Robert Anson Heinlein (/ˈhaɪnlaɪn/HYNE-lyne;[2][3][4] July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an Americanscience fiction author,aeronautical engineer, andnaval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers",[5] he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre ofhard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value ofcritical thinking.[6] His plots often posed provocative situations which challenged conventionalsocial mores.[7] His work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre, and on modern culture more generally.
Heinlein became one of the first American science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such asThe Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he,Isaac Asimov, andArthur C. Clarke are often considered the "Big Three" ofEnglish-language science fiction authors.[8][9][10] Notable Heinlein works includeStranger in a Strange Land,[11]Starship Troopers (which helped mold thespace marine andmecha archetypes) andThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.[12] His work sometimes had controversial aspects, such as plural marriage inThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,militarism inStarship Troopers and technologically competent women characters who were formidable,[13] yet often stereotypically feminine—such asFriday.
Heinlein used his science fiction as a way to explore provocative social and political ideas and to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion, and sex.Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individualliberty andself-reliance, the nature of sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence oforganized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repressnonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.
Heinlein was heavily influenced by the visionary writers and philosophers of his day. William H. Patterson Jr., writing inRobert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, states that by 1930, Heinlein was a progressive liberal who had spent some time in the open sexuality climate ofNew York'sJazz AgeGreenwich Village. Heinlein believed that some level of socialism was inevitable and was already occurring in America. He was absorbing the social concepts of writers such asH. G. Wells andUpton Sinclair. He adopted many of the progressive social beliefs of his day and projected them forward.[14]
Heinlein was named the firstScience Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974.[15] Four of his novels wonHugo Awards. In addition, fifty years after publication, seven of his works were awarded "Retro Hugos"—awards given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence.[16] In his fiction, Heinlein coined terms that have become part of the English language, includinggrok,waldo andspeculative fiction, as well as popularizing existing terms like "TANSTAAFL", "pay it forward", and "space marine". He also anticipated mechanicalcomputer-aided design with "Drafting Dan" in his novelThe Door into Summer and described a modern version of awaterbed in his novelStranger in a Strange Land.
Heinlein, born on July 7, 1907, to Rex Ivar Heinlein (an accountant) and Bam Lyle Heinlein, inButler, Missouri, was the third of seven children. He was a sixth-generationGerman-American; a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war, starting with theWar of Independence.[17]
He spent his childhood inKansas City, Missouri.[18] The outlook and values of this time and place (in his own words, "TheBible Belt") had an influence on his fiction, especially in his later works, as he drew heavily upon his childhood in establishing the setting and cultural atmosphere in works likeTime Enough for Love andTo Sail Beyond the Sunset.[citation needed] The 1910 appearance ofHalley's Comet inspired the young child's life-long interest in astronomy.[19]
In January 1924, the sixteen year old Heinlein lied about his age to enlist in Company C,110th Engineer Regiment, of theMissouri National Guard, in Kansas City. His family could not afford to send Heinlein to college, so he sought an appointment to a military academy.[20] When Heinlein graduated fromKansas City Central High School in 1924, he was initially prevented from attending theUnited States Naval Academy at Annapolis because his older brother Rex was a student there, and at the time, regulations discouraged multiple family members from attending the academy simultaneously.[citation needed] He instead matriculated atKansas City Community College and began vigorously petitioning Missouri SenatorJames A. Reed for an appointment to the Naval Academy. In part due to the influence of thePendergast machine, the Naval Academy admitted him in June 1925.[12] Heinlein received his discharge from the Missouri National Guard as a staff sergeant. Reed later told Heinlein that he had received 100 letters of recommendation for nomination to the Naval Academy, 50 for other candidates and 50 for Heinlein.[20]
Heinlein's experience in theU.S. Navy exerted a strong influence on his character and writing. In 1929, he graduated from the Naval Academy with the equivalent of abachelor of arts in engineering.[21] (At that time, the Academy did not confer degrees.) He ranked fifth in his class academically but with a class standing of 20th of 243 due to disciplinary demerits. The U.S. Navy commissioned him as an ensign shortly after his graduation. He advanced to lieutenant junior grade in 1931 while serving aboard the newaircraft carrierUSS Lexington, where he worked inradio communications—a technology then still in its earlier stages. Thecaptain of this carrier,Ernest J. King, later served as theChief of Naval Operations andCommander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet duringWorld War II. Military historians frequently[quantify] interviewed Heinlein during his later years and asked him about Captain King and his service as the commander of the U.S. Navy's first modern aircraft carrier. Heinlein also served as gunnery officer aboard thedestroyerUSS Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant.[22] His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and theMissouri National Guard, reaching the rank ofmajor general in the National Guard.[23]
In 1929, Heinlein married Elinor Curry of Kansas City.[24] However, their marriage lasted only about one year.[3] His second marriage, to Leslyn MacDonald (1904–1981) in 1932, lasted 15 years. MacDonald was, according to the testimony of Heinlein's Navy friend,Rear AdmiralCal Laning, "astonishingly intelligent, widely read, and extremely liberal, though a registeredRepublican",[25] while Isaac Asimov later recalled that Heinlein was, at the time, "a flamingliberal".[26](See section:Politics of Robert Heinlein.)
Virginia and Robert Heinlein in a 1952Popular Mechanics article, titled "A House to Make Life Easy". The Heinleins, both engineers, designed the house for themselves with many innovative features.
At thePhiladelphia Naval Shipyard, Heinlein met and befriended achemical engineer namedVirginia "Ginny" Gerstenfeld. After the war, her engagement having fallen through, she attendedUCLA for doctoral studies inchemistry, and while there reconnected with Heinlein. As his second wife'salcoholism gradually spun out of control,[27] Heinlein moved out and the couple filed for divorce. Heinlein's friendship with Virginia turned into a relationship and on October 21, 1948—shortly after thedecree nisi came through—they married in the town ofRaton, New Mexico. Soon thereafter, they set up housekeeping in the Broadmoor district ofColorado Springs, Colorado, in a house that Heinlein and his wife designed. As the area was newly developed, they were allowed to choose their own house number, 1776 Mesa Avenue.[28] The design of the house was featured inPopular Mechanics.[29] They remained married until Heinlein's death. In 1965, after various chronic health problems of Virginia's were traced back toaltitude sickness, they moved toSanta Cruz, California, which is atsea level. Robert and Virginia designed and built a new residence, circular in shape, in the adjacent village ofBonny Doon.[30][31]
Ginny undoubtedly served as a model for many of his intelligent, fiercely independent female characters.[32][33] She was a chemist androcket test engineer, and held a higher rank in the Navy than Heinlein himself. She was also an accomplished college athlete, earning fourvarsity letters.[1] In 1953–1954, the Heinleins voyaged around the world (mostly viaocean liners andcargo liners, as Ginny detested flying), which Heinlein described inTramp Royale, and which also provided background material for science fiction novels set aboard spaceships on long voyages, such asPodkayne of Mars,Friday andJob: A Comedy of Justice, the latter initially being set on a cruise much as detailed inTramp Royale. Ginny acted as the first reader of hismanuscripts. Isaac Asimov believed that Heinlein made a swing to theright politically at the same time he married Ginny.
