Isaac Asimov

Salvor Hardin is the first mayor of Terminus, the capital planet of the Foundation in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and the main protagonist of the second and third parts of Foundation. He is portrayed as a shrewd and ruthless politician, a master manipulator who acts in the interests of the... Seldon Plan. Hardin began his career studying psychohistory under Alurin, but when he found no facilities on Terminus to pursue it, he went into politics instead. Hardin was elected mayor of Terminus, and although he had no legal ownership of the "Terminus City Journal", he controlled and used it as a way to influence trends and people. He transformed his previously powerless office into the most formidable political position in the Foundation. Shortly before this crisis, Hardin realizes that military support of Terminus is dissolving: the Empire effectively gives Anacreon and the other nearby kingdoms full independence. Hardin engineers a bloodless coup intended to leave the mayor's office, as opposed to the Encyclopedia Foundation, in complete control of Terminus.
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Norby is a fictional robot created by Janet Asimov and Isaac Asimov who stars in his own series of children's science fiction books, The Norby Chronicles. His first appearance was in the 1983 book Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot, in total he appeared in 11 novels in the 'Norby' series. According to Isaac... Asimov, although Janet Asimov did 90% of the work, his "name was wanted on the book for the betterment of sales [and he] went over the manuscript and polished it a bit." The 'Norby' novels were combined into collections by Ace Books: Norby was originally a robot named the Searcher, created by the robot Mentor First on the planet Jamya. On his initial mission, Norby's ship crashed in Earth's asteroid belt and was discovered many years later by a salvager and inventor named McGillicuddy. McGillicuddy welded much of the remaining parts of the Seeker into a steel barrel that originally contained Norb's Nails, later becoming the basis for Norby's name. He eventually fell into the possession of a used-robot shop where he was sold to Jefferson Wells, a space cadet looking for a teaching robot.
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Dr. Peter Bogert, fictional character in Isaac Asimov's robot novels. Second in command after Alfred Lanning, he is many times characterized as trying to seize position from Lanning. He is, however, a brilliant mathematician and is many times successful in the novels where he is featured, mainly... those with Susan Calvin as main character. In Liar!, he asks the robot if Lanning is about to retire, and the robot says yes, and that Bogert is the obvious successor. Bogert uses this to increase his power on the plant, but Lanning gets enraged by this sudden change in hierarchy and makes sure Bogert understands who is in charge. Bogert later succeeds Lanning as Director of Research at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men.
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Herbert George "H.G." Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games. Together with... Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction". Wells was an outspoken socialist and sympathetic to pacifist views, although he supported the First World War once it was under way, and his later works became increasingly political and didactic. His middle-period novels were less science-fictional; they covered lower-middle class life and the "New Woman" and the Suffragettes . Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House, 47 High Street, Bromley, in the county of Kent, a small market town, on 21 September 1866. Called "Bertie" in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells and his wife Sarah Neal .
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Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977. Clifford Donald Simak was born in Millville,... Wisconsin, son of John Lewis and Margaret Simak. He married Agnes Kuchenberg on April 13, 1929 and they had two children, Scott and Shelley. Simak attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and later worked at various newspapers in the Midwest. He began a lifelong association with the Minneapolis Star and Tribune in 1939, which continued until his retirement in 1976. He became Minneapolis Star 's news editor in 1949 and coordinator of Minneapolis Tribune's Science Reading Series in 1961. In a blurb in Time and Again he wrote, "I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty three years and have two children. My favorite recreation is fishing . Hobbies: Chess, stamp collecting, growing roses.
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Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential. His first story, "A Martian Odyssey", was published to great acclaim in July 1934, but he would be dead from lung cancer within eighteen months. Weinbaum was born in... Louisville, Kentucky and attended school in Milwaukee. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, first as a chemical engineering major but later switching to English as his major, but contrary to common belief he did not graduate. On a bet, Weinbaum took an exam for a friend, and was later discovered; he left the university in 1923. He is best known for the groundbreaking science fiction short story, "A Martian Odyssey", which presented a sympathetic but decidedly non-human alien, Tweel. Even more remarkably, this was his first science fiction story . Isaac Asimov has described "A Martian Odyssey" as "a perfect Campbellian science fiction story, before John W. Campbell.
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John Stewart Williamson , who wrote as Jack Williamson was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction" following the death in 1988 of Robert A. Heinlein. Williamson was born April 29, 1908 in Bisbee, Arizona Territory, and spent his early childhood in western Texas. In search... of better pastures, his family migrated to rural New Mexico in a horse-drawn covered wagon in 1915. The farming was difficult there and the family turned to ranching, which they continue to this day. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II as a weather forecaster. Williamson discovered the local library and used it to educate himself. As a young man, he discovered the magazine Amazing Stories, after answering an ad for one free issue. He strove to write his own fiction, selling his first story at age 20: "The Metal Man" appeared in the Dec. 1928 issue of Amazing Stories. His work during this early period was heavily influenced by A. Merritt. Noting the Merritt influence, Algis Budrys described "The Metal Man" as "a story full of memorable images.
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