# Isaac Asimov--AIDS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482 "2002-03-15T16:44:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/1 "2002-03-15T16:44:00Z")
> **[Scifi.com](https://www.syfy.com/scifi/scifiwire/art-main.html?2002-03%2F14%2F12.00.books)** > > Visit Syfy.com ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/2 "2002-03-15T16:48:28Z")
Eep I don’t know what’s sadder, his dying of it or the fact that it was kept hidden all this time. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/3 "2002-03-15T20:36:14Z")
☹ ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/4 "2002-03-16T00:38:21Z")
Keeping his AIDS diagnosis seems so contrary to The Good Doctor’s history of cheerful revelations of his various surgeries and illnesses. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/5 "2002-03-16T01:19:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Keeping his AIDS diagnosis seems so contrary to The Good Doctor’s history of cheerful revelations of his various surgeries and illnesses. \*\* I assume he found out he had AIDS some time in the 1980’s. I was pretty young back then but I don’t think he would have gotten a lot of support if he announced it to the world. And of course once you decide to keep something private it can be difficult to reveal it in the future. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/6 "2002-03-17T18:35:42Z")
Maybe he just wanted privacy. Or maybe he wanted to avoid being treated as / seen as a dying man – for years, possibly. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/7 "2002-03-17T22:04:47Z")
Until he revealed it in his autobiography, Asimov was an athiest. He recounted (can’t remember if it was the first or second volume), how he tapdanced around the question during an interview with Dick Cavett. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/8 "2002-03-18T04:22:38Z")
I saw Asimov at three conventions. He was somewhat plump at the first two, but at the Worldcon in 1989 he had clearly lost a _lot_ of weight. I wondered if something had been wrong, or if perhaps h had been on a weight-loss routine, and finally figured it was probably the latter. Guess I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/9 "2002-03-18T04:27:43Z")
I saw Asimov at three conventions. He was somewhat plump at the first two, but at the Worldcon in 1989 he had clearly lost a _lot_ of weight. I wondered if something had been wrong, or if perhaps h had been on a weight-loss routine, and finally figured it was probably the latter. Guess I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/10 "2002-03-18T13:48:16Z")
Truly, it is his family’s business what the public knows or doesn’t know about what killed him. If they didn’t want anybody to know their business, that’s their choice. I wonder why she’s revealing it now? It’s a testament to how tight the Science Fiction community is that this was kept under wraps so long. Surely his close friends Harlan Ellison and Fredrick Pohl knew and not a word. That’s class. Stuff like that has a way of sneaking out. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/11 "2002-03-18T15:51:28Z")
Everything I’ve read seemed to imply that Ellison was more like an occasional acquaintance than a close friend of Asimov’s. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/12 "2002-03-18T18:18:38Z")
Remember Arthur Ashe, the pro tennis player? When he was diagnosed with HIV, he did not want to go public. He wanted to keep it private, spend time with his family. But the media found out. He called a press confernece so as to annouce it his way rather then theirs. I thought it was a shame that, due to being considered newsworthy, he did not get to keep his health problems to himself. I’m glad Asimov was able to maintain his privacy. I think LateComer is probably right that his friends in the SF community kept their mouths shut about this. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/13 "2002-03-18T19:56:22Z")
How odd. I always thought he died from congestive heart failure, etc. He was pretty open about being in poor health and having a lousy ticker for years before he died. (Hence the bypass/transfusion mentioned as the source of the HIV infection.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/14 "2002-03-18T20:33:55Z")
Of course, it _is_ possible to have AIDS, but to die of something else first. And almost any form of death can be described as “heart failure”. What I don’t quite understand, though, is why this is sad news. It was certainly sad when he died, but is it any more so because of the cause of death? Unless it’s sad as a commentary on our social mores, that he felt he had to keep it quiet… But as evidenced by the fact that Janet is revealing it now, our mores have obviously changed by now. ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/15 "2002-03-18T20:34:54Z")
After I read this news I started re-reading the end of the I Asimov. Considering my own personal fandom towards him, most likely I’ll spend part of the day reading the last articles of his in F&SF and Isaac Asimov Mags along with the obits in the same magazines, and the obits I clipped out of newspapers. In retrospect, the new novels and rewrites and his more vigorous writing style and output near the end is understandable. I miss his science articles in F&SF - I’d read them every month. I’ll miss the playful stories, and I’ll miss his editorials in Isaac Asimov Magazine. As a life long science fiction fan, and one of Asimov’s biggest fans, I always felt like I knew him. His autobiographical works and his science articles, left you with an impression that you had a candid and honest view of him … and hearing this is like a friend kept a secret from you. Reading this is like losing Asimov again. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/16 "2002-03-18T20:39:42Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if he died more **with** AIDS than **from** it. He had plenty of stuff that was going to kill him, anyway. They all contributed. “Congestive heart failure” is as good a catch-all as anything. I can’t blame him for being secretive about it in '92, though I feel some regret that he, beloved figure that he was, could not find a way to help others deal with the stigma of terminal illness, especially after all that Ryan White managed to do. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/17 "2002-04-03T17:49:59Z")
Janet Asimov has been sending out the following statement about Isaac Asimov’s death in order to correct an error in the Locus article on the subject (and to set straight some speculation on the topic here): > [@](#): > > To everyone who knew Isaac: In a few days it will be the 10th anniversary of his death. In the new book “It’s Been a Good Life”, my epilogue reveals that Isaac got HIV during bypass surgery in 1983. A few years after that I urged his doctors to test him because he had various symptoms, but they did not until late in 1989, when he was due for heart valve surgery, which was then cancelled. He lived only 1 and 1/2 years after learning that he had HIV, and during that time he was sick, too sick to argue with the doctors when they insisted (over my objections) that we keep it a secret. An article in the latest “Locus” says that I persuaded Isaac to keep it secret. That is not true. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/18 "2002-04-04T02:36:22Z")
You know, now that I think about it, it might not have been either AIDS or heart failure that killed Isaac. He was pretty involved with the Hemlock Society, IIRC and he may simply have decided to “check out” a little early, rather than suffer from full blown AIDS or the other complications of heart disease. ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isaac-asimov-aids/98482/19 "2002-04-04T19:03:33Z")
Wendall–I’m not sure what you’ve been reading, in regards to the Asimov/Ellison relationship. Check out Asimov’s comments about Ellison in “The Hugo Winners, Vol III”, and “I, Asimov”, and Ellison’s comments in the intro to the “I, Robot” screenplay (not to mention Ellison’s great obit in “Asimov’s SF Magazine”). The only thing that kept them out of touch was that Ellison lives in LA and Asimov lived in NYC (and hated to travel). People still think they were enemies based on the mock-adversarial comments they made about each other in the late 50’s and early 60’s. They carried on that way because they thought it was funny, but after a few humorless folks blew it all out of proportion, they stopped.