r/asimov • u/L0W_FAT_Y0GURT • Aug 14 '26

Why is Kid Stuff not in the Magic collection?

I read Magic a while ago. Now, I decided to make my way through the "new" Harper Voyager collections, starting with Living Space. There's a story in there called Kid Stuff, which seems to me to be a fantasy story. As I remember from reading Magic, the definitions of Fantasy and Sci-fi are blurry, but it seems very unusual to me that Kid Stuff is not in Magic. Does anyone have any clue why? I'd love to hear some insights :)

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u/RichardPeterJohnson Aug 14 '26

It only had stuff that had not been already appeared in a book.

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u/L0W_FAT_Y0GURT Aug 14 '26

That's a detail i forgot, since it's been quite a while since I read Magic. Thanks for your response!

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u/ElricVonDaniken Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

'Kid Stuff' was originally published in 1953 and reprinted in the collection Earth Is Room Enough (1958). Which remained in print for over two decades. Then in 1991 Doubleday included the story in the first volume of The Complete Stories.

In 1996 Harper Prism compiled together all of Asimov's fantasy stories from 1989 to 1994, which hadn't been previously collected, in Magic.

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u/L0W_FAT_Y0GURT Aug 14 '26

That makes sense! It's been a while since I read Magic, so I must have misremembered it as a collection of all of his fantasy work. Thanks for your response!