Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Joel and Ethan Coen, known collectively as The Coen Brothers, are four-time Academy Award winning American filmmakers. For more than 20 years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to film noir (Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men), to movies where those two genres blur together (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink). The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias "Roderick Jaynes". They are known in the film business as "the two-headed director", as they share such a similar vision of what their films are to be that actors say that they can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer.

Joel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Coen (born September 21, 1957) grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Their parents, Edward and Rena Coen, both Jewish, were professors, their father an economist at the University of Minnesota and their mother an art historian at St. Cloud State University.
When they were children, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Vivitar Super 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television with a neighborhood kid, Mark Zimering ("Zeimers"), as the star. Their first attempt was a romp titled, Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go. Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey (1966) became their Zeimers in Zambia,[3] which also featured Ethan as a native with a spear.
The brothers graduated from St. Louis Park (MN) High School in 1973 and 1976. They both also graduated from Simon's Rock College of Bard (now Bard College at Simon's Rock) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Joel then spent four years in the undergraduate film program at New York University where he made a 30-minute thesis film called Soundings. The film depicted a woman engaged in sex with her deaf boyfriend while verbally fantasizing about having sex with her boyfriend's best friend, who is listening in the next room.[citation needed] Ethan went on to Princeton University and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy in 1979. His senior thesis was a 41-page essay, "Two Views of Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy."
In the late 70s both brothers lived in the Weinstein dormatory at 5-11 University Place, an NYU dorm noted for housing such creatives as Ralph Bakshi, Rick Rubin (Def Jam), and film makers Chris Columbus and Dan Goldman (Mr. Danny).

Joel has been married to actress Frances McDormand since 1984. They have adopted a son from Paraguay named Pedro McDormand Coen (Frances and all her siblings are adopted themselves). McDormand has starred in five of the Coen Brothers' films, including a minor appearance in Miller's Crossing, a supporting role in Raising Arizona, and lead roles in Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, and her Academy Award winning role in Fargo.
Ethan is married to film editor Tricia Cooke.
Both couples live in New York City, though they do not with each other.

After graduating from NYU Joel worked as a production assistant on a variety of industrial films and music videos. He developed a talent for film editing and met Sam Raimi who was looking for an assistant editor on his first feature film The Evil Dead (1981).
In 1984 the brothers wrote and directed Blood Simple, their first film together. Set in Texas, the film tells the tale of a shifty, sleazy bar owner who hires a private detective to kill his wife and her lover. Within this film are considerable elements that point toward their future direction: their own subverted homages to genre movies (in this case noir and horror) and clever plot twists layered over a simplistic story; their darkly inventive and twisted sense of humor; and their mastery of atmosphere. The film starred Frances McDormand who would go on to feature in many of the Coen brothers' films (and marry Joel Coen). Upon release the film received much praise and especially amongst the more 'left field' viewers and won awards for Joel's direction at both the Sundance and Independent Spirit awards.
The next Coen brothers project to hit the big screen was 1985s Crimewave directed by Sam Raimi. The film was written by the brothers and Sam Raimi with whom Joel had worked on The Evil Dead.
The next film written and directed by the brothers was the 1987 release Raising Arizona. The film is the story of the unlikely married couple ex-convict Hi (played by Nicolas Cage) and ex-cop Ed (played by Holly Hunter) who long for a baby but are unable to conceive. Fortune smiles on them when a local furniture tycoon appears on television with his five newly born quintuplets that he jokes 'are more than we can handle'. Seeing this as a 'sign' and an opportunity to redress the natural balance, Hi and Ed steal one of the quintuplets and start to bring up the child as their own. Raising Arizona was much more accessible to the mass market with its innocence and wacky slapstick easing the action along amongst a somewhat darker humour.

