I found a copy of this a year ago and started it soon after. I lost my original copy to a fire in 2013 and wasn't actively looking for a replacement, though I jumped on it when I saw one because it had a nostalgic longing for some of those lost pieces of my youth. As one can see from the date log, it took me a while to get through it...I am not a big fan of collections of short stories - even those of Asimov. Yes, he has exceptions - the robot shorts and the stories that became the Foundation trilogy; but those are somewhat serialized, or have the common theme/thread.

What I remembered from 45 years ago was not the stories, but Asimov's notes about his writings, publishing successes and rejections. Yes, I'd forgotten most of the stories. Certainly one titled "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" that was a parody of research papers, complete with fictional citations. Written nearly fifty years before Alan Sokal's hoax perpetrated on the post-modern cultural studies anti-intellectuals, Asimov recalls with humor that some who read his story/pseudoarticle in Astounding Science Fiction, "I was told that weeks after its appearance the librarians of the New York Public Library were driven out of their minds by hordes of youngsters who demanded to see copies of the fake journals I had used as pseudo references."

The subtitle refers to his first eleven years of writing that this book covers - not all of his stories are in here...some are in the robot and Foundation books and a few in other anthology collections. You can see his maturation as a writer as they are arranged chronologically. Asimov noted much in his diaries, not the least how much he was paid because the money determined his career. "It paid enough to put me through school and not so much top lure me out of it. You'll see as we go along." He observes the stories that were rejected and lost, and which he recalled nothing save the titles noted in his journals. At a point in his career through, he began saving everything, which helped when he passed on a twenty year old manuscript to be revised and published. He lost eleven manuscripts, but no more after that.

Asimov credits his influences not that of "high-prestige literary figures as Kafka, Proust and Joyce." Rather, "I learned how to write science fiction by the attentive reading of science fiction, and among the major influences on my style was Clifford Simak." And he admits embarrassment at his naiveté wherein one of his stories his assumes an intelligent race on Mars sufficiently close to Earthmen as to make interbreeding possible. The story, "Half-breed" (the title alone dates him), made him say in his after notes "I can only shake my head wearily. I knew better in 1939; I really did. I just accepted science fiction clichés, that's all. Eventually, I stopped doing that."

He recalled once that John Campbell had found an Emerson quote "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God." In a footnote, Asimov asked "Does anyone know in what essay, and in what connection, Emerson says this? Every once in a while I make a desultory search through quotation books or through a collection of Emerson but haven;t found it yet. I hope it exists and that the quote is given correctly." I hope he found it. The internet being what it is, I found that is was from an 1849 essay titled "Nature".

Asimov included a work which was a collaboration between him and Frederick Pohl, and noted that he'd only written two pieces of fiction is collaboration, not really enjoying the process. (He also didn't like the handful of nonfiction collaborations.) I know that some collaborate well (Niven and Pournelle), but also that some, like Clarke's collaborations, diminished the primary author. ( )

Really, the very early Asimov, and not the best, but still worth reading. Asimov put together this collection of stories in 1972; the stories were written between 1939 and 1950, and first appeared in the science fiction magazines that were a staple of the period. Moreover, as Asimov tells us in the preface, this were stories that he had NOT put into the ten collections that appeared between 1950 and 1969, soooooooo --. Very dated, very mechanical, but fun. ( )

The Early Asimov covers (appropriately enough) the early stages of Isaac Asimov's career as a science fiction writer. Interspersed between comments by Asimov concerning his efforts to sell his stories, his relationships with editors, and what was generally happening in his life and the world around him are twenty-seven science fiction short stories arranged in the chronological order in which they were originally published.

The stories themselves show how Asimov developed from a weak, but promising writer to the creator of polished science fiction he became. The earliest stories are, at best, derivations on standard pulp fiction of the era - though they show flashes of the direction science fiction was moving under editors like Campbell. One thing that makes the collection interesting is that none of the stories contained are considered to be among Asimov's best works. Even The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline only achieved enduring fame because it formed the basis for a long-running series of joke "scientific" papers Asimov published as fiction. In other words, even through eleven years of writing and publishing, Asimov had not hit his stride as a writer yet. This should be a sobering thought for those who have aspirations of becoming a writer. One can, however, see the seeds that formed the basis for his classic works of science fiction in the stories here.

The best parts of the book are the interstitial comments by Asimov, which gives a reader a clear insight into Asimov's thinking concerning the stories, and the struggles he had to get many of his works published. Some of the stories are quite good, others are so heavy handed in their moralizing that the story gets lost, and others are obviously the result of a writer groping his way to finding his own voice. As both an account of Asimov's personal experiences and development as a writer, and as a snap shot of the world of science fiction pulps in the beginning of the Campbell era, this book is a fantastic resource. ( )