The three
Empire books, first published between 1950 and 1952, are Asimov's three earliest novels published in his own name (
David Starr, Space Ranger was published before
The Currents of Space, but had been published under his pen name "Paul French", and the
Foundation books were collections of linked short stories rather than continuous novels).
Pebble in the Sky was originally written in the summer of 1947 under the title "Grow Old with Me" for
Startling Stories, whose editor
Sam Merwin, Jr. had approached Asimov to write a forty thousand word short novel for the magazine. The title was adapted from
Robert Browning's
Rabbi ben Ezra, the first few lines of which (starting "Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be...") were included in the final novel. It was rejected by
Startling Stories on the basis that the magazine's emphasis was more on
adventure than science-heavy fiction (despite the editor having invited Asimov to write the latter as an experiment for the magazine), and again by
John W. Campbell, Asimov's usual editor. In 1949,
Doubleday editor Walter I. Bradbury accepted the story on the suggestion of
Frederik Pohl, on the condition it was expanded to seventy thousand words and the title changed to something more science fiction oriented; it was published in January 1950 as
Pebble in the Sky. "Grow Old With Me" was later published in its original form along with other draft stories in
The Alternate Asimovs in 1986.
The Stars, Like Dust was originally serialised under the title
Tyrann in
Galaxy Science Fiction from January to March 1951, and was published as a novel by Doubleday later that year. The first paperback edition was an
Ace Books double novel along with
Roger Dee's
An Earth Gone Mad;
The Stars, Like Dust was retitled
The Rebellious Stars for this edition without Asimov's consent. The novel was reprinted in with the
Foundation Trilogy,
The Naked Sun and
I, Robot in a hardback selected works edition in 1982 by
Littlehampton Book Services.
The Currents of Space was originally serialised in
Astounding Science Fiction from October to December 1952 before being published by Doubleday as a novel the same year. The books have been reprinted a number of times as a trilogy (as well as many times separately): in 1986 by
Ballantine Books as "Galactic Empire Novel[s]", in 1992 by
Spectra as "The Empire Novels" and in 2010 along with
The End of Eternity by
Orb Books, in both print and
Kindle editions. After the publication of
The Currents of Space in 1952, all three novels (the only Asimov novels published at that time) were collected into an omnibus titled
Triangle. They were republished again as a single volume,
The Empire Novels, in 2002 by the
Science Fiction Book Club. "Blind Alley" was published before any of the novels; written in 1944, it was accepted by John W. Campbell later that year and published in
Astounding Science Fiction in March 1945. It was anthologised by
Groff Conklin in
The Best of Science Fiction, the first of Asimov's stories to have been reprinted, and was later included in
The Early Asimov (in 1972, along with a very brief history of its origins),
The Asimov Chronicles in 1989 and in volume 2 of
The Complete Stories in 1992. It has never been published together with the novels, as it is connected only on the basis of being set during the Galactic Empire, after the
Robot stories and before the
Foundation series. ==Development and themes==