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EDITORIAL GOOD-BYE, ROBINSON CRUSOE THE DOCTORS' DILEMMA THINK! QUARANTINE THE HOMESICK CHICKEN PERCHANCE TO DREAM ON OUR MUSEUM AIR RAID KINDERTITENLIEDER PERIOD OF TOTALITY THE SCORCH ON WETZEL'S HILL COMING OF AGE IN HENSON'S TUBE ON BOOKS TIME STORM
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ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE, VOL. 1, NO. 1, Spring 1977. Published quarterly by Davis Publications, Inc. at $1.00 a copy. Annual subscriptions $5.40 in the United States, U.S. possessions, and Canada; $6.80 in all other countries. Editorial address, Box 13116, Philadelphia PA 19101. Subscription orders and mail regarding subscriptions should be sent to Davis Publications, Inc., 229 Park Avenue South, New York NY 10003. © 1977 by Davis Publications, Inc., all rights reserved. Protection secured under the Universal Copyright Convention and the Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner without express permission is prohibited. Printed in the U.S.A. All submissions must be accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts.
EDITORIAL I suppose I ought to start by introducing myself, even though that seems needless. The whole point about putting my name on the magazine rests on the supposition that everyone will recognize it at once, go into ecstatic raptures, and rush forward to buy the magazine. Well, just in case that doesn't happen, I'm Isaac Asimov. I'm a little over thirty years old and I have been selling science fiction stories since 1938. (If the arithmetic seems wrong. here, it's because you don't understand higher mathematics.) I have published about 40 books of fiction, mostly science fiction, and about 140 books of nonfiction, mostly science. On the other side of the fence, I have a Ph. D. in chemistry from Columbia University and I'm Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine. —But let's not go on with the litany since I am (as is well known) very modest,-and since I am the least important person involved with this magazine. Joel Davis, the publisher, is much more important. His company, Davis Publications, Inc., puts out over thirty magazines, including the enormously successful Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It also publishes Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. With two such magazines under his belt, visions of empire arose before Joel's eyes, and it seemed to him he ought to have a science fiction magazine as sister to these. To retain symmetry, however, he needed a name in the title and he thought of me at once. You see, I'm familiar to him because I have, in recent years, sold a score of mystery short stories to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and he would often catch me in suave conversation with Eleanor Sullivan and Constance DiRienzo, the bewitching young women who occupy the EQMM office. I can't say I fell all over myself with joy. The truth is I was worried. I told Joel that no science fiction magazine had ever borne a person's name on it, to my knowledge, and that the writers and readers would surely resent this as an example of overweening arrogance. He said, "Nonsense, Isaac, who could possibly accuse you of arrogance?" —Well, that's true enough. But then I pointed out that the editors of the various other science fiction magazines were, one and all, personal friends of mine and I would not wish to compete with them. He said, "You won't be competing with them, Isaac. One more strong magazine in the field will attract additional readers, encourage additional writers. Our own success will help the other magazines in the field as well." (I consulted others and everyone agreed with Joel.) Then I told Joel that I had a monthly science column running in one of the other science fiction magazines. It had been running without a break for eigh