In 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy, owing topulmonary tuberculosis. During a lengthy hospitalization, and inspired by his own experience while bed-ridden, he developed a design for awaterbed.[34]
After his discharge, Heinlein attended a few weeks of graduate classes inmathematics andphysics at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), but he soon quit, either because of his ill-health or because of a desire to enter politics.[35]
Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, includingreal estate sales andsilver mining, but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active inUpton Sinclair's socialistEnd Poverty in California movement (EPIC) in the early 1930s. He was deputy publisher of theEPIC News, which Heinlein noted "recalled a mayor, kicked out a district attorney, replaced the governor with one of our choice."[36] When Sinclair gained theDemocratic nomination forGovernor of California in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for theCalifornia State Assembly in 1938, but was unsuccessful. Heinlein was running as a left-wing Democrat in a conservative district, and he never made it past the Democratic primary.[37]
While not destitute after the campaign—he had a small disability pension from the Navy—Heinlein turned to writing to pay off his mortgage. His first published story, "Life-Line", was printed in the August 1939 issue ofAstounding Science Fiction.[38] Originally written for a contest, it sold toAstounding for significantly more than the contest's first-prize payoff. AnotherFuture History story, "Misfit", followed in November.[38] Some saw Heinlein's talent and stardom from his first story,[39] and he was quickly acknowledged as a leader of the new movement toward"social" science fiction. In California he hosted theMañana Literary Society, a 1940–41 series of informal gatherings of new authors.[40] He was the guest of honor at Denvention, the 1941Worldcon, held in Denver. DuringWorld War II, Heinlein was employed by the Navy as a civilian aeronautical engineer at the Navy Aircraft Materials Center at thePhiladelphia Naval Shipyard inPennsylvania.[41] Heinlein recruitedIsaac Asimov andL. Sprague de Camp to also work there.[34] While at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards, Asimov, Heinlein, and de Camp brainstormed unconventional approaches to kamikaze attacks, such as using sound to detect approaching planes.[42]
As the war wound down in 1945, Heinlein began to re-evaluate his career. Theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with the outbreak of theCold War, galvanized him to write nonfiction on political topics. In addition, he wanted to break into better-paying markets. He published four influentialshort stories forThe Saturday Evening Post magazine, leading off, in February 1947, with "The Green Hills of Earth". That made him the first science fiction writer to break out of the "pulp ghetto". In 1950, the movieDestination Moon—the documentary-like film for which he had written the story and scenario, co-written the script, and invented many of the effects—won anAcademy Award forspecial effects.
Heinlein created SF stories with social commentary about relationships. InThe Puppet Masters, a 1951 alien invasion novel, the point of view character Sam persuades fellow operative Mary to marry him. When they go to the county clerk, they are offered a variety of marriage possibilities; “Term, renewable or lifetime”, as short as six months or as long as forever.[43]
Also, he embarked on a series ofjuvenile novels for theCharles Scribner's Sons publishing company that went from 1947 through 1959, at the rate of one book each autumn, in time forChristmas presents to teenagers. He also wrote forBoys' Life in 1952.
Heinlein used topical materials throughout hisjuvenile series beginning in 1947, but in 1958 he interrupted work onThe Heretic (the working title ofStranger in a Strange Land) to write and publish a book exploring ideas of civic virtue, initially serialized asStarship Soldiers. In 1959, his novel (now entitledStarship Troopers) was considered by the editors and owners of Scribner's to be too controversial for one of its prestige lines, and it was rejected.[44] Heinlein found another publisher (Putnam), feeling himself released from the constraints of writing novels for children. He had told an interviewer that he did not want to do stories that merely added to categories defined by other works. Rather he wanted to do his own work, stating that: "I want to do my own stuff, my own way".[45] He would go on to write a series of challenging books that redrew the boundaries of science fiction, includingStranger in a Strange Land (1961) andThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966).
Beginning in 1970, Heinlein had a series of health crises, broken by strenuous periods of activity in his hobby ofstonemasonry: in a private correspondence, he referred to that as his "usual and favorite occupation between books".[46] The decade began with a life-threatening attack ofperitonitis, recovery from which required more than two years, and treatment of which required multiple transfusions of Heinlein'srare blood type, A2 negative.[citation needed] As soon as he was well enough to write again, he began work onTime Enough for Love (1973), which introduced many of the themes found in his later fiction.
In the mid-1970s, Heinlein wrote two articles for theBritannica Compton Yearbook.[47] He and Ginny crisscrossed the country helping to reorganizeblood donation in the United States in an effort to assist the system which had saved his life.[citation needed] At science fiction conventions to receive his autograph, fans would be asked to co-sign with Heinlein a beautifully embellished pledge form he supplied stating that the recipient agrees that they willdonate blood. He was the guest of honor at the Worldcon in 1976 for the third time atMidAmeriCon inKansas City, Missouri. At that Worldcon, Heinlein hosted a blood drive and donors' reception to thank all those who had helped save lives.
Beginning in 1977, and including an episode while vacationing inTahiti in early 1978, he had episodes of reversible neurologic dysfunction due totransient ischemic attacks.[48] Over the next few months, he became more and more exhausted, and his health again began to decline. The problem was determined to bea blocked carotid artery, and he had one of the earliest known carotid bypass operations to correct it.
Heinlein's surgical treatment re-energized him, and he wrote five novels from 1980 until he died in his sleep fromemphysema andheart failure on May 8, 1988.
In 1995,Spider Robinson wrote the novelVariable Star based on an outline and notes created by Heinlein.[49] Heinlein's posthumously published nonfiction includes a selection of correspondence and notes edited into a somewhat autobiographical examination of his career, published in 1989 under the titleGrumbles from the Grave by his wife, Virginia; his book on practical politics written in 1946 and published asTake Back Your Government in 1992; and a travelogue of their first around-the-world tour in 1954,Tramp Royale. The novelPodkayne of Mars, which had been edited against Heinlein's wishes in their original release, was reissued with the original ending.Stranger In a Strange Land was originally published in a shorter form, but both the long and short versions are now simultaneously available in print.
Heinlein's archive is housed by the Special Collections department ofMcHenry Library at theUniversity of California at Santa Cruz. The collection includes manuscript drafts, correspondence, photographs and artifacts. A substantial portion of the archive has been digitized and it is available online through the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archives.[50]
Heinlein published 32 novels, 59 short stories, and 16 collections during his life. Nine films, two television series, several episodes of a radio series, and a board game have been derived more or less directly from his work. He wrote a screenplay for one of the films. Heinlein edited an anthology of other writers' SF short stories.
Three nonfiction books and two poems have been published posthumously.For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs was published posthumously in 2003;[51]Variable Star, written by Spider Robinson based on an extensive outline by Heinlein, was published in September 2006. Four collections have been published posthumously.[38]
Heinlein began his career as a writer of stories forAstounding Science Fiction magazine, which was edited by John Campbell. The science fiction writerFrederik Pohl has described Heinlein as "that greatest of Campbell-era sf writers".[52] Isaac Asimov said that, from the time of his first story, the science fiction world accepted that Heinlein was the best science fiction writer in existence, adding that he would hold this title through his lifetime.[53]
Alexei and Cory Panshin noted that Heinlein's impact was immediately felt. In 1940, the year after selling 'Life-Line' to Campbell, he wrote three short novels, four novelettes, and seven short stories. They went on to say that "No one ever dominated the science fiction field as Bob did in the first few years of his career."[54] Alexei expresses awe in Heinlein's ability to show readers a world so drastically different from the one we live in now, yet have so many similarities. He says that "We find ourselves not only in a world other than our own, but identifying with a living, breathing individual who is operating within its context, and thinking and acting according to its terms."[55]
Heinlein's 1942 novelBeyond This Horizon was reprinted inTwo Complete Science-Adventure Books in 1952, appearing under the "Anson McDonald" byline even though the book edition had been published under Heinlein's own name four years earlier.The opening installment ofThe Puppet Masters took the cover of the September 1951 issue ofGalaxy Science Fiction.
