THE BICENTENNIAL MAN / ORIGINAL CARBON TYPESCRIPT / Manuscript

THE BICENTENNIAL MAN / ORIGINAL CARBON TYPESCRIPT being 50 pages, approximately 15,000 words, fine in custom tray-case. Accompanied by a 200 word plus TYPED LETTER SIGNED by Asimov dated July 12th, 1974 to his long time friend and fellow science fiction personage, Forrie Ackerman, mentioning that he cannot promise a science fiction story to a deadline, but since the proposed anthology title is to be THE BICENTENNIAL MAN, there were 4 previously published items in The Saturday Evening Post that might be possibly utilized revolving around Benjamin Franklin which could be had for a small royalty. Along with copies of three other letters to Ackerman which yield yet more information regarding the specifics of this eventual typescript. (Which goes like this: Sometime in 1974, a woman by the name of Naomi Gordon approached Forrest Ackerman with an idea for a science fiction anthology for the upcoming Bicentennial of the U.S. Projected writers for this undertaking were to be Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Fred Pohl, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Heinlein, Philip Jose Farmer, Larry Niven, A. E. Van Vogt, Jack Williamson and of course Isaac Asimov. While this project never fully materialized with some authors agreeing to the project and others not and some producing an actual typescript and again others not, Isaac obviously opted in thereby producing this novella. When the anthology finally and officially became a lost cause, the story was then immediately published when submitted elsewhere and went on to win not only the prestigious NEBULA award, but the highly coveted HUGO award as well). Asimov's typescripts are very rarely offered on the open market (or the private market for that matter with most, if not all of them, going to the Boston University Library) and the opportunity to purchase the second of only three of his fictional works to win a HUGO award (the final being another short story entitled GOLD, published much later in 1991, which was written on a computer and thus never a true and proper typescript) and the second to win the NEBULA award, not too mention a "ROBOT STORY" to boot and the source work for the film of the same name with Robin Williams in the lead, should prove a temptation most difficult to ignore. (First option of refusal to purchase the rest of the THE BICENTENNIAL MAN file consisting of all remaining authorial typescripts and correspondence will be tendered to the purchaser of this item.)