Prophet of Science Fiction

If you haven't had the opportunity to see the Science Channel series "Prophets of Science Fiction" it's now on YouTube. Of course I was most interested in the Heinlein episode! It features commentary by Bill Patterson and Robert James.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Next post will probably be in 2013.

Tangentially Related to RAH, But Fascinating

Jack Parsons. Aleister Crowley. L. Ron Hubbard.

Parsons

Heinlein lurks silently in the background. See Bill Patterson's biography.

I Am in the Middle of a Major Home Move

But coming soon, new and original material!

Really, truly.

The Heinlein Society. That is all.

What REALLY happened at the 2012 Howard Families Meeting?

Vacation in the Golden Age of SF!

Writer Jamie Todd Rubin has posted a series of exhaustive reviews of issues of Astounding from the "Golden Age." Naturally, many include a Heinlein story (or two, one under a pseudonym).

Great example: Vacation in the Golden Age, Episode 27: September 1941, including "Elsewhere" and the final installment of "Methuselah's Children." Also, Isaac Asimov's big breakthrough, "Nightfall."

There are lots more of these, and lots more great content on his blog. Enjoy!

Bonny Doon from the Air

An aerial shot of the Heinlein's home in Bonny Doon (near Santa Cruz), California. It gives a good idea of just how innovative and unusual it is.

The Heinlein Society has a large number of photos of the house from ground level.

Interesting Biographical Correction from Bill Patterson

All the good stuff comes out after you publish — well, not all the good stuff; there was a lot of good stuff in the Archive, but –

I had some e-mail correspondence recently from Wendy McClure, who is researching the life of her great-aunt Vida Jameson. I shared all the mentions of Vida Jameson mentioned in my notes, and in turn she sent me some remarkable bits and pieces, including the letter Vida Jameson wrote to her mother about a road trip with the Heinleins in 1946, plus a photograph of the Heinleins in about 1940 that I’d never seen before and might be one of those taken by John Campbell . . . or might have been by Bill Corson, as it has something of the look of the famous two or three pictures Corson took in the new writing studio he and Heinlein had just built together over the garage of the Lookout Mountain house. Also a photo of Vida Jameson herself, quite a beauty, and a picture of an oil portrait of her by none other than her friend Hannes Bok. She graciously gave permission to post these or use them, so I will see whether we can get any of them up on site.

Includes more insight into the events from the summer of 1946 until Robert and Leslyn's divorce in the summer of  '47.

Here's a photo of Vida Jameson I was able to track down:

Read the whole thing at Bill's Blog.

Virginia Edition Sample

The invaluable Deb Houdek Rule posts over at the Heinlein Facebook Forum that a sample pdf from the Virginia Edition, a marvelous, fabulous, beautiful, complete (works) and new (unpublished letters and other materials), hardbound acme of Heinleinia is online.

You'll love it, go read the whole thing!

GUEST POST - Holmes IV: A "Monogram" on the Heinlein Juveniles

("holmes_iv" is a regular commenter at the Heinlein Society Nexus Forum and submitted the following essay, or "monogram," as he puckishly names it, for publication here. I may disagree with him on a few interpretations but very much enjoyed it. It is published exactly as sent except for some formatting adjustments)

Monogram on the Heinlein Juveniles

By holmes_iv

Robert A. Heinlein, in an attempt to establish a little financial security -- something that previously had eluded him -- began a series of juvenile novels for Scribner's in 1947.

I believe he originally thought of them as "boy's books," in the tradition of Tom Sawyer. Over the years, however, I think he learned a respect for his audience, and while he never produced an equivalent to Huckleberry Finn, the novels did become more mature in both writing style and theme.

Rocket Ship Galileo, the first of the juvenile novels, certainly was no more than a "boy's book." Its premise is preposterous: Three teenaged boys assist a rogue scientist in the construction and operation of a moon rocket.

Once they reach the Moon, they discover a nest of Nazis, a secret cell which is determined to finish
World War II from its hidden base on the Moon. The American teenagers and their mentor use rifles in an attempt to defeat the Nazis, which they do.