Miller's Crossing was released in 1990, a straight-ahead homage to the gangster movie genre. Starring Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne and future Coen brothers' staple John Turturro, the film is set during the prohibition era of the 1930s and tells the tale of feuding mobs and gangster capers. The film was praised for its dialogue and in-depth characterization. Typical of the brothers' oeuvre are the touches of dark humor and plot twists that were already becoming recurring features of their work.
The Coen brothers' reputation was seemingly enhanced with every subsequent release, but it took a massive leap forward with their next movie, 1991s visually stunning Barton Fink. Barton Fink is set in 1941 and is the story of a New York playwright (the eponymous Barton Fink) who moves to Los Angeles to write a B-movie. He settles down in his hotel apartment to commence the writing but all too soon gets writer's block and allows himself to receive some inspiration from the amiable man in the room next door (played by John Goodman), together with some industry associates. Inspiration comes from the strangest places, and the hotel is definitely unusual and a magnet for the bizarre. Barton Fink was a critical success, garnering Oscar nominations plus winning three major awards at Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm). Barton Fink was the first of the brothers' films to use Director of Photography Roger Deakins, a key figure in the brothers' circle over the following 15 years.
In 1994, with their stock at an all-time high, the brothers were able to attempt their first big-budget feature film The Hudsucker Proxy (co-written with Sam Raimi). The story revolves around a man who is made the head of a massive corporation with the expectation that he will ruin the company (so that the board can buy it for next to nothing); instead, he ends up inventing the hula hoop and becomes both a success and a "personality" overnight. The critics were, for once, lukewarm about the film, while Roger Deakins was universally praised for his skill as Director of Photography. The film was generally criticized for being "a pastiche too far."[citation needed] Most critics viewed the film as having nothing new to say due to its constant references and homages to classic movies of the 1930s and 40s. Many were disappointed by the Coens' first attempt at the big league. More significantly, the film proved to be a massive commercial failure, making back only $3 million of its $25 million budget.
Following the commercial failure of The Hudsucker Proxy, the brothers returned to more familiar ground in 1996 with the low-budget noir thriller Fargo. Set in the Coen brothers' home state of Minnesota, the movie tells the tale of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a man with a money problem, who works in his father-in-law's car showroom. Jerry is anxious to get hold of some money to move up in the world and hatches a plan to have his wife kidnapped so that his wealthy father-in-law will pay the ransom that he can split with the kidnappers. Inevitably, his best laid plans go wrong when the bungling kidnappers deviate from the agreed non-violent plan and local cop Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) starts to investigate the whole affair. A critical and commercial success, with particular praise for its dialogue and McDormand's performance, the film received several awards including a BAFTA Award and Cannes award for direction and two Oscars, one for Best Original Screenplay and a Best Actress Oscar for McDormand.
The Coens' next film would build upon this success and in 1998 The Big Lebowski was released. With its story about "The Dude," an LA slacker (played by Jeff Bridges), used as an unwitting pawn in a fake kidnapping plot with his bowling buddies (Steve Buscemi and John Goodman), the Coens had hit on a film that would provide a mainstream accessibility that they had not enjoyed since Raising Arizona. Despite a lukewarm reception from the critics at the time and only moderate commercial success, the film is now regarded as a cult classic.

Buoyed by the success of both Fargo and Lebowski, the Coen brothers' next film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) was yet another critical success. Based loosely on Homer's "Odyssey" (complete with a cyclops, sirens, et al.) the story is set in Mississippi in the 1930s and follows a trio of escaped convicts who have absconded from a chain gang and who journey home in an attempt to recover the loot from a bank heist that the leader has buried. But they have no idea what the journey is that they are undertaking. The film also highlighted the comic abilities of George Clooney who starred as the oddball lead character of Ulysses Everett McGill (ably assisted by his sidekick, the now ubiquitous John Turturro). The film's Bluegrass soundtrack, offbeat humor and, yet again, stunning cinematography, meant it was a critical and commercial hit. The soundtrack CD became even more successful than the film, spawning a concert, a concert DVD of its own (Down from the Mountain) and coinciding with a resurgence in interest in American folk music.
The Coen brothers changed the pace in 2001 with another noirish thriller, The Man Who Wasn't There. Set in late 1940s California, the film tells the tale of a laconic chain smoking barber (played by Billy Bob Thornton), who in an effort to get some money together to invest in a dry cleaning business, decides to blackmail his wife's boss, who is also her lover. Unusual for a contemporary film, it was presented, though not shot, entirely in black and white. The film's twists and turns and dark humor were typical of Coen films, but here the slow deliberate build of the thriller, its dead-end roads and black and white look meant that the film was more for the purists rather than for the casual audience.
Intolerable Cruelty, arguably the Coens' most mainstream release, was released in 2003 and starred George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film was a throwback to the romantic comedies of the 1940s with a story based around Miles Massey, a hot shot divorce lawyer, and a beautiful divorcee whom Massey had managed to stop getting any money from her divorce. She sets out on a course to get even with him while he becomes smitten with her. Intolerable Cruelty divided the critics, some applauding the romantic screwball comedy elements of the movie, others enquiring as to why the Coens would wish to supply us with their take on this genre. Either way, the general feeling was that the film was not entirely satisfying, and the film proved to be only a moderate commercial success.
In 2004, the Coen brothers released The Ladykillers, a remake of the Ealing Studios classic. The story revolves around a professor (played by Tom Hanks) who puts together a team to rob a casino. They rent a room in an elderly woman's house to execute the heist. When the woman discovers the plot, however, the gang decides to murder her to ensure her silence. This is easier said than done. The Coens received some of the most lukewarm reviews of their career with this movie; much criticism surmised that while the Coens have managed to make films in which a genre can be homaged or pastiched successfully, a relatively faithful reworking of an individual classic did not give them enough creative leeway to place a complete trademark touch on their work.
The Coens' latest movie No Country for Old Men was released in November 2007. Based on the 2005 novel by the author Cormac McCarthy, the film tells the tale of a man named Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) living on the Texas / Mexico border who stumbles upon two million dollars in drug money that he decides to pocket. He then has to go on the run to avoid those looking to recover the money, including a sinister killer (Javier Bardem) who confounds both Llewelyn and the local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones). This plot line is a return to the dark, noir themes which have provided the Coens with some of their most successful material, but it also marks a notable departure, including a lack of regular Coen actors (with the exception of Stephen Root), a less pronounced comedic element and minimal use of music. The film has received nearly universal critical praise, garnering a 95% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes[1]. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, all of which were received by the Coens, as well as Best Supporting Actor received by Bardem. (The Coens were also nominated for Best Editor, but lost) It was the first time since 1961(Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for "West Side Story") that two directors had received the honor of Best Director at the same time.

