The entrepreneur who asked Stephen King for a blurb and got a book instead

A 15-year-old Charles Ardai wanted to interview Isaac Asimov for a magazine article about a new videogame based on the latter’s novel Robots of Dawn. Ardai called up the science-fiction writer’s publisher, Doubleday, and said, “I’d like to interview Isaac Asimov for an article about his new video game.”

“That’s great, but we can’t give out his number,” the Doubleday employee replied.

“No, no, he gave me his phone number,” bluffed Ardai. “But something got spilled on it and I just can’t read it.”