Here is the story of the paradoxical genius who wrote of travel to the starsyet refused to fly in airplanes; who imagined alien universes and vast galacticcivilizations while staying home to write; who compulsively authored more than470 books yet still found the time to share his ideas with some of the greatminds of our century. Here are his wide-ranging thoughts and sharp-eyedobservations on everything from religion to politics, love and divorce, friendship and Hollywood, fame and mortality. Here, too, is a rivetingbehind-the-scenes look at the varied personalities - Campbell, Ellison, Heinlein, Clarke, del Rey, Silverberg, and others - who along with Asimov helpedshape science fiction.