A Coen-testvérek az idén filmtörténetet írhatnak, ha a Nem vénnek való vidék című filmjükért kapott mind a négy jelölésüket (rendezés, legjobb film, forgatókönyv, vágás) díjra váltják. Négy Oscart egy évben eddig csak Walt Disney kapott 1953-ban, testvérek pedig még soha nem vehették át együtt a kitüntetést. Rendezésért megosztott Oscar-díjat egyszer, 1961-ben ítéltek oda a West Side Story-ért. Testvérpárt először 1942-ben jelöltek (a színészek között Joan Fontaine és Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine nyert).

Hasonlóan bizarr figurákban bővelkedik a Coen-életmű, elég csak A nagy Lebowski Dude-jára (magyarul Töki), az Arizónai ördögfióka gyermektolvaj rendőrnőjére vagy éppen a tudathasadásos forgatókönyvíróra, Barton Finkre gondolni. Ők mindannyian összegyűltek, hogy a New York Times exkluzív fotógalériájában népszerűsítsék a testvérek filmográfiájának legújabb csúcspontját. A No Country-t szűk körben mutatták csak be a hétvégén, de kiváló vászon/néző átlagot produkált és fokozatosan terjeszkedik majd az Egyesült Államokban, hogy a díjeső szempontjából kulcsfontosságú decemberben már mindenhol láthassák A kritikusok körében egyelőre páratlan konszenzus alakult ki arról, hogy ez az év legjobb amerikai filmje és végre egy "legjobb rendező" Oscar sem tűnik elérhetetlennek a két testvér számára.

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920?[1] – April 6, 1992), originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов [1], was a Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.
Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (all except the 100s, Philosophy).[2][3]
Asimov is widely considered a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, was considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime.[4] Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series, both of which he later tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He penned numerous short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time, a title many still honor. He also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as a great amount of nonfiction. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

Most of Asimov's popularized science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include his Guide to Science, the three volume set Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery.
Asimov was a long-time member and Vice President of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs".[5] He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, a Brooklyn, NY elementary school, and two different Isaac Asimov Awards are named in his honor.

Asimov was born sometime between October 4, 1919 and January 2, 1920 in Petrovichi in Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR (now Russia) to Anna Rachel Berman Asimov and Judah Asimov, a Jewish family of millers. His date of birth is uncertain because of differences in the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars and a lack of records. Asimov himself celebrated it on January 2nd.[1] The family name derives from озимые (ozimiye), a Russian word for a winter grain in which his great-grandfather dealt, to which a patronymic suffix was added. His family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old. Since his parents always spoke Yiddish and English with him, he never learned Russian. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five, and remained fluent in Yiddish as well as English. His parents owned a succession of candy stores, and everyone in the family was expected to work in them. Science fiction pulp magazines were sold in the stores, and he began reading them. Around the age of eleven he began to write his own stories, and by age nineteen, having discovered science fiction fandom, he was selling them to the science fiction magazines. John W. Campbell, then editor of Astounding Science Fiction, was a strong formative influence and eventually became a personal friend.
Asimov attended New York City Public Schools, including Boys' High School, in Brooklyn, New York. From there he went on to Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1939, eventually returning to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1948. In between, he spent three years during World War II working as a civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental Station. After the war ended, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving for just under nine months before receiving an honorable discharge. In the course of his brief military career, he rose to the rank of corporal on the basis of his typing skills, and narrowly avoided participating in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.
After completing his doctorate, Asimov joined the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine, with which he remained associated thereafter. From 1958, this was in a non-teaching capacity, as he turned to writing full-time (his writing income had already exceeded his academic salary). Being tenured meant that he retained the title of associate professor, and in 1979 the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry. Asimov's personal papers from 1965 are archived at the university's Mugar Memorial Library, to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gottlieb. The collection fills 464 boxes, on seventy-one metres of shelf space.
Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman (1917, Canada–1990, Boston) on July 26, 1942. They had two children, David (b. 1951) and Robyn Joan (b. 1955). After a separation in 1970, he and Gertrude divorced in 1973, and Asimov married Janet O. Jeppson later that year.
Asimov was a claustrophile; he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces. In the first volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in a New York City Subway station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading.
Asimov was afraid of flying, only doing so twice in his entire life (once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station, and once returning home from the army base in Oahu in 1946). He seldom traveled great distances, partly because his aversion to aircraft complicated the logistics of long-distance travel. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as the Wendell Urth mystery stories and the Robot novels featuring Elijah Baley. In his later years, he found he enjoyed traveling on cruise ships, and on several occasions he became part of the cruises' "entertainment," giving science-themed talks on ships such as the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. Asimov was an enormously entertaining, prolific, and sought-after public speaker. His sense of timing was exquisite; he never looked at a clock, but invariably spoke for precisely the time allocated[citation needed].
Asimov was a frequent fixture at science fiction conventions, where he remained friendly and approachable. As noted above, he patiently answered tens of thousands of questions and other mail with postcards, and was pleased to give autographs.
He was of medium height, stocky, with muttonchop whiskers and a distinct Brooklyn-Yiddish accent. His physical dexterity was very poor. He never learned how to swim or ride a bicycle; however, he did learn to drive a car after he moved to Boston. In his humor book Asimov Laughs Again, he describes Boston driving as "anarchy on wheels." He demonstrated his love of driving in his science fiction short story, 'Sally', about robot cars. An observant reader will notice that he gives a detailed description of only one of the cars within the story, which he calls 'Giuseppe' from Milan - which means that Giuseppe was an Alfa Romeo. None of the other vehicles , not even the titular vehicle of that story receive as specific a description. Asimov did not otherwise mention in any detail any other type of vehicle in any of his works, which has led many fans to speculate that perhaps this brand of automobile was a personal favorite.
Asimov's wide interests included his participation in his later years in organizations devoted to the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan and in The Wolfe Pack [2], a group of devotees of the Nero Wolfe mysteries written by Rex Stout. He was a prominent member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the leading Sherlock Holmes society. From 1985 until his death in 1992, he was president of the American Humanist Association; his successor was his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut. He was also a close friend of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and earned a screen credit on Star Trek: The Motion Picture for advice he gave during production (generally, confirming to Paramount Pictures that Roddenberry's ideas were legitimate science-fictional extrapolation).
Asimov died on April 6, 1992. He was survived by his second wife, Janet, and his children from his first marriage. Ten years after his death, Janet Asimov's edition of Asimov's autobiography, It's Been a Good Life, revealed that his death was caused by AIDS; he had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion received during a heart bypass operation in December 1983.[6] The specific cause of death was heart and renal failure as complications of HIV infection. Janet Asimov wrote in the epilogue of It's Been a Good Life that Asimov had wanted to "go public," but his doctors convinced him to remain silent, warning that anti-AIDS prejudice would extend to his family members. Asimov's family considered disclosing his condition after he died, but the controversy which erupted when Arthur Ashe announced that he had AIDS convinced them otherwise. Ten years later, after Asimov's doctors had died, Janet and Robyn agreed that the AIDS story could be made public.[7]

