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Page 68
It was a critical time in Asimov's development as a writer, although he was not to recognize that fact until much later. Up to that time he had written thirty-one stories and sold seventeen. Of the ones he had sold, only three measured up to his own standards of passability the three positronic robot stories, "Robbie," "Reason," and "Liar!" and only one of these, ''Liar!," suggested Asimov's future greatness. "My status on that evening of March 18," he wrote in his autobiography, "was as nothing more than a steady and (perhaps) hopeful third-rater. What's more, that's all that I considered myself at that time."
Despite Asimov's initial concern, the story developed with unprecedented ease. By April 8 it was finished, 13,300 words entitled "Nightfall." It was published in Astounding for September 1941. The magazine's cover painting illustrated the climactic scene of the novelette. Over it were the words:
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NIGHTFALL
by Isaac Asimov
Almost thirty years later, the story led the voting by the Science Fiction Writers of America for stories that had appeared before 1965 the year of the first Nebula Awards and the first Nebula Award volume honoring the best science fiction of the year to be published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
After the publication of "Nightfall," Asimov recalled, "I was no longer a minor writer, hovering about the fringes of science-fiction fame. Finally, after three years of trying, I was accepted as a major figure in the field and I was still only twenty-one." To the detriment of his peace of mind but the benefit of his career, Asimov didn't realize that anything had changed. He kept struggling.
The story that marked such a turning point in Asimov's literary career is not exceptional in many ways (Asimov himself did not consider it either the best story of its pre-1965 period or even his own best story). The plot develops much more mechanically than in some of his better stories, even in some earlier ones such as "Liar!," the characters serve plot purposes and little else, and the language is functional. Why do readers, even fellow writers, rate it so high? The answer reflects the situation of science fiction in 1941. John W. Campbell, Jr., was consolidating his position of leadership in science fiction, and what was appearing in Astounding was becoming, for most science-fiction readers, the definition of science fiction.
The most important element of "Nightfall" was subject. It had a big

 
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