Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most influential and controversial authors in science fiction. He was the first science-fiction writer to break into mainstream general magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s with unvarnished science fiction, and he was among the first authors of bestselling novel-length science fiction in the 1960s. For many years he, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the Big Three of science fiction. He won seven Hugo awards for his novels and the first Grand Master Award given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for lifetime achievement.

Works

Early work, 1939–1960

Heinlein's first novel, , was written in 1939 and not published until 64 years later, after a copy was discovered in the garage of Michael Hunter, who had been assigned to write about Heinlein as a student. Although a failure as a novel, being little more than a disguised lecture on Heinlein's social theories, it is intriguing as a window into the development of Heinlein's radical ideas about man as a social animal, including free love. It appears that Heinlein at least attempted to live in a manner consistent with these ideals, even in the 1930s, and had an open relationship in his marriage to his second wife, Leslyn. (He was also a nudist; nudism and body taboos are frequently discussed in his work. At the height of the cold war, he built a bomb shelter under his house, like the one featured in Farnham's Freehold.)

Related Topics:
1939 - Free love - 1930s - Nudist - Bomb shelter - Farnham's Freehold

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After For Us, The Living, he began writing novels and short stories set in a consistent future history, complete with a timeline of significant political, cultural, and technological changes. Heinlein's first published novel, Rocket Ship Galileo, was initially rejected because going to the moon was considered too far out, but he soon found a publisher, Scribner's, that began publishing a Heinlein juvenile once a year for the Christmas season.{{ref|scribners}} Some representative novels of this type are Have Space Suit—Will Travel, Farmer in the Sky, and Starman Jones. {{ref|serialization}} There has been speculation that his intense obsession with his privacy{{ref|privacy}} was due at least in part to the apparent contradiction between his unconventional private life and his career as an author of books for children, but For Us, The Living also explicitly discusses the political importance Heinlein attached to privacy as a matter of principle.

Related Topics:
Rocket Ship Galileo - Have Space Suit—Will Travel - Farmer in the Sky - Starman Jones

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The novels that he wrote for a young audience are a fascinating 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 very intelligent teenagers who have to make a way in the adult society they see around them. On the surface, they are simple tales of adventure, achievement, and dealing with dumb teachers and jealous peers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, Heinlein was outspoken with editors and publishers (and other writers) on the notion that juvenile readers were far more sophisticated and able to handle complex or difficult themes than most people realized. Thus even his juvenile stories often had a maturity to them that make them readable for adults. Red Planet, for example, portrays some very subversive themes, including a revolution by young students modeled on the American Revolution; his editor demanded substantial changes in this book's discussion of topics such as the use of weapons by adolescents and the confused sexuality of the Martian character.

Related Topics:
Red Planet - American Revolution - Sexuality

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many readers may not realize that some of Heinlein's apparently clichéd ideas, such as the voyage to the moon in Rocket Ship Galileo, were considered surprising at the time, and in fact helped to create the clichés in the first place. Another good example from this period is The Puppet Masters, which originated the idea of aliens taking over humans' bodies, as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Related Topics:
The Puppet Masters - Invasion of the Body Snatchers

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Heinlein's last "juvenile" novel, and probably his most controversial work in general, was Starship Troopers, which he wrote in response to the U.S.'s decision to unilaterally end nuclear testing. It has been asserted that the society described approvingly in Starship Troopers is fascist, but it features racial tolerance (the main character is Filipino) and civil liberties. The book's main political idea is that there should be no conscription, but that suffrage should belong to those willing to serve their society by voluntary civil or military service.

Related Topics:
Starship Troopers - Suffrage

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mature work, 1961–1973

From about 1961 (Stranger in a Strange Land) to 1973 (Time Enough for Love), Heinlein wrote his most characteristic and fully developed novels. His work during this period explored his most important themes, such as individualism, libertarianism, and physical and emotional love. To some extent, the apparent discrepancy between these works and the more naïve themes of his earlier novels can be attributed to his own perception, which was probably correct, that readers and publishers in the 1950s were not yet ready for some of his more radical ideas. He did not publish Stranger in a Strange Land until long after it was written, and the themes of free love and radical individualism are prominently featured in his long-unpublished first novel, For Us, the Living.{{ref|manson}}

Related Topics:
Stranger in a Strange Land - Time Enough for Love - For Us, the Living

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although Heinlein had previously written a few short stories in the fantasy genre, during this period he wrote his first fantasy novel, Glory Road, and in Stranger in a Strange Land and I 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{{ref|positivism}} believe that this is simply an expression of Heinlein's longstanding philosophical opposition to positivism. Heinlein stated that he was influenced by James Branch Cabell in taking this new literary direction.

Related Topics:
Glory Road - Stranger in a Strange Land - I Will Fear No Evil - Positivism - James Branch Cabell

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Later work, 1980–1987

After a seven-year hiatus brought on by poor health, Heinlein produced a number of new novels in the period from 1980 (The Number of the Beast) to 1987 (To Sail Beyond the Sunset). These novels are controversial among his readers. Many feel that they were not up to the quality of his earlier work; some have suggested the quality drop stemmed from his near-stroke in 1977. Heinlein's books of the 1980s sold well, in spite of some critics' lack of enthusiasm, and won a number of awards; many readers believe that those who criticize them are missing their irony and self-conscious parodying of both science fiction and literature in general.

Related Topics:
The Number of the Beast - To Sail Beyond the Sunset

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some of these books, such as The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, start out as tightly constructed adventure stories, but devolve into philosophical fantasias at the end. It is a matter of opinion whether this demonstrates a lack of craftsmanship or a conscious effort to expand the boundaries of science fiction into a kind of magical realism, continuing the process of literary exploration that he had begun with Stranger in a Strange Land.

Related Topics:
The Number of the Beast - The Cat Who Walks Through Walls - Magical realism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The tendency toward authorial self-referentialism begun in Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough For Love becomes even more evident in novels such as The 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 who, like all of Heinlein's strong female characters, appears to be based closely on his wife Ginny. The self-parodying element of these books keeps them from bogging down by taking themselves too seriously, but may also fail to evoke the desired effect in readers who are not familiar with Heinlein's earlier novels.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~