Isaac Asimov was a Humanist and a rationalist.[8] He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against superstitious and pseudoscientific beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. During his childhood, his father and mother observed Orthodox Jewish traditions, though not as stringently as they had in Petrovichi, but they did not force their beliefs upon young Isaac. Thus he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the Bible represented Hebrew mythology in the same way that the Iliad recorded Greek mythology (for a brief while his father worked in the local synagogue to enjoy the familiar surroundings and "shine as a learned scholar" versed in the sacred writings. This experience had little effect upon Isaac beyond teaching him the Hebrew alphabet). For many years, Asimov called himself an atheist; however, he considered the term somewhat inadequate, as it described what he did not believe rather than what he did. Eventually, he described himself as a "humanist" and considered that term more practical.
In his last autobiography, Asimov wrote, "If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." The same memoir states his belief that Hell is "the drooling dream of a sadist" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife of just deserts existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell". As his Treasury of Humor and Asimov Laughs Again record, he was willing to tell jokes involving the Judeo-Christian God, Satan, the Garden of Eden, and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion.
Asimov became a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party during the New Deal, and thereafter remained a political liberal. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and, in a television interview during the early 1970s, he publicly endorsed George McGovern. He was unhappy about what he considered an "irrationalist" viewpoint taken by many liberal political activists from the late 1960s and onwards. In his autobiography In Joy Still Felt, he recalls meeting the counterculture figure Abbie Hoffman; Asimov's impression was that the 1960s' counterculture heroes had ridden an emotional wave which, in the end, left them stranded in a "no-man's land of the spirit" from which he wondered if they would ever return (this attitude is echoed by The Wave Speech in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). His defense of civil applications of nuclear power even after the Three Mile Island incident damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. In a letter reprinted in Yours, Isaac Asimov, he states that although he would prefer living in "no danger whatsoever" than near a nuclear reactor, he would still prefer a home near a nuclear power plant than in a slum on Love Canal or near "a Union Carbide plant producing methyl isocyanate" (referring to the Bhopal disaster). He issued many appeals for population control, reflecting a perspective articulated by people from Thomas Malthus through Paul R. Ehrlich. Asimov considered himself a feminist even before Women's Liberation became a widespread movement; he joked that he wished women to be free "because I hate it when they charge". More seriously, he argued that the issue of women's rights was closely connected to that of population control. Furthermore, he believed that homosexuality must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction (Yours, Isaac Asimov).
In the closing years of his life, Asimov blamed the deterioration of the quality of life that he perceived in New York City on the shrinking tax base caused by middle class flight to the suburbs. His last non-fiction book, Our Angry Earth (1991, co-written with his long-time friend science fiction author Frederik Pohl), deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer.

