Born in Russia on January 2, 1920 to Judah and Anna Rachel Berman Asimov, Isaac Asimov and his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, when he was three. He became a naturalized citizen in 1928. His parents owned a series of candy stores where Asimov worked until he left college. Having taught himself to read before he was five, Asimov voraciously read all the magazines the store carried. An extraordinary student, he graduated from high school when he was only fifteen years old. He sold his first story when he was eighteen. Graduating from college with a degree in chemistry in 1939, Asimov then received a master's degree in 1941 and a Ph.D. in 1948, all from Columbia University. During World War II, he worked in the U.S. Naval Air Experimental Station, and then served from 1945 to 1946 as a corporal in the Army.

In 1941, Asimov wrote "Nightfall," the story that...