The first novel that Heinlein wrote,For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs (1939), did not see print during his lifetime, but Robert James tracked down the manuscript and it was published in 2003. Though some regard it as a failure as a novel,[18] considering it little more than a disguised lecture on Heinlein'ssocial theories, some readers took a very different view. In a review of it,John Clute wrote:
I'm not about to suggest that if Heinlein had been able to publish [such works] openly in the pages ofAstounding in 1939, SF would have gotten the future right; I would suggest, however, that if Heinlein, and his colleagues, had been able to publish adult SF inAstounding and its fellow journals, then SF might not have done such a grotesquely poor job of prefiguring something of the flavor of actually living here at the onset of 2004.[56]
For Us, the Living was intriguing as a window into the development of Heinlein's radical ideas about man as asocial animal, including his interest infree love. The root of many themes found in his later stories can be found in this book. It also contained a large amount of material that could be considered background for his other novels. This included a detailed description of the protagonist's treatment to avoid being banished toCoventry (a lawless land in the Heinlein mythos where unrepentant law-breakers are exiled).[57]
Heinlein as depicted inAmazing Stories in 1953
It appears that Heinlein at least attempted to live in a manner consistent with these ideals, even in the 1930s, and had anopen relationship in his marriage to his second wife, Leslyn. He was also anudist;[3] nudism and bodytaboos are frequently discussed in his work. At the height of theCold War, he built abomb shelter under his house, like the one featured inFarnham's Freehold.[3]
AfterFor Us, the Living, Heinlein began selling (to magazines) first short stories, then novels, set in aFuture History, complete with a time line of significant political, cultural, and technological changes. A chart of the future history was published in the May 1941 issue ofAstounding. Over time, Heinlein wrote many novels and short stories that deviated freely from the Future History on some points, while maintaining consistency in some other areas. The Future History was eventually overtaken by actual events. These discrepancies were explained, after a fashion, in his later World as Myth stories.
Heinlein's first novel published as a book,Rocket Ship Galileo, was initially rejected because going to the Moon was considered too far-fetched, but he soon found a publisher,Scribner's, that began publishing a Heinleinjuvenile once a year for the Christmas season.[58] Eight of these books were illustrated byClifford Geary in a distinctive white-on-blackscratchboard style.[59] Some representative novels of this type areHave Space Suit—Will Travel,Farmer in the Sky, andStarman Jones. Many of these were first published in serial form under other titles, e.g.,Farmer in the Sky was published asSatellite Scout in theBoy Scout magazineBoys' Life. There has been speculation that Heinlein's intense obsession with his privacy was due at least in part to the apparent contradiction between his unconventional private life[clarification needed] and his career as an author of books for children. However,For Us, the Living explicitly discusses the political importance Heinlein attached to privacy as a matter of principle.[62]
The novels that Heinlein wrote for a young audience are commonly called "the Heinlein juveniles", and they feature a mixture of adolescent and adult themes. Many of the issues that he takes on in these books have to do with the kinds of problems that adolescents experience. His protagonists are usually intelligent teenagers who have to make their way in the adult society they see around them. On the surface, they are simple tales of adventure, achievement, and dealing with stupid teachers and jealous peers. Heinlein was a vocal proponent of the notion that juvenile readers were far more sophisticated and able to handle more complex or difficult themes than most people realized. His juvenile stories often had a maturity to them that made them readable for adults.Red Planet, for example, portrays some subversive themes, including a revolution in which young students are involved; his editor demanded substantial changes in this book's discussion of topics such as the use of weapons by children and the misidentified sex of the Martian character. Heinlein was always aware of the editorial limitations put in place by the editors of his novels and stories, and while he observed those restrictions on the surface, was often successful in introducing ideas not often seen in other authors' juvenile SF.
In 1957,James Blish wrote that one reason for Heinlein's success "has been the high grade of machinery which goes, today as always, into his story-telling. Heinlein seems to have known from the beginning, as if instinctively, technical lessons about fiction which other writers must learn the hard way (or often enough, never learn). He does not always operate the machinery to the best advantage, but he always seems to be aware of it."[63]
Heinlein decisively ended his juvenile novels withStarship Troopers (1959), a controversial work and his personal riposte to leftists calling for PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower to stop nuclear testing in 1958. "The 'Patrick Henry' ad shocked 'em", he wrote many years later of the campaign. "Starship Troopers outraged 'em."[64]Starship Troopers is a coming-of-age story about duty, citizenship, and the role of the military in society.[65] The book portrays a society in whichsuffrage is earned by demonstrated willingness to place society's interests before one's own, at least for a short time and often under onerous circumstances, in government service; in the case of the protagonist, this was military service.
Later, inExpanded Universe, Heinlein said that it was his intention in the novel that service could include positions outside strictly military functions such as teachers, police officers, and other government positions. This is presented in the novel as an outgrowth of the failure of unearned suffrage government and as a very successful arrangement. In addition, the franchise was only awarded after leaving the assigned service; thus those serving their terms—in the military, or any other service—were excluded from exercising any franchise. Career military were completely disenfranchised until retirement.
Heinlein's novelPodkayne of Mars was serialized inIf, with a cover byVirgil Finlay.
From about 1961 (Stranger in a Strange Land) to 1973 (Time Enough for Love), Heinlein explored some of his most important themes, such asindividualism,libertarianism, and free expression of physical and emotional love. Three novels from this period,Stranger in a Strange Land,The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, andTime Enough for Love, won theLibertarian Futurist Society'sPrometheus Hall of Fame Award, designed to honor classic libertarian fiction.[66] Jeff Riggenbach describedThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress as "unquestionably one of the three or four most influential libertarian novels of the last century".[67]
Heinlein did not publishStranger in a Strange Land until some time after it was written, and the themes of free love and radicalindividualism are prominently featured in his long-unpublished first novel,For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress tells of a war of independence waged by the Lunar penal colonies, with significant comments from a major character, Professor La Paz, regarding the threat posed by government to individual freedom.
Although Heinlein had previously written a few short stories in thefantasy genre, during this period he wrote his first fantasy novel,Glory Road. InStranger in a Strange Land andI Will Fear No Evil, he began to mix hard science with fantasy, mysticism, and satire of organized religion. Critics William H. Patterson, Jr., and Andrew Thornton believe that this is simply an expression of Heinlein's longstanding philosophical opposition topositivism.[68][verification needed] Heinlein stated that he was influenced byJames Branch Cabell in taking this new literary direction. The penultimate novel of this period,I Will Fear No Evil, is according to critic James Gifford "almost universally regarded as a literary failure"[69] and he attributes its shortcomings to Heinlein's near-death fromperitonitis.
After a seven-year hiatus brought on by poor health, Heinlein produced five new novels in the period from 1980 (The Number of the Beast) to 1987 (To Sail Beyond the Sunset). These books have a thread of common characters and time and place. They most explicitly communicated Heinlein's philosophies and beliefs, and many long, didactic passages of dialog and exposition deal with government, sex, and religion. These novels are controversial among his readers and one critic,David Langford, has written about them very negatively.[70] Heinlein's four Hugo awards were all for books written before this period.
Most of the novels from this period are recognized by critics as forming an offshoot from the Future History series and are referred to by the termWorld as Myth.[71]
The tendency toward authorial self-reference begun inStranger in a Strange Land andTime Enough for Love becomes even more evident in novels such asThe Cat Who Walks Through Walls, whose first-person protagonist is a disabled military veteran who becomes a writer, and finds love with a female character.[72]
The 1982 novelFriday, a more conventional adventure story (borrowing a character and backstory from the earlier short storyGulf, also containing suggestions of connection toThe Puppet Masters) continued a Heinlein theme of expecting what he saw as the continued disintegration of Earth's society, to the point where the title character is strongly encouraged to seek a new life off-planet. It concludes with a traditional Heinlein note, as inThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress orTime Enough for Love, that freedom is to be found on the frontiers.