Isaac Asimov (Petrovicsi, Oroszország, 1920. január 2. – New York, 1992. április 6., eredeti neve Исаак Озимов, jelenlegi orosz írásmódja Айзек Азимов) orosz származású amerikai író és biokémikus. Tudományos-fantasztikus és tudománynépszerűsítő művei tették ismertté rendkívül sikeres és kivételesen termékeny írói pályafutása során. Több mint 500 kötetet és nagyjából 90 000 levelet, levelezőlapot írt vagy szerkesztett, művei jelentek meg a Dewey-féle tizedes osztályozás minden főosztályában, kivéve a filozófiát.[1] Asimovot a tudományos-fantasztikus irodalom mesterének ismerik el széles körben. Egyike volt a múlt századi sci-fi három nagy öregjének:[2] A két másik sci-fi klasszikus, akivel együtt Asimov népszerűvé tette a tudományos-fantasztikus irodalmat, Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) és Arthur C. Clarke Asimov legismertebb műve az Alapítvány-trilógia, de hasonlóan jelentős a Galaktikus Birodalom-sorozat és a robottörténetek, amelyeket későbbi írásaiban összekapcsolt az Alapítvány-trilógiával. Asimov a sci-fin kívül krimit és fantasyt is írt. Az Űrvadász-sorozatot Paul French álnév alatt jelentette meg.
Népszerűek olvasmányos stílusban megírt tudományos ismeretterjesztő munkái, illetve tudományos újságírói tevékenységének eredményéből, a több mint 1600 esszéből válogatott esszékötetei. Ilyen ismeretterjesztő művei például a Guide to Science („Útikalauz a tudományhoz”), a három részes Understanding Physics („Értsük meg a fizikát”), az Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery („Asimov kronológiája a tudományról és felfedezésekről”), vagy magyar nyelven A biológia rövid története és a Robbanó napok. Esszékötetei például az Asimov on Science („Asimov a tudományról”), az Asimov on Astronomy („Asimov a csillagászatról”) vagy a magyarul is megjelent A Hold tragédiája.
Régi tagja és alelnöke is volt a Mensának, habár nem mindig szívesen; „intellektuálisan harcias”-ként jellemezte tagtársait. Jobban élvezte, hogy az Amerikai Humanista Szervezet elnöke lehetett. Róla nevezték el az Asimov kisbolygót, az Asimov's Science Fiction magazint és két különböző Isaac Asimov-díjat is.

Asimov 1920. január 2. körül született (ez a hivatalos dátum, pontosan azonban nem ismert) Petrovicsiban, egy, Oroszországban (a mai Szmolenszki területen) található zsidó faluban, Judah Asimov és Anna Rachel Berman Asimov gyermekeként, egy zsidó molnár családba. Isaac csak három éves volt, amikor emigráltak az Egyesült Államokba. Minthogy szülei csak jiddis nyelven és angolul beszéltek fiukkal, az sohasem tanult meg oroszul. Az ifjú Asimov Brooklynban nevelkedett, ötévesen megtanult olvasni, s élete végéig tökéletesen beszélt az angol mellett jiddis nyelven is. Szülei egy kis vegyesbolt tulajdonosai voltak, ahol az egész család dolgozott. Itt sci-fi magazinokat is árultak, így Isaac olvasgatni kezdte azokat. Nagyjából tizenegy éves volt, amikor első történeteit kezdte írogatni, pár évvel később pedig már jó párat eladott ponyvairodalmi folyóiratoknak.

