Prelude to Prelude to Foundation

I just finished another Isaac Asimov Foundation story in The Early Asimov: "The Imaginary," which was first published in the November, 1942 issue of Super Science Stories. So far as I can discern, the cover image of this issue is still under copyright protection, so I shan't reproduce it here, but you can see it (worth doing) by going HERE. 

"The Imaginary" is a sequel to "Homo Sol" and is followed by "The Hazing" (which appeared in the October 1942 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories). Which is kind of odd. This is at least nominally a trilogy, yet each story was published in a different magazine. 

I also suspect that the connection between the stories is pretty tenuous--though I can't say for sure, as I haven't yet read "The Hazing." But the only connections between "The Imaginary" and the story which preceded it are (1) the character of Psychologist Tan Porus and (2) the concept of a mathematically based psychology, which is clearly the forerunner of Asimov's Psychohistory, which is at the heart of the Foundation series.

As for the story itself...it was okay. A good little yarn, only dated, for me, by some of the corny exclamations of various characters. (Can't remember any of them exactly, but something along the lines of "Jumping comets!") It also is tinged with that good old Asimovian misogyny, which seems to run at a low temperature through pretty much all of "the good doctor's" works. Make of that what you will. I am reasonably sure that he meant no harm, but I find it at least annoying.

Fortunately not annoying enough to turn away from Asimov's writings, as I have quite a few of his tomes on hand which I still want to read.

ANYway...I now count four stories which I would package in a book that I would have to entitle, Prelude to Prelude to Foundation, and which I would publish at least a month ago (to capitalize on the release of the Apple TV+ Foundation). Those stories are:

"Black Friar of the Flame"

"Homo Sol"

"The Imaginary"

"The Hazing"

Admittedly the connection to Foundation is tenuous at best, but I think if there were little before and after essays for each story that this could be a very interesting little collection. (And there are still a few stories between where I am in The Early Asimov and the publication of the "first" Foundation story..."Foundation" aka "The Encyclopedists.)

This idea is provided free to any publisher who has a working time machine. (Although I wouldn't object to a nod on the Acknowledgments page.)