When "Unto the Fourth Generation" first appeared in "F&SF", Marten went through the experience without being affected by it in any way. After the story appeared, Asimov was attending a dinner with Mills. He was chatting happily with Janet Jeppson, a fan he had just met, and Mills asked her what she thought of the story. Jeppson said that it was flawed because Marten had been unaffected by his meeting with Phinehas Levkovich. Asimov decided that Jeppson was right, and when he included the story in "Nightfall and Other Stories", he changed the ending so that Marten was left with a feeling of well-being. Asimov and Jeppson kept in touch, and fourteen years after having dinner together, they got married.