Several Heinlein works have been published since his death, including the aforementionedFor Us, the Living as well as 1989'sGrumbles from the Grave, a collection of letters between Heinlein and his editors and agent; 1992'sTramp Royale, a travelogue of a southern hemisphere tour the Heinleins took in the 1950s;Take Back Your Government, a how-to book about participatory democracy written in 1946 and reflecting his experience as an organizer with theEPIC campaign of 1934 and the movement's aftermath as an important factor in California politics before the Second World War; and a tribute volume calledRequiem: Collected Works and Tributes to the Grand Master, containing some additional short works previously unpublished in book form.Off the Main Sequence, published in 2005, includes three short stories never before collected in any Heinlein book (Heinlein called them "stinkeroos").
Spider Robinson, a colleague, friend, and admirer of Heinlein,[75] wroteVariable Star, based on an outline and notes for a novel that Heinlein prepared in 1955. The novel was published as a collaboration, with Heinlein's name above Robinson's on the cover, in 2006.
A complete collection of Heinlein's published work has been published[76] by the Heinlein Prize Trust as the "Virginia Edition", after his wife. See the Complete Works section ofRobert A. Heinlein bibliography for details.
On February 1, 2019, Phoenix Pick announced that through a collaboration with the Heinlein Prize Trust, a reconstruction of the full text of an unpublished Heinlein novel had been produced. It was published in March 2020. The reconstructed novel, entitledThe Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes,[77] is an alternative version ofThe Number of the Beast, with the first one-third ofThe Pursuit of the Pankera mostly the same as the first one-third ofThe Number of the Beast but the remainder ofThe Pursuit of the Pankera deviating entirely fromThe Number of the Beast, with a completely different story-line. The newly reconstructed novel pays homage toEdgar Rice Burroughs andE. E. "Doc" Smith. It was edited byPatrick Lobrutto. Some reviewers describe the newly reconstructed novel as more in line with the style of a traditional Heinlein novel than wasThe Number of the Beast.[78]The Pursuit of the Pankera was considered superior to the original version ofThe Number of the Beast by some reviewers.[79] BothThe Pursuit of the Pankera and a new edition ofThe Number of the Beast[80] were published in March 2020. The new edition of the latter shares the subtitle ofThe Pursuit of the Pankera, hence entitledThe Number of the Beast: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes.[81][82]
Heinlein contributed to the final draft of the script forDestination Moon (1950) and served as a technical adviser for the film.[83] Heinlein also shared screenwriting credit forProject Moonbase (1953).
There are nine-and-sixty ways Of constructing tribal lays And every single one of them is right
Stranger in a Strange Land originated as a modernized version of Kipling'sThe Jungle Book. His wife suggested that the child be raised by Martians instead of wolves. Likewise,Citizen of the Galaxy can be seen as a reboot of Kipling's novelKim.[85]
TheStarship Troopers idea of needing to serve in the military in order to vote can be found in Kipling's "The Army of a Dream":
But as a little detail we never mention, if we don't volunteer in some corps or other—as combatants if we're fit, as non-combatants if we ain't—till we're thirty-five—we don't vote, and we don't get poor-relief, and the women don't love us.
Poul Anderson once said of Kipling's science fiction story "As Easy as A.B.C.", "a wonderful science fiction yarn, showing the same eye for detail that would later distinguish the work of Robert Heinlein".
Heinlein's books probe a range of ideas about a range of topics such as sexuality, race, politics, and the military. Many were seen as radical or as ahead of their time in their social criticism. His books have inspired considerable debate about the specifics, and the evolution, of Heinlein's own opinions, and have earned him both lavish praise and a degree of criticism. He has also been accused of contradicting himself on various philosophical questions.[88]
Brian Doherty cites William Patterson, saying that the best way to gain an understanding of Heinlein is as a "full-service iconoclast, the unique individual who decides that things do not have to be, and won't continue, as they are". He says this vision is "at the heart of Heinlein, science fiction, libertarianism, and America. Heinlein imagined how everything about the human world, from our sexual mores to our religion to our automobiles to our government to our plans for cultural survival, might be flawed, even fatally so."[89]
The criticElizabeth Anne Hull, for her part, has praised Heinlein for his interest in exploring fundamental life questions, especially questions about "political power—our responsibilities to one another" and about "personal freedom, particularly sexual freedom".[90]
Edward R. Murrow hosted a series onCBS Radio calledThis I Believe, which solicited an entry from Heinlein in 1952. Titled "Our Noble, Essential Decency". In it, Heinlein broke with the normal trends, stating that he believed in his neighbors (some of whom he named and described), community, and towns across America that share the same sense of good will and intentions as his own, going on to apply this same philosophy to the US, and humanity in general.
I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime. Yet for every criminal, there are ten thousand honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but it is a force stronger than crime.
Heinlein's political positions shifted throughout his life. Heinlein's early political leanings wereliberal.[91] In 1934, he worked actively for theDemocratic campaign ofUpton Sinclair forGovernor of California. After Sinclair lost, Heinlein became an anti-communist Democratic activist. He made an unsuccessful bid for aCalifornia State Assembly seat in 1938.[91] Heinlein's first novel,For Us, the Living (written 1939), consists largely of speeches advocating theSocial Credit philosophy, and the early story "Misfit" (1939) deals with an organization—"The Cosmic Construction Corps"—that seems to beFranklin D. Roosevelt'sCivilian Conservation Corps translated into outer space.[92]
Of this time in his life, Heinlein later said:
At the time I wroteMethuselah's Children I was still politically quite naïve and still had hopes that various libertarian notions could be put over by political processes... It [now] seems to me that every time we manage to establish one freedom, they take another one away. Maybe two. And that seems to me characteristic of a society as it gets older, and more crowded, and higher taxes, and more laws.[86]
Heinlein's fiction of the 1940s and 1950s, however, began to espouseconservative views. After 1945, he came to believe that a strongworld government was the only way to avoidmutual nuclear annihilation.[93] His 1949 novelSpace Cadet describes a future scenario where a military-controlled global government enforces world peace. Heinlein ceased considering himself a Democrat in 1954.[91]
When Robert A. Heinlein opened hisColorado Springs newspaper on April 5, 1958, he read a full-page ad demanding that the Eisenhower Administration stop testing nuclear weapons. The science fiction author was flabbergasted. He called for the formation of the Patrick Henry League and spent the next several weeks writing and publishing his own polemic that lambasted "Communist-line goals concealed in idealistic-sounding nonsense" and urged Americans not to become "soft-headed".[64]
Heinlein's response ad was entitled "Who Are the Heirs of Patrick Henry?". It started with the famous Henry quotation: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!!" It then went on to admit that there was some risk to nuclear testing (albeit less than the "willfully distorted" claims of the test ban advocates), and risk of nuclear war, but that "The alternative is surrender. We accept the risks." Heinlein was among those who in 1968 signed a pro–Vietnam War ad inGalaxy Science Fiction.[94]
Heinlein always considered himself a libertarian; in a letter to Judith Merril in 1967 (never sent) he said, "As for libertarian, I've been one all my life, a radical one. You might use the term 'philosophical anarchist' or 'autarchist' about me, but 'libertarian' is easier to define and fits well enough."[95]
Heinlein grew up in the era ofracial segregation in the United States and wrote some of his most influential fiction at the height of theCivil Rights Movement. He explicitly made the case for using his fiction not only to predict the future but also to educate his readers about the value of racial equality and the importance of racial tolerance.[96] His early novels were very much ahead of their time both in their explicit rejection of racism and in their inclusion of protagonists of color. In the context of science fiction before the 1960s, the mere existence of characters of color was a remarkable novelty, with green occurring more often than brown.[97] For example, his 1948 novelSpace Cadet explicitly uses aliens as a metaphor for minorities. The 1947 story "Jerry Was a Man" uses enslaved genetically modified chimpanzees as a symbol for Black Americans fighting for civil rights.[98] In his novelThe Star Beast, thede facto foreign minister of the Terran government is an undersecretary, a Mr. Kiku, who is from Africa.[99] Heinlein explicitly states his skin is "ebony black" and that Kiku is in anarranged marriage that is happy.[100]
In a number of his stories, Heinlein challenges his readers' possible racial preconceptions by introducing a strong, sympathetic character, only to reveal much later that he or she is of African or other ancestry. In several cases, the covers of the books show characters as being light-skinned when the text states or at least implies that they are dark-skinned or of African ancestry.[103] Heinlein repeatedly denounced racism in his nonfiction works, including numerous examples inExpanded Universe.