While the story is silly, Heinlein does use it to propagandize for matters he considers serious: toleration of minorities, in this case Jews, and promotion of serious education for minors, or at least respect for the intellectual abilities of minors.

His view of his audience had not changed much with the publication of Space Cadet in 1948. Though the plot is much less preposterous than that of Rocket Ship Galileo, he still believed he was writing for an audience of boys. However, the science is much better in Space Cadet.

For example, there is a very good scene about how to maneuver in weightlessness. There is also discussion about how to grow vegetables in a weightless environment.

There is also a mature discussion of the politics of the atomic bomb -- probably the first in juvenile fiction of any sort.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around four boys (actually three as the story progresses) who join the Space Patrol as cadets. Their ship crashes on Venus, and the Venusians help them get back home. I especially enjoyed Heinlein's portrayal of the alien society.

Unlike Rocket Ship Galileo, the protagonist shows growing maturity through the course of the story; not unheard of in juvenile fiction, to be sure. He does this through his acceptance of being dumped by his girlfriend and through his reluctant admission than his dad was right when he said the U.S. was too powerful politically to be worried about a bomb attack. His maturity is also shown through his attitude toward the Venusians, and is contrasted by the immaturity of the attitude shown by an ex-cadet.

Red Planet (1949) also contains mature discussion of subjects not normally found in boy's books: the inherent unfairness of unrestained capitalism and the attempt by those exploited to become free and to rule themselves.

While Jim, the protagonist, and Frank, his best friend, don't "grow up" during the course of the story, the society they are part of does. Thus, political maturity stands in for the boys' maturation.

This novel also introduces the Martian society and Martians that Heinlein would return to in Stranger in a Strange Land and Podkayne of Mars. These are not the only Martians Heinlein made use of, but they certainly are the ones his fans remember best. They are Apollonian in nature, but since Heinlein is still writing "boy's books," there is no Dyonisian society to contrast them with.

The next novel in the series, 1951's Between Planets, begins rather like a silly boy's book, but quickly changes tone. In it, the protagonist, Don, is plunged into political intrigue, thanks to the anti-colonialist views of his parents. Don gets cut off from his family and must learn to cope by himself on the frontier planet Venus. He grows up quickly; instead of feeling sorry for himself, he joins a revolutionary army and behaves like a mature adult.

This is also the first Heinlein juvenile with a serious female character, though her name eludes me at this point. She is a cheerleader for Don of a sort, exhorting him to act like a man. But we're still in the realm of "boy's books" here, and there is no romance.

The Rolling Stones (1952) is written in a more light-hearted, humorous vein. Cas and Pol, moon-reared twins and geniuses, are the protagonists. In this novel, Heinlein offers a good take on long-range space travel, and what it might be like to live among the asteroids.

Cas and Pol really don't do any growing up in this story; I think it was meant more for fun than anything else.

A notable aspect of The Rolling Stones is that it introduces Hazel Stone, a character Heinlein would co-opt in the 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as a pre-adolescent. In The Rolling Stones she is a grandmother. In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Hazel is a rather humorless character; in The Rolling Stones, she's part of the fun.

Farmer in the Sky, 1953, is the novel in which Heinlein began gaining more respect for his audience; it really does not read as a "boy's book" for the most part.

Bill, a teenaged protagonist, has a mostly adult relationship with his father, George, and his outlook on life is heavily influenced by his departed mother, Helen.

George remarries, to a woman named Molly, who has a daughter, Peggy, and the new family emigrates to Ganymede, where they will become farmers.

The book is full of the pioneer spirit and the maturity that such a spirit demands. That is nowhere better portrayed than in the illness and subsequent death of the child, Peggy. Aware of what immigration has resulted in for her, her spirit never flags. This is probably the best example of a "Heinlein Moment" in the series so far.

There's also a lot of cool stuff about how to turn barren rock into arable farmland.

Starman Jones, also from 1953, further shows how Heinlein's respect for his audience is growing. Except for the "no sex" requirement, it could easily take its place among novels aimed at adults.

It is basically a novel about accepting responsibility. Max Jones faked his way into employment on a starship, and through no fault of his own ends up being the captain. In a pivotal moment, Max admits he's a liar to his superior officer, thus accepting responsibility -- and has even more responsibility thrust on him.

