October, and it was rejected six days later. After making the rounds, the story never sold and was eventually lost. "The Oak", Asimov's twenty-second story, was written in the summer of 1940. The story was a fantasy about an oak tree that served as an oracle and delivered ambiguous statements. Asimov submitted it to Unknown on 16 July, and it was rejected. Asimov then submitted it to Weird Tales, which also rejected it. The story never sold and was eventually lost. "Masks", Asimov's twenty-ninth story, was written on 3 February 1941. Asimov submitted it to Unknown on 10 February, and it was rejected. The story never sold and was eventually lost. Twenty-nine years later, Asimov could remember nothing about "Masks" except that it was a 1500-word fantasy. "Big Game", Asimov's thirty-ninth story, was written on 17 November 1941. Campbell wanted to create a category of short-short science fiction tall tales called "Probability Zero" that would serve as a market for beginning writers, and he asked Asimov to write one for him. The 1000-word "Big Game" was Asimov's first effort, and Campbell rejected it. Asimov subsequently submitted "Big Game" to Collier's Weekly in 1944, resulting in another rejection. After expanding the story to 3000 words and retitling it "The Hunted", Asimov submitted it to Thrilling Wonder Stories on 30 October 1946, resulting in yet another rejection; submission of the expanded version to Astounding resulted in still another rejection. After that, both versions of the story disappeared, and Asimov recorded "Big Game" as lost. However, after publication of The Early Asimov, a fan named Matthew Bruce Tepper found a copy of the original version among Asimov's papers at Boston University, and Asimov finally published the story in the anthology Before the Golden Age. Reception Lester del Rey recommended the collection, noting that, by design and necessity, it contained "stories the author knows are not his best." He described Asimov's commentary as "so marvelously consistent – and consistently entertaining." References External links 1972 short story collections Science fiction short story collections by Isaac Asimov Doubleday (publisher) books