Heinlein reveals inStarship Troopers that the novel's protagonist and narrator,Johnny Rico, the formerly disaffected scion of a wealthy family, isFilipino, actually named "Juan Rico" and speaksTagalog in addition to English.
Race was a central theme in some of Heinlein's fiction. The most prominent example isFarnham's Freehold, which casts awhite family into a future in which white people are the slaves of cannibalistic black rulers. In the 1941 novelSixth Column (also known asThe Day After Tomorrow), a white resistance movement in the United States defends itself against an invasion by an Asian fascist state (the "Pan-Asians") using a "super-science" technology that allows ray weapons to be tuned to specific races. The idea for the story was pushed on Heinlein by editorJohn W. Campbell and the story itself was based on a then-unpublished story by Campbell, and Heinlein wrote later that he had "had to re-slant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line" and that he did not "consider it to be an artistic success".[104][105] However, the novel prompted a heated debate in the scientific community regarding the plausibility of developingethnic bioweapons.[106] John Hickman, writing in theEuropean Journal of American Studies, identifies examples of anti–East Asian racism in some of Heinlein's works, particularlySixth Column.[107]
And finally, I believe in my whole race—yellow, white, black, red, brown—in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being.
In keeping with his belief inindividualism, his work for adults—and sometimes even his work for juveniles—often portrays both the oppressors and the oppressed with considerable ambiguity. Heinlein believed that individualism was incompatible with ignorance. He believed that an appropriate level of adult competence was achieved through a wide-ranging education, whether this occurred in a classroom or not. In his juvenile novels, more than once a character looks with disdain at a student's choice of classwork, saying, "Why didn't you study something useful?"[108] InTime Enough for Love,Lazarus Long gives a long list of capabilities that anyone should have, concluding, "Specialization is for insects." The ability of the individual to create himself is explored in stories such asI Will Fear No Evil, "'—All You Zombies—'", and "By His Bootstraps".
Heinlein claimed to have writtenStarship Troopers in response to "calls for the unilateral ending of nuclear testing by the United States".[109] Heinlein suggests in the book that the Bugs are a good example of Communism being something that humans cannot successfully adhere to, since humans are strongly defined individuals, whereas the Bugs, being a collective, can all contribute to the whole without consideration of individual desire.[110]
A common theme in Heinlein's writing is his frequent use of the "competent man", astock character who exhibits a very wide range of abilities and knowledge, making him a form ofpolymath. This trope was notably common in 1950s U.S. science fiction.[111] While Heinlein was not the first to use such a character type, the heroes and heroines of his fiction (withJubal Harshaw being a prime example) generally have a wide range of abilities, and one of Heinlein's characters,Lazarus Long, gives a wide summary of requirements:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
For Heinlein, personal liberation includedsexual liberation, andfree love was a major subject of his writing starting in 1939, withFor Us, the Living. During his early period, Heinlein's writing for younger readers needed to take account of both editorial perceptions of sexuality in his novels, and potential perceptions among the buying public; as critic William H. Patterson has put it, his dilemma was "to sort out what was really objectionable from what was only excessive over-sensitivity to imaginary librarians".[114]
By his middle period, sexual freedom and the elimination of sexual jealousy became a major theme; for instance, inStranger in a Strange Land (1961), the progressively minded but sexually conservative reporter, Ben Caxton, acts as adramatic foil for the less parochial characters,Jubal Harshaw and Valentine Michael Smith (Mike). Another of the main characters, Jill, is homophobic, and says that "nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped it's partly her own fault."[115]
According to Gary Westfahl,
Heinlein is a problematic case for feminists; on the one hand, his works often feature strong female characters and vigorous statements that women are equal to or even superior to men; but these characters and statements often reflect hopelessly stereotypical attitudes about typical female attributes. It is disconcerting, for example, that inExpanded Universe Heinlein calls for a society where all lawyers and politicians are women, essentially on the grounds that they possess a mysterious feminine practicality that men cannot duplicate.[116]
In books written as early as 1956, Heinlein dealt with incest and the sexual nature of children. Many of his books includingTime for the Stars,Glory Road,Time Enough for Love, andThe Number of the Beast dealt explicitly or implicitly with incest, sexual feelings and relations between adults, children, or both.[117] The treatment of these themes include the romantic relationship and eventual marriage of two characters inThe Door into Summer who met when one was a 30-year-old engineer and the other was an 11-year-old girl, and who eventually married when time-travel rendered the girl an adult while the engineer aged minimally, or the more overt intra-familial incest inTo Sail Beyond the Sunset andTime Enough for Love. Heinlein often posed situations where the nominal purpose of sexual taboos was irrelevant to a particular situation, due to future advances in technology. For example, inTime Enough for Love Heinlein describes a brother and sister (Joe and Llita) who were mirror twins, being complementary diploids with entirely disjoint genomes, and thus not at increased risk for unfavorable gene duplication due toconsanguinity. In this instance, Llita and Joe were props used to explore the concept of incest, where the usual objection to incest—heightened risk of genetic defect in their children—was not a consideration.[118] Peers such asL. Sprague de Camp andDamon Knight have commented critically on Heinlein's portrayal of incest and pedophilia in a lighthearted and even approving manner.[117] Diane Parkin-Speer suggests that Heinlein's intent seems more to provoke the reader and to question sexual norms than to promote any particular sexual agenda.[119]
InTo Sail Beyond the Sunset, Heinlein has the main character,Maureen, state that the purpose ofmetaphysics is to ask questions: "Why are we here?" "Where are we going after we die?" (and so on); and that you are not allowed to answer the questions.Asking the questions is the point of metaphysics, butanswering them is not, because once you answer this kind of question, you cross the line into religion. Maureen does not state a reason for this; she simply remarks that such questions are "beautiful" but lack answers. Maureen's son/lover Lazarus Long makes a related remark inTime Enough for Love. In order for us to answer the "big questions" about the universe, Lazarus states at one point, it would be necessary to standoutside the universe.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Heinlein was deeply interested inAlfred Korzybski'sgeneral semantics and attended a number of seminars on the subject. His views onepistemology seem to have flowed from that interest, and his fictional characters continue to express Korzybskian views to the very end of his writing career. Many of his stories, such asGulf,If This Goes On—, andStranger in a Strange Land, depend strongly on the premise, related to the well-knownSapir–Whorf hypothesis, that by using a correctlydesigned language, one can change or improve oneself mentally, or even realize untapped potential (as in the case of Joe inGulf—whose last name may be Greene, Gilead or Briggs).[120]
WhenAyn Rand's novelThe Fountainhead was published, Heinlein was very favorably impressed, as quoted in "Grumbles ..." and mentioned John Galt—the hero in Rand'sAtlas Shrugged—as a heroic archetype inThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. He was also strongly affected by the religious philosopherP. D. Ouspensky.[18]Freudianism andpsychoanalysis were at the height of their influence during the peak of Heinlein's career, and stories such asTime for the Stars indulged in psychological theorizing.
However, he was skeptical about Freudianism, especially after a struggle with an editor who insisted on reading Freudian sexual symbolism into hisjuvenile novels. Heinlein was fascinated by thesocial credit movement in the 1930s. This is shown inBeyond This Horizon and in his 1938 novelFor Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs, which was finally published in 2003, long after his death.