The contrast to Max is Sam, a disgraced space marine who seemingly has no conscious, but a helluva lot of street smarts. But Sam redeems himself in true Heinlein fashion when he sacrifices himself to save Max, the only person who can safely get the rest of the ship's compliment back home.

There's another minor step forward in adult theming, and if you blinked, you missed it: Sam and Max are confronted by a hooker.

The main female character is Elly, and here we're back in "no sex" land. She is to Max what the female character in Between Planets is to Don.

The Star Beast (1954) marks the series' next, and last, full foray into humor. John Thomas Stuart XI is the teen protagonist, and although one might argue that he grows over the course of the book, one might just be wrong.

John Thomas is pushed around by every female character in the book, from his mother to his girlfiend to his pet, a creature from outer space brought back to earth by his great-grandfather, another John Thomas Stuart. In fact, he is "pushed around" by the memory of all his John Thomas forebears and their exploits.

By book's end, John has been manipulated into what amounts to a life sentence as his pet's pet, back on her home planet, and into marriage.

The point of the book is not so much John's march to maturity, but society's struggle to gain maturity through sloughing off outdated notions, namely, racism.

The two real heroes of the book are an African and an American Jew, and this must have been pretty daring stuff for a "boy's book" written in the mid-Fifties.

Granted, The Star Beast didn't do much for feminism. But rather than criticize the story on that front, I would like to point out that Heinlein, who I believe would not have shunned the moniker "hack writer," did make use of several convenient stereotypes throughout his career.

Next we come to 1955's Tunnel in the Sky, which I always thought of as Heinlein's answer to 1954's Lord of the Flies, a novel I think Heinlein probably abhorred. (Just for the record, I thought Lord of the Flies was pretty good.)

In Tunnel in the Sky, a group of teenagers is cast upon a planet with very few tools and weapons, and this is the story of how they established a civilization of their own -- with morals, rules of conduct, ethics -- in contrast to the barbarization experienced by the boys in Lord of the Flies. The characters certainly "grow up" -- they must, or they will die. Heinlein's optimism shows through.

Protagonist Rod certainly grows from confused high school student to wise leader of the tribe through the story, first showing his maturity in backing the political cabal which overthrows his "captaincy," but later even more so when he is abandoned by all his friends when Earth comes to the rescue and he finally accepts that going back is the right thing to do.

And Heinlein redeems himself marvelously on the feminist front, first through the portrayal of Rod’s sister, who defied her father to become a soldier, and her fierce, no-nonsense attitude toward her profession (and later marriage to the novel's moral center, Rod's teacher). But my favorite character is Caroline, as no-nonsense a chick as there ever was, but who retains her sense of humor. And her black skin -- we're still just in 1955 here.

With Time for the Stars (1956), Heinlein completely abandons talking down to his audience. This could have been published as an adult novel, as could all the subsequent novels in the series. (Well, hell, so could Tunnel in the Sky.)

It is the story of Tom, twin to Pat, who has dominated Tom throughout his life. Tom and his crew are lost in space, and the story is of Tom growing up, accepting the responsibility to tell Pat to go to hell. There is a strong black male character who stands as the example of "the responsible adult."

This novel may also be Heinlein’s greatest statement about individuality. He makes use of twins in various forms throughout his career, all the way from If This Goes On … (the protagonist is twinned by plastic surgery) through Stranger In A Strange Land (the resemblance between Jill and Dawn) through the World As Myth novels. Tom’s acceptance of his own individuality – the breaking off from Pat – is his step toward ultimate maturity. I don’t think there is a clearer statement of this idea in the whole rest of Heinlein’s ouvre which deals with twins.

Where do I even start with Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)?

Thorby is a slave, bought for a song by the beggar, Baslim. His first lesson in maturity is learning right from wrong.

Through a series of misadventures, Thorby loses Baslim, his stand-in father, and comes first under the protection of Captain Krausa and his strong-willed mother, then of the interstellar space corps, and finally the corporate umbrella from which he originated.

He learns confidence with Krausa, then that confidence is stolen from him when he is given over to the space corps, or Guard. He has a hard time adjusting to the Guard, though he is trying, when he is unexpectedly discovered to be the heir to the biggest fortune on Earth and the nominal head of a corporate empire.