1939-ben diplomázott a Columbia Egyetemen, majd 1948-ban ugyanott biokémiából doktori fokozatot szerzett. Közben a második világháború alatt három évig Philadelphia tengerészeti hajógyárában dolgozott. A háború végével besorozták az amerikai hadseregbe, ahol kilenc hónapot szolgált mielőtt leszerelték. Ezen rövidke hadi karrierje során gépelési tudásának köszönhetően a tizedesi rangig vitte, és így épphogy, de elkerülte az 1946-os Bikini-atolli atombomba-kísérletekben való részvételt.
Miután ledoktorált, a Bostoni Egyetem orvostudományi karának tantestületéhez csatlakozott. 1958-tól kezdve már egyáltalán nem tanított, minden idejét írással töltötte (írói bevétele ekkor már nagyobb volt a tanári fizetésénél). Két éven át harcolt azért, hogy egyetemi docensi státuszát – fizetség és tanítási-kutatási kötelezettség nélkül – megőrizhesse.[3] Sikerült neki, sőt 1979-ben írói tevékenységének elismeréseképpen egyetemi tanárnak nevezték ki. 1965-től gyűjtött személyes iratait a Mugar Memorial könyvtárban tartják, ahol 464 dobozban 71 méternyi polcot foglalnak el.
1942. július 26-án feleségül vette Gertrude Blugermant (1917., Kanada – 1990., Boston), s két gyermekük született, David (1951-ben) és Robyn Joan (1955-ben). 1970-ben szétköltöztek, majd 1973-ban elváltak. Asimov még ebben az évben elvette Janet O. Jeppsont.
Asimov klausztrofíliás volt: élvezte a kicsi, zárt helyeket. Önéletrajzának első részében visszaemlékezik egyik gyerekkori álmára, amikor is egy újságos standra vágyott egy New York-i metróállomáson, ahova bezárkózhatott, s hallgathatta a vonatok dübörgését, miközben olvasott.
A repüléstől is félt, egész életében csak kétszer használta ezt a közlekedési módot (egyszer a haditengerészetnél és egyszer amikor az oahui hadibázisról tért haza 1946-ban). Csak ritkán utazott messzire, részben mert a repülőtől való félelme gátolta a távmunkában. Ezen fóbia hatott néhány történetére is, úgymint a Wendell Urth krimitörténeteire és az Elijah Baleyről szóló robotsorozatára. Kései éveiben rájött, élvezi a hajókirándulásokat, így néhány alkalommal a hajók „szórakoztató egységének” tagja lett, tudományos beszélgetéseket folytatva az RMS Queen Elizabeth 2-höz hasonló luxushajókon. Asimov meglehetősen szórakoztató, termékeny és keresett szónok volt. Rendkívüli érzéke volt az időzítéshez. Soha nem nézett az órára, de mindig pontosan a megadott ideig beszélt.
Elég ügyetlen volt: soha nem tanult meg úszni vagy biciklizni, bár Bostonba költözése után megtanult autót vezetni. Asimov Laughs Again („Asimov ismét nevet”) című vicckönyvében a bostoni autóforgalmat „a kerekek anarchiája”-ként írja le.
1960-ban Asimov előtt magas IQ-ja megnyitotta a Mensa-nak, a rendkívüli intelligenciájú emberek egyesületének a kapuit. A tagságtól hol visszalépett, mert a tagtársakat túl arrogánsnak találta, hol aktív tagként előadásokat tartott Mensa csoportok előtt. [4]
Asimov kései éveiben széles érdeklődési körébe tartozott a Gilbert és Sullivan operettjeire és Rex Stout Nero Wolfe detektívtörténeteire épülő szervezetekben való részvétel. Kiemelkedő tagja volt a Baker Street Irregulars csoportnak, a legnépszerűbb Sherlock Holmes-társaságnak. 1985-től 1992-ben bekövetkezett haláláig az Amerikai Humanista Szervezet elnöke volt, ezen a poszton barátja és egyben népszerű írótársa, Kurt Vonnegut követte. Szintén közeli barátja volt a Star Trek „atyjának”, Gene Roddenberrynek, s a Star Trek: Csillagösvény című film stáblistáján is helyet kapott a forgatás során adott tanácsaiért.
Asimov 1992. április 6-án halt meg. Tíz évvel halála után felesége, Janet Asimov az It's Been a Good Life című életrajzi művében felfedte, hogy férje halálát AIDS okozta. Asimov egyik bypass műtétje során, vérátömlesztéssel kapta a HIV-vírust.[5] Halálának pontos oka az AIDS szövődményeként fellépő szív- és veseelégtelenség volt. Az Asimov-életrajz utószavában elmondja, férje nyilvánosságra akarta hozni, de orvosai azt tanácsolták, ne tegye, mert az AIDS-ellenes előítélet kihathat családtagjaira is. Asimov családja úgy döntött, az AIDS-fertőzést Isaac halála után felfedi, de mivel Arthur Ashe AIDS-es voltának nyilvánosságra hozatala vitákat szült, megváltoztatták terveiket. Tíz évvel később – miután Asimov orvosai meghaltak – Janet és Robyn megegyeztek abban, hogy a halál valódi okát is bejelenthetik.