On that theme, the phrase "pay it forward", though it was already in occasional use as a quotation, was popularized by Robert A. Heinlein in his bookBetween Planets,[121] published in 1951:
The banker reached into the folds of his gown, pulled out a single credit note. "But eat first—a full belly steadies the judgment. Do me the honor of accepting this as our welcome to the newcomer."
His pride said no; his stomach said YES! Don took it and said, "Uh, thanks! That's awfully kind of you. I'll pay it back, first chance."
"Instead, pay it forward to some other brother who needs it."
He referred to this in a number of other stories, although sometimes just saying to pay a debt back by helping others, as in one of his last works,Job, a Comedy of Justice.
Heinlein was a mentor toRay Bradbury, giving him help and quite possibly passing on the concept, made famous by the publication of a letter from him to Heinlein thanking him.[122] In Bradbury's novelDandelion Wine, published in 1957, when the main character Douglas Spaulding is reflecting on his life being saved by Mr. Jonas, the Junkman:
How do I thank Mr. Jonas, he wondered, for what he's done? How do I thank him, how pay him back? No way, no way at all. You just can't pay. What then? What? Pass it on somehow, he thought, pass it on to someone else. Keep the chain moving. Look around, find someone, and pass it on. That was the only way…
Bradbury has also advised that writers he has helped thank him by helping other writers.[123]
Heinlein both preached and practiced this philosophy; now theHeinlein Society, a humanitarian organization founded in his name, does so, attributing the philosophy to its various efforts, including Heinlein for Heroes, the Heinlein Society Scholarship Program, and Heinlein Society blood drives.[124] Author Spider Robinson made repeated reference to the doctrine, attributing it to his spiritual mentor Heinlein.[125]
Heinlein is usually identified, along withIsaac Asimov andArthur C. Clarke, as one of the three masters of science fiction to arise in the so-calledGolden Age of science fiction, associated withJohn W. Campbell and his magazineAstounding.[126]In the 1950s he was a leader in bringing science fiction out of the low-paying and less prestigious "pulp ghetto". Most of his works, including short stories, have been continuously in print in many languages since their initial appearance and are still available as new paperbacks decades after his death.
He was at the top of his form during, and himself helped to initiate, the trend towardsocial science fiction, which went along with a general maturing of the genre away fromspace opera to a more literary approach touching on such adult issues as politics andhuman sexuality. In reaction to this trend,hard science fiction began to be distinguished as a separate subgenre, but paradoxically Heinlein is also considered a seminal figure in hard science fiction, due to his extensive knowledge of engineering and the careful scientific research demonstrated in his stories. Heinlein himself stated—with obvious pride—that in the days before pocket calculators, he and his wife Virginia once worked for several days on a mathematical equation describing an Earth–Mars rocket orbit, which was then subsumed in a single sentence of the novelSpace Cadet.
Heinlein is often credited with bringing serious writing techniques to the genre of science fiction. For example, when writing about fictional worlds, previous authors were often limited by the reader's existing knowledge of a typical "space opera" setting, leading to a relatively low creativity level: The same starships, death rays, and horrifying rubbery aliens becoming ubiquitous.[citation needed] This was necessary unless the author was willing to go into longexpositions about the setting of the story, at a time when the word count was at a premium in SF.[citation needed]
But Heinlein utilized a technique called "indirect exposition", perhaps first introduced byRudyard Kipling in his own science fiction venture, theAerial Board of Control stories. Kipling had picked this up during his time inIndia, using it to avoid bogging down his stories set in India with explanations for his English readers.[127] This technique — mentioning details in a way that lets the reader infer more about the universe than is actually spelled out[128] — became a trademark rhetorical technique of both Heinlein and writers influenced by him. Heinlein was significantly influenced by Kipling beyond this, for example quoting him in "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction".[129]
Likewise, Heinlein's name is often associated with thecompetent hero, a character archetype who, though he or she may have flaws and limitations, is a strong, accomplished person able to overcome any soluble problem set in their path. They tend to feel confident overall, have a broad life experience and set of skills, and not give up when the going gets tough. This style influenced not only the writing style of a generation of authors, but even their personal character.Harlan Ellison once said, "Very early in life when I read Robert Heinlein I got the thread that runs through his stories—the notion of the competent man ... I've always held that as my ideal. I've tried to be a very competent man."[130]
When fellow writers, or fans, wrote Heinlein asking for writing advice, he famously gave out his own list of rules for becoming a successful writer:
You must write.
Finish what you start.
You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
You must put your story on the market.
You must keep it on the market until it has sold.
About which he said:
The above five rules really have more to do with how to write speculative fiction than anything said above them. But they are amazingly hard to follow—which is why there are so few professional writers and so many aspirants, and which is why I am not afraid to give away the racket![131]
Heinlein later published an entire article, "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction", which included his rules, and from which the above quote is taken. When he says "anything said above them", he refers to his other guidelines. For example, he describes most stories as fitting into one of a handful of basic categories:
In the article, Heinlein proposes that most stories fit into either the gadget story or the human interest story, which is itself subdivided into the three latter categories. He also creditsL. Ron Hubbard as having identified "The Man-Who-Learned-Better".
Heinlein has had a pervasive influence on other science fiction writers. In a 1953 poll of leading science fiction authors, he was cited more frequently as an influence than any other modern writer.[132] Critic James Gifford writes that
Although many other writers have exceeded Heinlein's output, few can claim to match his broad and seminal influence. Scores of science fiction writers from the prewar Golden Age through the present day loudly and enthusiastically credit Heinlein for blazing the trails of their own careers, and shaping their styles and stories.
— Robert A. Heinlein,A Reader's Companion, p. xiii
Heinlein gave Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle extensive advice on a draft manuscript ofThe Mote in God's Eye.[133] He contributed a cover blurb "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." In their novelFootfall, Niven and Pournelle included Robert A. Heinlein as a character under the name "Bob Anson." Anson in the novel is a respected and well-known science-fiction author. WriterDavid Gerrold, responsible for creating the tribbles inStar Trek, also credited Heinlein as the inspiration for hisDingilliad series of novels.Gregory Benford refers to his novelJupiter Project as a Heinlein tribute. Similarly,Charles Stross says his Hugo Award-nominated novelSaturn's Children is "a space opera and late-period Robert A. Heinlein tribute",[134] referring to Heinlein'sFriday.[135] The theme and plot of Kameron Hurley's novel,The Light Brigade clearly echo those of Heinlein'sStarship Troopers.[136]
Even outside the science fiction community, several words and phrases coined or adopted by Heinlein have passed into common English usage:
Waldo, protagonist in the eponymous short story "Waldo", whose name came to mean mechanical or robot arms in the real world that are akin to the ones used by the character in the story.
Grok, a Martian word for understanding a thing so fully as to become one with it, fromStranger in a Strange Land, whose root meaning in Martian is "to drink".
Space marine, an existing term popularized by Heinlein in short stories, the concept then being made famous byStarship Troopers, though the term "space marine" is not used in that novel.
Speculative fiction, a term Heinlein used for the separation of serious, consistent science fiction writing, from the pop "sci fi" of the day.
In 1962,Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (then still using his birth name, Tim Zell) founded theChurch of All Worlds, aNeopagan religious organization modeled in many ways (including its name) after the treatment of religion in the novelStranger in a Strange Land. This spiritual path included several ideas from the book, including non-mainstream family structures, social libertarianism, water-sharing rituals, an acceptance of all religious paths by a single tradition, and the use of several terms such as "grok", "Thou art God", and "Never Thirst". Though Heinlein was neither a member nor a promoter of the Church, there was a frequent exchange of correspondence between Zell and Heinlein, and he was a paid subscriber to their magazine,Green Egg. This Church still exists as a501(C)(3) religious organization incorporated in California, with membership worldwide, and it remains an active part of the neopagan community today.[138] Zell-Ravenheart's wife,Morning Glory coined the termpolyamory in 1990,[139] another movement that includes Heinlein concepts among its roots.