He is "adopted" (for the fourth time in the story) by the man who actually runs the business, Uncle Jack. Thorby chafes under the benign despotism of Jack, and finally accepts the mantle of responsibility for running the corporation.

This is one "boy's book" where the protagonist grows up, and how!

But since it is a "boy's book" still, there is no sex with the chief female character, Jack's daughter. Like the female characters in Between Planets and Starman Jones, her chief function is as cheerleader, but in a climactic scene, she also stands as an example of responsible adulthood when she defies her father, Jack.

I said earlier that The Star Beast was the final "funny" novel in the series, but Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, while a serious novel, does have its humorous scenes, particularly with a character named "Ace" and in scenes dealing with protagonist Kip's refurbishing of a space suit.

Kip's already pretty mature for an 18-year-old at the beginning of the story, thanks to the hands-off approach to fatherhood of his dad, Professor Russell. He matures even further when he has to protect his new friend, Pee Wee, and, incidentally, the Earth.

He -- and Pee Wee's father, also a professor -- demonstrate the mature, proper way of behavior in the face of new and startling knowledge -- they take it in stride. Heinlein also uses the story to make pointed criticism about the way we educate kids. That is, we don't really respect their abilities. As we have seen, Heinlein has learned to, or at least learned to respect their ability to absorb mature themes in their literature.

The culmination of the series is Starship Troopers (1960), and the line is that when it was rejected by Scribners, he crossed the street to Putnam and had it published as an adult novel. However, Wikipedia says it was published as teenage fiction. You decide.

Here's a growing-up story if there ever was one! Juan first defies his rich parents to join the Infantry, then goes through a whole series of experiences that add layers of maturity to him, until finally he accepts the responsibility of leading his fellow troopers into battle -- and of putting his own life on the line for the protection of the larger society.

This is a military coming-of-age story, maybe even one that had been told many times before. It's chief distinction in the Heinlein juvenile ouvre is the detailed mental and moral journey Juan takes. It is the only juvenile told in first person.
Because of its military setting, Heinlein is able to finesse the area of sex, since he imagines the infantry as a male-only outfit. It still is today, though by the time of this novel’s setting, it surely won’t be.

I have not tried to go into too much detail about the stories. I assume anyone reading this essay has read all or most of them. I wrote the essay because I like writing about Heinlein and I had a few points to make along the way, none of them very profound or original, but it's what I had to say.
I hope you enjoyed it.

An Amusing Take on "The Puppet Masters"

Steve Sailer, "Germans doing German stuff":

Sci-fi writer Robert A. Heinlein, for example, was a classic German-American dualist: an engineer and military officer who was also into nudism and a lot of other such stuff that briefly made him a hippie icon in the late 1960s. His 1951 novel The Puppet Masters can be read both as a classic alien invasion thriller and as a huge plot contrivance to force the U.S. Government order all the women in America to walk around without any clothes on (Operation Sun Tan).

Heh, that's one way to look at it. Of course Heinlein, unlike some SF writers, never had any problems getting the ladies to take their clothes off sans government directive.

The Heinlein's Home in Colorado Springs

James Gifford has posted a note on the Heinlein Society Nexus Forum about the huge fire(s) near Colorado Springs and the possibility that they may threaten the Heinlein's custom home in the area. James has images of the 1952 Popular Mechanics article about the home on his Nitrosyncratic Press website if you'd like to see what it looks like and the many interesting and cool design features.

Right now it looks like the home is safe, as the fires are still miles away, but given the conditions it seems nothing is completely safe in the area right now.

Great Background on Bill Patterson's Style and Editing of the Biography

See "Prosody 1" at his blog. It gives some real insight into things you may have noticed in v. I:

The harder part is (well, there have been several “harder parts,” but –) something that might be called “stylistic differences” in some aspects of what my sense is of what the prose ought to be like and my editor’s. This difficult process has shown me things about my own writing process that I may have been only faintly aware of before.

Over a period of forty-five years, I have developed certain stylistic devices, devices of intention, that have become habitual and very characteristic of my rather eccentric personal style.

