Person:Isaac Asimov (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was a Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction.

Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. The Galactic Empire novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. Later, with Foundation and Earth (1986), he linked this distant future to the Robot stories, creating a unified "future history" for his stories. He also wrote over 380 short stories, including the social science fiction novelette "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

Most of his popular science books explain concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. Examples include Guide to Science, the three-volume Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery. He wrote on numerous other scientific and non-scientific topics, such as chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, history, biblical exegesis, and literary criticism.

He was president of the American Humanist Association. Several entities have been named in his honor, including the asteroid (5020) Asimov, a crater on Mars, a Brooklyn elementary school, Honda's humanoid robot ASIMO, and four literary awards.

Immigration

He arrived in the U.S. with his parents and younger sister, Marcia, in Feb. 1923 when he was about 3 years old. The USS Baltic departed from Liverpool and landed at Ellis Island. Although his father's written recollections say they arrived on Feb 3 and were allowed to leave the ship on Feb 7, the records from ellisisland.org, which has the original ship's manifest, say they arrived on Feb. 13, 1923.

The manifest of the Baltic (arriving from Liverpool) lists the family as follows: Juda, Hana Rochel, Aisik & Manis Asimy. It says they are from Petrowitschi.

Here's a bit about the ship:

BALTIC 1903 The BALTIC was a 23,876 gross ton ship built in 1903 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast for the White Star Line. Her details were - length 709.2ft x beam 75.6ft, two funnels, four masts, twin screw and a speed of 17 knots. There was accommodation for 425-1st, 450-2nd and 2,000-3rd class passengers. Launched on 21st Nov.1903, she sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York on 29th Jun.1904. In 1909 she rescued survivors of the collision between the REPUBLIC and the FLORIDA off the US coast, in which the REPUBLIC sank. On 12th Dec.1918 she commenced her first voyage after the Armistice, from Liverpool to New York and in 1927 her accommodation was altered to carry 393-cabin class, 339-tourist class and 1,150-3rd class passengers. On 17th Sep.1932 she commenced her last voyage from Liverpool to New York and Liverpool and on 17th Feb.1933 sailed for Osaka, Japan where she was scrapped. [North Atlantic Seaway by N.R.P.Bonsor, vol.2,p.763]

1. ↑ Ship's manifest. ellisisland.org.
2. ↑ Isaac Asimov, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   There are no contemporary records of his birth, and differences in calendars mean he may have been born up to 3 months earlier, but he celebrated his birthday on January 2.