Blind Alley

"Blind Alley" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and later included in the collection The Early Asimov (1972). Although the story postulates a race of intelligent non-humans, it is set in the Foundation universe, during the era of Trantor's Galactic Empire. Publication history "Blind Alley" was the only story from mid-1943 to mid-1945 that was not part of Asimov's Foundation or Robot series. Written in September and October 1944, it was accepted by John W. Campbell in October 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. The $42.50 from the anthology caused him to realize that it was possible to earn more money from a story than the initial publication. Conklin included the story in a number of anthologies: the 1963 edition of The Best of Science Fiction, Great Stories of Space Travel also published that year and The Golden Age of Science Fiction in 1980. It also appeared in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 7 edited by Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg in 1982, and Intergalactic Empires edited by Asimov, Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh in 1983. Asimov included it in his own The Early Asimov in 1972, The Asimov Chronicles in 1989, and in volume 2 of The Complete Stories in 1992.