My approach to “the paragraph,” for example, is highly “networked.” That is, I write paragraphs not only to express and develop an aspect of an idea — which is the pedagogical standard of what a paragraph is supposed to do — but also to relate this idea to the paragraph that preceded it and to prepare the way for the paragraph that will follow. In particular, the development points are organized so that the one which points most clearly in the direction the text is going to go is last. Often the last sentence of a paragraph will contain a word or an expression which will be repeated in the opening sentence of the next paragraph, or the next paragraph will back-reference material in the preceding paragraph.

The net effect of this technique is to give flow and impetus to the writing, so that it moves smartly along with logical force. Ideally you hit all the logical steps between one idea and the next so that the reader is not required to make logical jumps to cover, say, lack of evidence. On the evidence of what is said — and what is not said — in the reader reviews of the first volume, that technique did substantially what it is supposed to do. The book took hits for what might be called stylistic “elegance” but got points for being a fast read despite its size.

The "New Phrenologists" and the Failure (So Far) of Heinlein's Vision of Social Science

Over at the Heinlein Society's Nexus Forum (if you're not a member get over there and sign up!) I posted some selections from an article at The Weekly Standard by Andrew Ferguson, "The New Phrenology." Subtitled "How liberal psychopundits understand the conservative brain," the piece goes into some detail about the numerous news stories most of us have probably seen lately, with titles like that of Chris Mooney's book The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science—and Reality.

With that background, I want to make explicit that this is not a political post, nor is it an analysis of the psychology of any particular group. The meta point of "The New Phrenology" has been made powerfully by a number of others--the current state of the "social sciences" is barely scientific, after 100 years or more of effort. The mere gloss of scientism is now provided by colored pictures of brain images, publication in peer reviewed journals and the use, and misuse, of statistics.

One hundred years ago Robert A. Heinlein was about to turn five and people of a wide variety of political and philosophical views, from Freud to Wells to Woodrow Wilson, believed that economics, psychology and sociology were taking their first firm steps toward becoming true sciences, where national and world economies would be managed in steady prosperity without booms and busts, criminals and the mentally ill would be reformed or healed through drugs and therapy, and populations would be managed toward happiness through education, advertising and techniques like mass hypnosis and official propaganda. Eventually, all of these efforts would be put on a firm base of physics and neuroscience and mathematical statistics, with formulas fed into computing devices and the right answers for societal management coming out.

These ideas can be seen clearly in many of Heinlein's early works. Indeed, the Future History takes place against a background where this social management is often simply assumed and only mentioned en passim when necessary. In other instances, it is made explicit as an important part of the story, as with the extensive explanation of economic management and Monroe Alpha Cliff's work near the beginning of Beyond This Horizon or the debate about using mass hypnosis to recondition the populace toward freedom at the end of "If This Goes On--". In Methusalah's Children there is mention of statistically rating the impact of words, and the strategic planting of useful rumors based on mathematical formulae. For a good short explication of this idea under the general heading of "social engineering" see the "Logos" section of this article on "If This Goes On--" by Bill Patterson.

Here in 2012 I would argue that these fields have made very limited progress toward being "science." In economics, the worldwide Big Bust of the last four years provides compelling evidence that legions of Ph.D. economists are subject to forces far beyond their control, their manipulations of money and interest too much, too soon or too little, too late. Criminals are still with us, in plenty, and while the soma of a wide variety of "anti-depressants" masks the symptoms of perhaps 20% of the American populace, all the billions and indeed, trillions of dollars expended on "scientific research" into education, reform of prisoners and the proper raising of children seems to have merely, mostly maintained the status quo ante in these areas.

But back to "The New Phrenology." Mostly believing that the mind is just a useful, or useless fiction, the reductionists have deployed the truly wonderful tools of modern medical imaging in the study of the brain and declared the colored pictures taken therefrom the answer to a broad number of questions. Why do people do what they do? Hook them to a forest of electrodes and ask them question or show them some naughty pictures, see what lights up, gather some stats and you've got yourself a peer reviewed journal article that will help further your career path in the Academe!