Isaac Asimov humanista és racionalista volt. Nem ellenezte mások őszinte hitét valamely vallásban, de annál inkább felszólalt a babonás és megalapozatlan hiedelmek ellen. Gyerekkora alatt szülei az ortodox zsidó hagyományokat követték, de nem erőszakolták ezen hitet fiukra, így nem hatott rá olyan erőteljesen a vallás. Ennek köszönhető, hogy a Bibliát a héber mitológia szövegkönyvének tekintette, valahogy úgy, mint ahogy a görögé az Iliász. (Kis ideig apja – Judah Asimov – egy helyi zsinagógában dolgozott, hogy a családias hangulatot élvezhesse. Isaacre ez kis hatással volt azon kívül, hogy megtanulta a héber ábécét.) Asimov sok éven keresztül ateistának mondta magát, ugyanakkor tudta, hogy ez kissé alkalmatlan meghatározás, mert azt mondja el, miben nem hisz, nem pedig, hogy miben hisz. Később a „humanista” jelzőt találta kielégítőnek.
Utolsó önéletrajzi művében Asimov ezt írta: „Ha nem lennék ateista, olyan Istenben hinnék, aki nem a szavaik, hanem a teljes életük alapján menti meg az embereket. Azt hiszem, inkább választana egy őszinte és becsületes ateistát, mint egy tv-szónokot, akinek minden szava Isten, Isten és Isten, de minden tette aljas, alávaló és tisztességtelen.” Ugyanezen könyvben szerepel az a nézete is, hogy a pokol valójában „egy szadista képtelen álma” durván hozzáragasztva egy irgalmas Istenhez. Ha még a kormány is képes megnyirbálni a kegyetlenkedést és a szokatlan büntetéseket – gondolta Asimov –, mért pont a túlvilágon ne lenne minimalizálva a büntetés? Asimov elutasította az eszmét, miszerint egy emberi hit vagy cselekvés végtelen megtorlást vonhat maga után. Ha létezik egy túlvilág, ahol az épp elhunytak fölött ítélkeznek, a leghosszabb és legkeményebb büntetést biztosan azok kapnák, akik „Istent rágalmazták meg a pokol feltalálásával”. Ahogy az a Treasury of Humorban („A humor kincstára”) és az Asimov Laughs Againben is olvasható, előszeretettel mesélt vicceket a keresztény Istenről, a sátánról, az édenkertről és egyéb vallási témákról, azzal a szándékkal, miszerint egy jó vicc gondolatébresztőbb lehet, mint több óra filozofálgatás.
Asimov politikai beállítottságát nézve progresszívnak mondta magát, s hűséges támogatója volt a Demokrata Pártnak. A 60-as években hangos ellenzője volt a vietnami háborúnak, s a 70-es évek elején egy tv-interjúban nyilvánosan támogatta George McGovernt. Nem örült annak a – szerinte értelmetlen – iránynak, amerre a 60-as években a liberális politikusok vitték az országot. Az In Joy Still Felt című önéletrajzi művében visszaidézi az ellenkulturális Abbie Hoffmannal való találkozását. Asimovnak az volt az érzése, hogy a 60-as évekbeli ellenkultúra hősei egy érzelmi hullámot lovagoltak meg, ami végül hajótöröttként dobta le őket a „lélek senkiföldjére”, ahonnan nemigen tudnak visszajönni. (Ez a gondolatmenet visszacseng Hunter S. Thompson Félelem és reszketés Las Vegasban című művében is.) A nukleáris energia békés használatának még a Three Mile Island-i baleset után is tartó védelmezése tönkretette néhány liberálisabb baráti kapcsolatát. Egy, a Yours, Isaac Asimovban („Üdvözlettel: Isaac Asimov”) megjelent levelében olvasható, hogy bár szívesebben élne egy „veszélytelen akármiben”, mint egy atomreaktorban, mégis inkább lakna egy erőműben, mint a Love Canal-i nyomornegyedben (a New York állambeli Niagara Falls rákkeltő anyagokkal súlyosan szennyezett városrésze) vagy a Union Carbide metil-izocianátot termelő telepénél (a bhopali katasztrófára utalva). Jó néhány kérvényt nyújtott be a népességszabályozásért, Thomas Malthustól Paul R. Ehrlichig számos emberre hivatkozva. Asimov már a nők emberi jogáért folytatott mozgalom elterjedése előtt is feministának tartotta magát. Gyakran viccelt azzal, hogy örülne, ha a nők szabadok volnának, mert „utálom, amikor pénzt kérnek”. Komolyabban azzal érvelt, hogy a nők jogai szorosan összekapcsolhatók a népességkorlátozással. Úgy gondolta továbbá, hogy a homoszexualitásnak ugyanúgy erkölcsileg elfogadottnak kéne lennie, ahogy minden reprodukcióhoz nem vezető szexuális aktivitás is az.[7]
Utolsó éveiben Asimov a New York-i életszínvonal romlását a középosztály elővárosokba való menekülését követő csökkenő adóbevételekkel magyarázta. Utolsó ismeretterjesztő műve, az Our Angry Earth („Dühös Földünk”, jó barátjával, a szintén sci-fi író Frederik Pohllal közösen írta 1991-ben) olyan különböző környezeti problémákkal foglalkozik, mint a globális felmelegedés és az ózonréteg elvékonyodása.

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.
Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret, and world music. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone, sometimes bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers.
His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships.
Cohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. Cohen will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".

Cohen was born to a middle-class Jewish family of Polish-Lithuanian ancestry in 1934 in Montreal, Quebec. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His father, Nathan Cohen, was the owner of a substantial Montreal clothing store, and died when Leonard was nine years old. Like many other Jews named Cohen, Katz, Kagan, etc., his family made a claim of descent from the Kohanim: "I had a very Messianic childhood," he told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest."[2] As a teenager he learned to play the guitar, subsequently forming a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided Leonard with a modest trust income, sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions.

In 1967, Cohen relocated to the United States to pursue a career as a folk singer-songwriter. His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records representative John H. Hammond (who signed artists such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Billie Holiday).
The sound of Cohen's first album Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) was too dark to be a commercial success, but was widely acclaimed by folk music buffs. He became a cult name in the UK, where the album spent over a year on the album charts. He followed up with Songs from a Room (1969) (featuring the oft-covered "Bird on the Wire"), Songs of Love and Hate (1971), Live Songs (1973), and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974).
In 1971, Cohen's music was used to great effect in the soundtrack to Robert Altman's film 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'. Though pulled from the existing Cohen catalog, the songs melded so seamlessly with the story that many believed they had been written for the film.
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cohen toured the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1973, Cohen toured Israel and performed at army bases during the Yom Kippur War. Beginning around 1974, his collaboration with pianist/arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics, but which was never really captured on record. During this time, Cohen often toured with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer. Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums and she recorded an album of Cohen songs in 1987, Famous Blue Raincoat.
In 1977, Cohen released Death of a Ladies' Man (note the plural possessive case; one year later in 1978, Cohen released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, Death of a Lady's Man). The album was produced by Phil Spector, well known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, in which pop music is backed with thick layers of instrumentation, an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty; Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen thinks the end result is "grotesque",[3] but also "semi-virtuous".[4]
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs. Produced by Cohen himself and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer) the album included performances by a jazz-fusion band introduced to Cohen by Mitchell and oriental instruments (oud, Gypsy violin and mandolin). In 2001 Cohen released the live version of songs from his 1979 tour, Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979.