Heinlein was influential in makingspace exploration seem to the public more like a practical possibility. His stories in publications such asThe Saturday Evening Post took a matter-of-fact approach to their outer-space setting, rather than the "gee whiz" tone that had previously been common. The documentary-like filmDestination Moon advocated aSpace Race with an unspecified foreign power almost a decade before such an idea became commonplace, and was promoted by an unprecedented publicity campaign in print publications. Many of the astronauts and others working in the U.S. space program grew up on a diet of the Heinleinjuveniles,[original research?] best evidenced by the naming of a crater on Mars after him, and a tribute interspersed by theApollo 15 astronauts into their radio conversations while on the moon.[140]
Heinlein was also a guest commentator (along with fellow SF authorArthur C. Clarke) forWalter Cronkite's coverage of theApollo 11 Moon landing.[141] He remarked to Cronkite during the landing that, "This is the greatest event in human history, up to this time. This is—today is New Year's Day of the Year One."[142]
Heinlein has inspired many transformational figures in business and technology includingLee Felsenstein, the designer of the first mass-produced portable computer,[143]Marc Andreessen,[144] co-author of the first widely-used web browser, andElon Musk, CEO ofTesla and founder ofSpaceX.[145]
The Heinlein Society was founded byVirginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, to "pay forward" the legacy of the writer to future generations of "Heinlein's Children". The foundation has programs to:
"Promote Heinlein blood drives."
"Provide educational materials to educators."
"Promote scholarly research and overall discussion of the works and ideas of Robert Anson Heinlein."
The Heinlein society also established theRobert A. Heinlein Award in 2003 "for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings to inspire the human exploration of space".[146][147]
Orbital path of Robert Heinlein'seponymous asteroid
In his lifetime, Heinlein received fourHugo Awards, forDouble Star,Starship Troopers,Stranger in a Strange Land, andThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and was nominated for fourNebula Awards, forThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,Friday,Time Enough for Love, andJob: A Comedy of Justice.[148] He was also given seven Retro-Hugos: two for best novel:Beyond This Horizon andFarmer in the Sky; three for best novella:If This Goes On...,Waldo, andThe Man Who Sold the Moon; one for best novelette: "The Roads Must Roll"; and one for best dramatic presentation: "Destination Moon".[149][150][151]
Heinlein was also nominated for sixHugo Awards for the worksHave Space Suit: Will Travel,Glory Road,Time Enough for Love,Friday,Job: A Comedy of Justice andGrumbles from the Grave, as well as sixRetro Hugo Awards forMagic, Inc., "Requiem", "Coventry", "Blowups Happen", "Goldfish Bowl", and "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag".
Heinlein won theLocus Award for "All-Time Favorite Author" in 1973, and for "All-Time Best Author" in 1988.[152][153]
TheScience Fiction Writers of America named Heinlein its firstGrand Master in 1974, presented 1975. Officers and past presidents of the Association select a living writer for lifetime achievement (now annually and includingfantasy literature).[15][16]
In 2001 the United States Naval Academy created the Robert A. Heinlein Chair in Aerospace Engineering.[160]
Heinlein was the Ghost of Honor at the 2008World Science Fiction Convention in Denver, Colorado, which held several panels on his works. Nearly seventy years earlier, he had been a Guest of Honor at the same convention.[161]
The Libertarian Futurist Society has honored eight of Heinlein's novels and two short stories with theirHall of Fame award.[164] The first two were given during his lifetime forThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress andStranger in a Strange Land. Five more were awarded posthumously forRed Planet,Methuselah's Children,Time Enough for Love, and the short stories "Requiem" and "Coventry".
^Booker, M. Keith; Thomas, Anne-Marie (2009).The Science Fiction Handbook. Blackwell Guides to Literature Series. John Wiley & Sons. p. 155.ISBN978-1-4051-6205-0.Archived from the original on July 5, 2019. RetrievedJune 27, 2018.Sometimes called the 'dean of science fiction writers,' Robert A. Heinlein was one of the leading figures of science fiction's Golden Age and one of the authors most responsible for establishing the science fiction novel as a publishing category.
^Mendlesohn, Farah (2019).The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein. London: Unbound Publishing.ISBN978-1-78352-678-9.
^"The Big Three—Asimov—Clarke—Heinlein—A Bibliography". SFandFantasy.co.uk.Archived from the original on September 1, 2016. RetrievedAugust 28, 2016.Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein are informally known as the 'Big Three'—the best known members of the group of authors who brought science fiction into a Golden Age in the middle years of the twentieth century
^Parrinder, Patrick (2001).Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition, and the Politics of Science Fiction and Utopia. Duke University Press. p. 81.ISBN978-0-8223-2773-8.This short discussion of Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein—the so-called Big Three, who largely dominated American (and, to a lesser extent, Anglo-American) science fiction during the 1940s, the 1950s and well into the 1960s—should serve to suggest the particularly complex affinity between science fiction and critical theory in its Blochian version.
^Lord, M. G. (October 2, 2005)."Heinlein's Female Troubles".The New York Times.Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2019.
^Patterson, William H. Jr. (August 2010).Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). New York: Tor Books. pp. 122–125.ISBN978-0-7653-1960-9.
^ab"Robert A. Heinlein Awards".Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation.Archived from the original on December 18, 2019. RetrievedDecember 18, 2019.
^Patterson, William (2010)."Appendix 2".Robert A. Heinlein: 1907–1948, learning curve. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.ISBN978-0-7653-1960-9. RetrievedJune 29, 2014.
^"Social Affairs of the Army and Navy",Los Angeles Times; September 1, 1929; p. B8.
^Patterson, William H.Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Vol. 1—Learning Curve (1907–1948), Tor Books, August 2010,ISBN978-0-7653-1960-9
^Patterson, William (2010)."Chapter 27".Robert A. Heinlein: 1907–1948, learning curve. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.ISBN978-0-7653-1960-9. RetrievedApril 12, 2011.
^Robert A. Heinlein (2005). "Foreword by Michael Cassutt".Off the Main Sequence. Science Fiction Book Club. p. xiii.ISBN1-58288-184-7.
^(afterword toFor Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs, 2004 edition, p. 247, and the story "A Bathroom of Her Own"). Also, an unfortunate juxtaposition of events had aKonrad Henlein making headlines in theSudetenlands.
^Williamson, Jack "Who Was Robert Heinlein?" inRequiem: new collected works by Robert A. Heinlein and tributes to the grand master NY 1992 pp. 333–34ISBN0-312-85523-0
^Patterson, William (2001).The Martian named Smith : critical perspectives on Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a strange land. Sacramento, Calif: Nitrosyncretic Press.ISBN0967987423.
^On Paul Dirac and antimatter, and on blood chemistry. A version of the former, titledPaul Dirac, Antimatter, and You, was published in the anthologyExpanded Universe, and it demonstrates both Heinlein's skill as a popularizer and his lack of depth in physics. An afterword gives a normalization equation and presents it, incorrectly, as being theDirac equation.
^The importance Heinlein attached to privacy was made clear in his fiction,e.g.,For Us, the Living, but also in several well-known examples from his life. He had a falling out withAlexei Panshin, who wrote an important book analyzing Heinlein's fiction; Heinlein stopped cooperating with Panshin because he accused Panshin of "[attempting to] pry into his affairs and to violate his privacy". Heinlein wrote to Panshin's publisher threatening to sue, and stating, "You are warned that only the barest facts of my private life are public knowledge ...".[60] Heinlein was a nudist, and built a fence around his house in Santa Cruz to keep out the counterculture types who had learned of his ideas throughStranger in a Strange Land. In his later life, Heinlein studiously avoided revealing his early involvement in left-wing politics,[61] and made strenuous efforts to block publication of information he had revealed to prospective biographer Sam Moskowitz.[61]
^abJohn J. Miller."In A Strange Land". National Review Online Books Arts and Manners. Archived fromthe original on July 17, 2011. RetrievedNovember 27, 2009.
