S is for Zebatinsky

Marshall Zebatinsky was embarrassed. He, a nuclear physicist, visiting a numerologist in the hopes of furthering his career--to be famous. Was he so desperate for advancement that he would resort to the superstition, or worse fakery, of a numerologist? It was at his wife urgings and now the numerologist has told him that by changing one letter in his name all his dreams would come true. This story originally appeared in Star Science Fiction magazine in 1958. It later appeared in the story collection, Nine Tomorrows, with the title "Spell My Name With an S". Asimov's frustration with people misspelling his name as "Azimov" was the germ of the idea to the story.