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Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
I, Robot (New York, 1956)

This Golden Age science-fiction short story collection gathers nine tales that originally appeared in American Pulp magazines Super Science Stores and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950. The loosely connected stories revolve around questions concerning artificial intelligence, faster-than-light travel, and feature robots as marginalized entities. I, Robot is perhaps most famous for including The Three Laws of Robotics, credited by the author to the book’s dedicatee, John W. Campbell; Campbell, on the other hand, believed Asimov deserved the honor. Asimov presented this copy to Campbell with the inscription, “Just for the record, see the dedication, Isaac”: that is, “To John W. Campbell, Jr, who godfathered The Robots,” under which Asimov has scribbled, “and a hell of a lot more.”

SF-75, Gift of John W. Campbell, Jr., date unknown