Leonard Norman Cohen (Montréal, 1934. szeptember 21.) kanadai költő, regényíró, énekes és dalszövegíró.

Cohen egy lengyel eredetű középosztálybeli zsidó családba született 1934-ben a québeci Montréalban és Westmountban nőtt fel. Apja, Nathan Cohen, aki tehetős üzletember, egy montréali ruházati bolt vállalkozás tulajdonosa volt, meghalt Leonard kilenc éves korában. Családja, mint a legtöbb Cohen, Kohn, Katz, Kagan stb. nevű zsidó család, a kohaniták leszármazottjának tartotta magát: "Nagyon messianisztikus gyerekkorom volt", mondta 1967-ben. "Azt mondták, hogy Áron főpap leszármazottja vagyok."[1] Tizenévesen tanult meg gitározni, majd alapított egy country-folk együttest Buckskin Boys néven. Apja végrendelete értelmében rendszeres szerény jövedelemhez jutott, ami lehetővé tette, hogy irodalmi ambícióinak élhessen.

1951-ben beiratkozott a McGill Egyetemre, ahol a McGilli Szónoki Egyesület elnöke lett. Első verseskötete még egyetemi évei alatt, 1956-ban jelent meg Let Us Compare Mythologies címmel. 1961-ben kiadott második kötete, a The Spice-Box of Earth tette ismertté nevét irodalmi körökben, elsősorban Kanadában.
Cohen szigorú munkafegyelem szerint dolgozott korai szenvedélyes korszakában. A hatvanas években verseket és prózát is írt, és meglehetősen visszavonultan élt. Egy görög szigetre, Idrára költözött, itt írta Flowers for Hitler című verseskötetét (1964), valamint a The Favourite Game (1963) és Beautiful Losers (1966) című regényeit, amelyek azóta magyarul is megjelentek (A kedvenc játék; Szépséges lúzerek).
A kedvenc játék egy önéletrajzi tárgyú bildungsroman, nevelési regény egy fiatalemberről, aki az írásban találja meg önmagát. Ezzel szemben a Szépséges lúzereket ellen-bildungsromannak tekinthetjük, hiszen – korai posztmodern mintára – a szentet a profánnal, a vallást a szexualitással vegyítve vizsgálja a főszereplők önazonosságát gazdag, lírai nyelvezetben. A regényben Cohen québeci gyökerei is megjelennek – bár ez egy zsidó hátterű szerzőtől talán kissé szokatlan – , az egyik mellékszál egy katolikus boldogról, az irokéz indián Kateri Tekakwitháról szól. A Szépséges lúzerek kezdetben megdöbbentette a kanadai kritikusokat szókimondó szexuális tartalma miatt.

1967-ben Cohen az Egyesült Államokba költözött, hogy megkezdje folk-rock énekesi és dalszerzői pályafutását. Fellépett egy pár fesztiválon, ekkor figyelt fel rá a Columbia Records képviselője, John H. Hammond, aki olyan művészek producere volt, mint Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan és Bruce Springsteen.
Suzanne című dalát először Judy Collins vitte sikerre, majd Cohen maga is elénekelte első albumán, a '67-ben megjelent Songs of Leonard Cohenen. Az album sötét hangvétele miatt nem kelt el túl nagy példányszámban, de a folkrajongók körében nagy sikert aratott. Az Egyesült Királyságban több mint egy évet töltött a lemezeladási listákon. Ezt több hasonló album követte: Songs from a Room (1969) (rajta egyik legtöbbször feldolgozott dala, a Bird on the Wire), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) és New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974).
A 60-as években és a 70-es évek elején Cohen bejárta az Egyesült Államokat, Kanadát és Európát. 1973-ban Izraelben turnézott és katonai állomásokon is fellépett a jom kippuri háború során. 1974-től kezdve együtt koncertezett John Lissauer zongoristával, közös munkájukat a kritika is elismerte, de hangfelvétel sosem készült róla. Ekkoriban Cohen koncertjein már gyakran vokálozott Jennifer Warnes, aki állandó közreműködő lett a későbbi albumokon (ő énekli például a női szólamot a Take This Waltzban). Warnes 1987-ben saját neve alatt is kiadott egy Cohen-feldolgozásokat tartalmazó lemezt Famous Blue Raincoat címmel.
1977-ben jelent meg a Death of a Ladies' Man című lemez, melynek producere Phil Spector volt, akit a "wall of sound" technika feltalálójaként ismernek. A lemezen a popzene gazdag hangszereléssel párosul, ami nagyban eltér Cohen addig megszokott minimalista stílusától. A felvételeket sok nehézség kísérte; Spector állítólag titokban keverte az albumot és egyszer fegyverrel fenyegette meg Cohent. Cohen kezdetben groteszknek minősítette közös munkájukat, [2] később azonban már "félig-meddig művészinek" nevezte azt.[3]
1979-ben Cohen a hagyományosabb hangvételű Recent Songsszal tért vissza. A producerek maga Cohen és Henry Lewy voltak, a lemezen megszólal egy jazz fusion együttes és egzotikus hangszerek is (úd, cigányhegedű, mandolin). A lemezbemutató turnén készült felvételek 2001-ben jelentek meg Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 címmel.