《Foundation and Empire 》作者：- Isaac Asimov【EPUB】

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THE FOUNDATION TRILOGY ISAAC ASIMOV Contents Introduction Foundation Foundation and Empire Second Foundation About the author THE STORY BEHIND THE quotFOUNDATIONquot By ISAAC ASIMOVThe date was August 1 1941. World War II had been raging for two years. France had fallen the Battleof Britain had been fought and the Soviet Union had just been invaded by Nazi Germany. The bombingof Pearl Harbor was four months in the future.But on that day with Europe in flames and the evil shadow of Adolf Hitler apparently falling over allthe world what was chiefly on my mind was a meeting toward which I was hastening.I was 21 years old a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University and I had been writingscience fiction professionally for three years. In that time I had sold five stories to John Campbell editorof Astounding and the fifth story quotNightfallquot was about to appear in the September 1941 issue of themagazine. I had an appointment to see Mr. Campbell to tell him the plot of a new story I was planning towrite and the catch was that I had no plot in mind not the trace of one.I therefore tried a device I sometimes use. I opened a book at random and set up free associationbeginning with whatever I first saw. The book I had with me was a collection of the Gilbert and Sullivanplays. I happened to open it to the picture of the Fairy Queen of lolanthe throwing herself at the feet ofPrivate Willis. I thought of soldiers of military empires of the Roman Empire – of a Galactic Empire –ahaWhy shouldnt I write of the fall of the Galactic Empire and of the return of feudalism written from theviewpoint of someone in