87. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

In his autobiography In Memory Yet Green, Asimov recounted how I, Robot, his short-story collection of 1950, got its title.

On June 8 I visited Fred, got my advance for The Stars, like Dust —, and handed over additional chapters. I also gave him the manuscript of the robot story collection. Martin Greenberg had rejected my notion of calling it Mind and Iron and suggested it be called I, Robot.
“Impossible, Marty,” I said. “Eando Binder wrote a short story called ‘I, Robot’ back in 1938.”
To which Marty answered, with unassailable logic, “F— Eando Binder.”
So I, Robot it was. There is no question that Marty’s title was far better than mine and probably helped sell the book.

(Eando Binder was in fact two people, the brothers, E. and O. Binder – E and O = Eando – early US sci-fi writers.)

It’s a good story, but it begs a further question — where did Eando Binder get it from? There is one other famous book with the same title formula: Robert Graves’ I, Claudius, which was a huge international hit in 1934, four years before the Binders’ I, Robot. Coincidence? You decide.

Consulted:
Asimov, Isaac: In Memory Yet Green (1979) (Back cover blurb: ‘THE AMAZING ASIMOV TACKLES HIS MOST FASCINATING SUBJECT - HIMSELF!’)