"The Author's Ordeal" are lyrics to a song by American author Isaac Asimov. They were first published in Science Fiction Quarterly, May 1957, pp. 34–36. They are included in three collections of Asimov's short stories: Earth Is Room Enough, The Far Ends of Time and Earth (omnibus edition) and The Complete Stories, Volume 1.^[1]

The lyrics pastiche the Gilbert and Sullivan patter song known as "the (Lord Chancellor's) Nightmare Song" from Iolanthe. The song depicts the agonies he goes through in thinking up a new science fiction story. It notes that the process of devising a space opera is incompatible with living in the real world with all its "dull facts of life that hound you".

• "The Foundation of S.F. Success"

• Seiler, Edward. "Isaac Asimov's Short Fiction: Larry Stories, Miscellaneous Mysteries, Poems and Lyrics" (1995) AsimovOnline.com

• The Author's Ordeal title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Publication history of the poem

This 1950s song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e