1940s
2 books
- Asimov's earliest stories, sold to the pulps while he was still a teenager, starting with Marooned Off Vesta. Rough beside the Foundation years, sure, but the puzzle-first instinct is already there, and you can watch him teach himself the craft.
- You get a slow, claustrophobic descent into family history, antiquarian obsession, and forbidden experiments, with Dr. Willett piecing together what happened to Charles Dexter Ward. Lovecraft’s prose can be stiff and purple, but the old letters, graveyard lore, and mounting sense of corruption make it rewarding if you like horror that creeps rather than lunges.