While Isaac Asimov officially celebrated his birthday as 2 January 1920, his birth date is uncertain. Records were not well kept in the U.S.S.R. in the period between World War I and World War II, particularly if the records concerned Jews. By the time Asimov was three, his family had immigrated to the United States and taken up residence in Brooklyn, New York. Asimov's father tried a number of jobs but finally owned and operated a candy store, continuing in that business through a number of family moves. As a family operation, the candy store soon became the center of Asimov's life. His out-of-school hours were devoted to the store, and he ascribes many of his personal habits and traits--eating quickly, careful use of time, shyness--to his early responsibility. Certainly, it left little time for more than school work until he started to attend college, and even...