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publish Astounding-type stories had been a failure. He now wanted blood-and-thunder Amazing-type stories. Asimov was taken aback but felt no need for concern since Merwin had asked for the novella and had approved part of it. |
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On October 15 Asimov called Merwin and was told that the story would need revision. He went to the office and asked to see Margulies. Merwin came out instead and described the extensive revisions necessary. To Asimov it meant starting all over again, ending not only with a poorer story but still without assurance that it would be accepted. In a rare moment of anger, Asimov said, "Go to hell!" and stalked from Merwin's office with his manuscript. Later he regretted the violence of his reaction, though not the action itself, particularly when Merwin kept apologizing every time he saw Asimov. "An editor is entirely within his rights to reject a story, even a story he has ordered," Asimov wrote in his autobiography. But his disappointment was compounded when Campbell rejected the novella as well. |
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Asimov stuck the manuscript in a drawer, more than half convinced himself that it was worthless. A few months later, however, Frederik Pohl, who was returning to the literary agent business, persuaded Asimov to let him show the novella to Martin Greenberg, a young man who was going into the publishing of science-fiction books under the name of Gnome Press. There wouldn't be much money in it for Asimov, but few science-fiction novels were being published and not only would the prestige be great but the publication might lead to more important things. At the end of January Pohl reported that Greenberg wanted the manuscript, but by the end of that year nothing had happened with it or seemed likely to happen. |
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On February 25, 1949, Pohl suggested to Asimov that he try "Grow Old with Me" on Doubleday. By this time Asimov was thoroughly discouraged with it. "No, Fred, it stinks," he said. "Who cares about your opinion?" Pohl replied, and once more the manuscript went out. By the end of March Doubleday had agreed to take an option on the book if Asimov rewrote it and lengthened it to seventy thousand words. The option brought him $150 (of which Pohl, as his agent, kept $15) and the promise of $350 more, as an advance against standard royalties, if Doubleday liked the revisions and agreed to publish the novel. |
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Asimov completed his revisions on May 20, taking six and a half weeks. He was asked to provide a new title and came up with Pebble in the Sky, taken from a statement by one of his characters, a scientist named Shekt, that "Earth is but a pebble in the sky." Pohl picked up the manuscript and delivered it to Doubleday on May 22. A week later |
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