Asimov's first wide-ranging reference work, The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science (1960), was nominated for a National Book Award, and in 1963 he won a Hugo Award—his first—for his essays for F&SF.1963 Hugo Award winners at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017). The popularity of his science books and the income he derived from them allowed him to give up most academic responsibilities and become a full-time freelance writer.I. Asimov: A Memoir chapter 65. He encouraged other science fiction writers to write popular science, stating in 1967 that "the knowledgeable, skillful science writer is worth his weight in contracts", with "twice as much work as he can possibly handle".
Asimov's first wide-ranging reference work, The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science (1960), was nominated for a National Book Award, and in 1963 he won a Hugo Award—his first—for his essays for F&SF.1963 Hugo Award winners at the New England Science Fiction Association website (retrieved October 22, 2017). The popularity of his science books and the income he derived from them allowed him to give up most academic responsibilities and become a full-time freelance writer.I. Asimov A Memoir chapter 65. He encouraged other science fiction writers to write popular science, stating in 1967 that "the knowledgeable, skillful science writer is worth his weight in contracts", with "twice as much work as he can possibly handle".