^Patterson, William H.; Thornton, Andrew.The Martian named Smith: Critical Perspectives on Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Nitrosyncretic Press, 2001.ISBN0-9679874-2-3
^Gifford, James.Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader's Companion, Nitrosyncretic Press, Sacramento, California, 2000, p. 102.
^Patterson, William H., Jr., and Thornton, Andrew., The Martian Named Smith: Critical Perspectives on Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, p. 128: "His books written after about 1980 ... belong to a series called by one of the central charactersWorld as Myth." The term Multiverse also occurs in the print literature, e.g., Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader's Companion, James Gifford, Nitrosyncretic Press, Sacramento, California, 2000. The term World as Myth occurs for the first time in Heinlein's novelThe Cat Who Walks Through Walls.
^"Robert A. Heinlein, 1907–1988".Biography of Robert A. Heinlein. University of California Santa Cruz.Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. RetrievedNovember 27, 2009.
^J. Neil Schulman (1999). "Job: A Comedy of Justice Reviewed by J. Neil Schulman".Robert Heinlein Interview: And Other Heinleiniana. Pulpless.Com. p. 62.ISBN978-1-58445-015-3.Lewis converted me from atheism to Christianity—Rand converted me back to atheism, with Heinlein standing on the sidelines rooting for agnosticism.
^Carole M. Cusack (2010).Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 57.ISBN978-0-7546-9360-4.Heinlein, like Robert Anton Wilson, was a lifelong agnostic, believing that to affirm that there is no God was as silly and unsupported as to affirm that there was a God.
^"heinleinbooks.com". Heinleinsociety.org.Archived from the original on December 27, 2014. RetrievedJanuary 17, 2015.
^Heinlein, Robert (2020).The pursuit of the Pankera : a parallel novel about parallel universes. Rockville, MD: CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, an imprint of Arc Manor Publishers.ISBN978-1647100018.
^Heinlein, Robert (2020).The number of the beast : a parallel novel about parallel universes. Rockville, NY: CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, an imprint of Arc Manor Publishers.ISBN978-1647100032.
^"six-six-six".Arc Manor Magazines. Archived fromthe original on February 4, 2019. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2019.
^abLerner, Fred (June 21, 2021)."A Master of our Art. Rudyard Kipling considered as a Science Fiction writer".The Kipling Society. Archived fromthe original on October 30, 2017. RetrievedDecember 29, 2022.But the best way to understand why Kipling has exerted so great an influence over modern science fiction is to read his own work. Begin withKim, the most successful evocation of an alien world ever produced in English. Follow the Grand Trunk Road toward the Northwest Frontier, and watch the parade of cultures that young Kimball O'Hara encounters. Place yourself in his position, that of a half-assimilated stranger in a strange land; and observe carefully the uneven effects of an ancient society's encounter with a technologically advanced culture. SF writers have found Kim so appealing that several have told their own versions of the story: Robert Heinlein'sCitizen of the Galaxy and Poul Anderson'sThe Game of Empire are two of the best.
^abJ. Neil Schulman,The Robert Heinlein Interview, and other Heinleiniana (1973)[page needed]
^abcWooster, Martin Morse (October 25, 2010)."Heinlein's Conservatism".National Review Online. RetrievedDecember 29, 2022. (a review of William Patterson'sLearning Curve: 1907–1948, the first volume of his authorized biography,Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century).
^The reference inTunnel in the Sky is subtle and ambiguous, but at least one college instructor who teaches the book reports that some students always ask, "Is heblack?" (see[101]).The Heinlein scholar and critic James Gifford (see bibliography) states: "A very subtle point in the book, one found only by the most careful reading and confirmed by Virginia Heinlein, is that Rod Walker is black. The most telling clues are Rod's comments about Caroline Mshiyeni being similar to his sister, and the 'obvious' (to all of the other characters) pairing of Rod and Caroline."[102]
^Robert A. Heinlein,Expanded Universe, foreword toSolution Unsatisfactory, p. 93 of Ace paperback edition.
^Freedman, Carl (April 24, 2000).Critical Theory and Science Fiction (1st ed.). Wesleyan University Press. p. 71.ISBN978-0819563996.
^Kipling had learned this trick in India. His original Anglo-Indian readership knew the customs and institutions and landscapes of British India at first hand. But when he began writing for a wider British and American audience, he had to provide his new readers with enough information for them to understand what was going on. In his earliest stories and verse he made liberal use of footnotes, but he evolved more subtle methods as his talent matured. A combination of outright exposition, sparingly used, and contextual clues, generously sprinkled through the narrative, offered the needed background. InKim and other stories of India he uses King James English to indicate that characters are speaking in Hindustani; this is never explained, but it gets the message across subliminally.,[85] quoted inesr (December 2, 2005)."Rudyard Kipling Invented SF!".Armed and Dangerous.Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. RetrievedDecember 29, 2022.
^The Writer's Writing Guide: ExpositionArchived December 3, 2016, at theWayback Machine With indirect exposition, the writer gives the reader the data in subtle but clear ways, thereby allowing the reader to be a partner when it comes to laying the foundation of the story. For instance, the narrator of Mona Simpson's story "Lawns" begins by telling us: "I steal. I've stolen books and money and even letters. Letters are great. I can't tell you the feeling walking down the street with 20 dollars in my purse, stolen earrings in my pocket." With this opening, we learn about the narrator's obsession with theft but, equally important, we learn the narrator's gender. This is done indirectly, by referring to the narrator's purse and the desire for stolen earrings.
Bellagamba, Ugo and Picholle, Eric. 2008.Solutions Non Satisfaisantes, une Anatomie de Robert A. Heinlein(in French). Lyon, France: Les Moutons Electriques.ISBN978-2-915793-37-6.
James Blish, writing as William Atheling, Jr. 1970.More Issues at Hand. Chicago: Advent.
A critique of Heinlein from a Marxist perspective. Includes a biographical chapter, which incorporates some original research on Heinlein's family background.
Patterson, William H., Jr., and Thornton, Andrew. 2001.The Martian Named Smith: Critical Perspectives on Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Sacramento: Nitrosyncretic Press.ISBN0-9679874-2-3.
Powell, Jim. 2000.The Triumph of Liberty. New York: Free Press. See profile of Heinlein in the chapter "Out of this World".
Tom Shippey. 2000. "Starship Troopers, Galactic Heroes, Mercenary Princes: Ihe Military and Its Discontents in Science Fiction", in Alan Sandison and Robert Dingley, eds.,Histories of the Future: Studies in Fact, Fantasy and Science Fiction. New York: Palgrave.ISBN0-312-23604-2.
Heinlein, Robert A. 1989.Grumbles from the Grave. New York: Del Rey.
Incorporates a substantial biographical sketch by Virginia Heinlein, which hews closely to his earlier official bios, omitting the same facts (the first of his three marriages, his early left-wing political activities) and repeating the same fictional anecdotes (the short story contest).
Heinlein, Robert A. 2004.For Us, the Living. New York: Scribner.ISBN0-7432-5998-X.
Includes an introduction by Spider Robinson, an afterword by Robert E. James with a long biography, and a shorter biographical sketch.
A lengthy essay that treats Heinlein's own autobiographical statements with skepticism.
Patterson, William H., Jr. 2010.Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue With His Century: 1907–1948: Learning Curve. An Authorized Biography, Volume I. Tom Doherty Associates.ISBN0-7653-1960-8
Patterson, William H., Jr. 2014.Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue With His Century: 1948–1988: The Man Who Learned Better. An Authorized Biography, Volume II. Tom Doherty Associates.ISBN0-7653-1961-6
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