From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Thu Mar 07 2002 - 17:17:48 MST
hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> > http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns23327
> > It's Been a Good Life is a cut-down version of Asimov's three-volume
> > autobiography with some additions, primarily from letters he wrote his
> > widow, Janet Jeppson Asimov, plus her epilogue. The one significant
> > revelation is that Asimov died of AIDS, contracted during bypass surgery.
> > The information was withheld from the public on his doctors' advice.
>
> First, doesn't it sound strange to talk about letters he wrote to his
> widow? When exactly did he marry his widow? Did he and his widow have
> a good time on their honeymoon? Seems to me that "wife" works a little
> better here.
He met Janet at an SF con, of all places (what else would you expect
from the guy?) when he was still married to wife number 1. The divorce
hit the New York tabloids when it was discovered that the pulp sci-fi
author, in the 1960's, was earning over $100,000 a year (though most of
that was from his science writing, not his SF).
>
> Second, why would the decision to keep his AIDS secret be based on the
> doctors' advice? Public relations issues seem a little outside the
> range of the doctors' expertise. It makes more sense to me that it was
> a personal decision by the Asimovs to avoid the notoriety and potential
> stigma of an AIDS diagnosis.
As if Asimov was ever any good at avoiding being controversial (or
tooting his own horn). He was the sort who took an impish delight in
being immodest (for, after all, modesty is for those with something to
be modest about...).
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