robert anson heinlein
Created | Updated Sep 21, 2005
Robert Anson Heinlein (RAH)is a giant among many in science fiction publishing history. His writings began in the "pulp magazines" period of the late 1930's and into the 40's. His first titles were aimed primarily at teenagers, to spur interest in the exploration of space, and he even included girls as major characters. (shocking!)
That thread of strong women and manly men continued throughout his writing career, with his final issue, "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" in 1987, pulling together the characters of his earlier books into one final blow-off. (subtle reference)
Before that, in "The Man Who Sold the Moon" RAH described a way to use the moon as a billboard...fifty years later the cola companies just wanna put their logo on the international space station alongside Radio Shack.(call in the lawyers! i wanna call radio s**t an international conspiracy to sell basic schlock at premium prices!)
Along the way, Heinlein delivered scathing social commentary; the amazingly bad movie "Starship Troopers" was actually an anti-war book, but one that stressed personal responsibility for one's world, and personal accountability ("you can't keep voting for bread and circuses!")
RAH won a Hugo award for 'Troopers'(1959), another for "Stranger in a Strange Land" two years later, and garnered a third with 1966's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." ('Stranger' was originally named 'The Heretic' and he felt he had to withhold it from publication (see pages 396-404 of the paperback "Expanded Universe" for his own explanation) because of its' sensual/sexual tone.)
(And yes, that IS a waterbed Valentine Michael Smith rests on in the beginning chapters. It couldn't be patented at first (see page 517 of the paperback "Expanded Universe") but RAH and wife Virginia
did receive a complementary water bed from the "Share Water Bed Company."
Perhaps the definitive website is www.luna-city.com/sf/rah.htm which is more or less the clearing house for links, a definitive bio, forums and feedback.
Isaac Asimov is huge, Arthur C. Clarke and a host of other sci-fi literai (sp?) pushed the envelope, and Benford, Brin, Bear and company are continuing the tradition, but it's the people, the personalities, found in Heinlein's writings...you would want them as your next-door neighbor, friend, lover. Amazing.
there it is folks, have at it.
o/~
from www.space.com/news/wsc_power_1015.html just posted in the here/now of 2002:
"University of Houston researchers are proposing at the World Space Congress novel ways to harness solar energy not only for Earth, but also potential industrial bases and colonies on the Moon."
See Heinlein's "Man Who Sold the Moon" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" copyrighted in 1939, 1940 and compiled in 1950 (Man) and 1966 (The Moon.) Decades before h2g2, Heinlein was describing the universe that Douglas Adams populated with such colorful characters, so RAH is, in essence, a grandfather of this site.
o/~
That thread of strong women and manly men continued throughout his writing career, with his final issue, "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" in 1987, pulling together the characters of his earlier books into one final blow-off. (subtle reference)
Before that, in "The Man Who Sold the Moon" RAH described a way to use the moon as a billboard...fifty years later the cola companies just wanna put their logo on the international space station alongside Radio Shack.(call in the lawyers! i wanna call radio s**t an international conspiracy to sell basic schlock at premium prices!)
Along the way, Heinlein delivered scathing social commentary; the amazingly bad movie "Starship Troopers" was actually an anti-war book, but one that stressed personal responsibility for one's world, and personal accountability ("you can't keep voting for bread and circuses!")
RAH won a Hugo award for 'Troopers'(1959), another for "Stranger in a Strange Land" two years later, and garnered a third with 1966's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." ('Stranger' was originally named 'The Heretic' and he felt he had to withhold it from publication (see pages 396-404 of the paperback "Expanded Universe" for his own explanation) because of its' sensual/sexual tone.)
(And yes, that IS a waterbed Valentine Michael Smith rests on in the beginning chapters. It couldn't be patented at first (see page 517 of the paperback "Expanded Universe") but RAH and wife Virginia
did receive a complementary water bed from the "Share Water Bed Company."
Perhaps the definitive website is www.luna-city.com/sf/rah.htm which is more or less the clearing house for links, a definitive bio, forums and feedback.
Isaac Asimov is huge, Arthur C. Clarke and a host of other sci-fi literai (sp?) pushed the envelope, and Benford, Brin, Bear and company are continuing the tradition, but it's the people, the personalities, found in Heinlein's writings...you would want them as your next-door neighbor, friend, lover. Amazing.
there it is folks, have at it.
o/~
from www.space.com/news/wsc_power_1015.html just posted in the here/now of 2002:
"University of Houston researchers are proposing at the World Space Congress novel ways to harness solar energy not only for Earth, but also potential industrial bases and colonies on the Moon."
See Heinlein's "Man Who Sold the Moon" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" copyrighted in 1939, 1940 and compiled in 1950 (Man) and 1966 (The Moon.) Decades before h2g2, Heinlein was describing the universe that Douglas Adams populated with such colorful characters, so RAH is, in essence, a grandfather of this site.
o/~
