Greenberg suggested Asimov find someone who would take his 47-year-old short story and – keeping the story essentially as written – add a detailed beginning and a detailed ending to it. Asimov believed that the unusual plot of 'Nightfall' distinguished it from others, but ' The Last Question' was his own favorite story. He later said that before 'Nightfall' neither he nor anyone else other than perhaps Campbell considered him more than a 'third rater' his name appeared on the cover of Astounding for the first time, and the story made him one of the field's top writers. Consequently Asimov received US$166 ($3,100 in modern dollars), more than twice any previous payment for a story. He and Asimov chose the title together.Ĭampbell bought the story at a bonus rate of 1 + 1⁄ 4 cents per word and at more than 13,000 words, 'Nightfall' was Asimov's longest story yet. If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!Ĭampbell's opinion was to the contrary: 'I think men would go mad'. Campbell asked Asimov to write the story after discussing with him a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson: It was the 32nd story by Asimov, written while he was a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University.

Written from 17 March to 9 April 1941 and sold on 24 April, the short story was published in the September 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction under editor John W.

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