Yours, Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) wrote 470 books on every subject from robots to Shakespeare and an estimated 90,000 letters, hundreds of which are collected here by his brother, an adjunct associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. They are an unalloyed delight. Brought to this country at age three from Russia, Asimov apparently spent his entire youth with his nose in a book and forgot virtually nothing he read. As an adult, writing was his passion, and he regarded anything that kept him away from his desk, including vacations, as an annoyance. He was gregarious and a kind judge of his fellow creatures, with a few exceptions. He despised Ronald Reagan, called creationists ``superstitionists'' and fought foes of the ERA for many years. He was a New Deal-era liberal and, although he called himself Jewish because of his family background, he was a militant atheist. Because he would not fly, he traveled little but finally visited England, West Africa and California under pressure from his second wife. Particularly entertaining are his limericks, scattered throughout this winning book. (Nov.)