I do not claim that this kind of study is necessarily useless, biased, wasteful or harmful. It may be that discoveries from these techniques really will result in a better life for us and our children.

So far though, what we've got is that drug users' pleasure centers light up when they use, that brain scan color pictures prove that there is no free will, and that political"conservatives" are a fearful, authoritarian bunch. I don't claim to know the entire field--I just read the newspapers, and that's what I'm seeing.

It's a long, long way from the vision of Heinlein and others, during those early, heady days, that all of this research would eventually give us scientific solutions to social problems.

Another side of Heinlein, the rugged proponent of individualism, liberty and the generally untamable nature of Man, would probably be delighted at these developments. So far, that's the side that seems to be winning in the real world.

RAH Biography News: Bill Patterson Reports Work Has Resumed on V. II

On his blog:

It’s been awhile since there was any real news to report. Following the worldcon last year, I had a transmetatarsal amputation of my right foot and was down for a couple of months but during recuperation completed the first-pass edit of the second volume, tentatively titled “The Man Who Learned Better” though I also favor “Time Enough for Love.”

(...)

In the last week (late April, Early May 2012), the second-pass edit has resumed. I can only do about ten pages per day. But progress is actually under way again.

Also of great interest is this comment at another post there (scroll down):

The editor, David Hartwell, has broached the subject of splitting the second volume into two — I suspect so that we can get volume 2 out expeditiously. Well see what eventuates.

A Fine Old Debate About Starship Troopers

We will go into Alexei Panshin in detail on this blog soon enough. There is a good deal to say. Meanwhile, I discovered during the research process on Panshin this debate by some leading SF personages about Starship Troopers circa 1960-61. Many of you may not have seen this obscue yet high-powered dust-up, so I bring it to your attention. Here's one provocative quote, from James V. McConnell. Again, let me emphasize he's writing in 1961. It was ever thus:

Aside from the goodness or badness of war, the comments so many people have made about SS [Note:"Starship Soldiers" was the magazine version] indicate, to me at least, that s-f is becoming the haven for old, trite, worn-out ideas instead of the testing-ground for new thoughts most s-f devotees so loudly pretend.  How many people have told me, these past few years, that Sturgeon is great, but when will he quit writing those peculiar stories and get down to reality? If Ted were not the great writer that he is, probably he would be mobbed, ostracized, or what have you.  Like Heinlein apparently is to be.  New gadgets we can stand apparently, but not new ideas, nor new ways of looking at old ideas nor even a close examination of the emotional responses most of us have to the safe, secure, comfortable values which society today applauds and inculcates in us.  In my opinion, s-f readers (and writers, too) have become a bunch of old Aunt Nellies hell-bent on preserving the status-quo, glorifying the present norm, and ready to crucify anybody who dares rock the boat by thinking.

Heh, it was ever thus. I think that you'll enjoy comparing these comments on Starship Troopers with your own thoughts and memories of the book.

The Bigger Picture

While I while away on the next installment of "Connections" in the biography (Part I is here) you might enjoy seeing the whole picture that I took the blog title image from:

There are more perfect images available, but this one has the feel of a magazine that was read and reread many times, then stored for the next 70 years, only to be brought out and furnish a delightful sense of surprised recognition, of something old that is none the less perpetually new--something like the work of Robert A. Heinlein.

Heinlein as Libertarian

If you're an admirer of Heinlein and his work you should be a member of the Nexus Forum at The Heinlein Society. If not, hit the link and join!

Regarding the brief post from the other day Was Robert LeFevre the Inspiration for Bernardo de la Paz?, it was pointed out to me that there is some discussion of this point in a thread at the Nexus Forum. There is also a lot of other substantive comment on RAH's politics by Heavy Heinlein Hitters Bill Patterson, James Gifford, Robert James and others who have been seriously studying Heinlein far longer than me. If you are interested in this topic I highly recommend you read the whole thing.

Goodreads Reviews of the Biography

I had previously read the Amazon reviews of the biography, but there are interesting reviews at Goodreads as well. Some are just stubs but a few are substantive.

Was Robert LeFevre the Inspiration for Bernardo de la Paz?

And other interesting speculations about Heinlein's libertarianism. I don't agree with everything the author says about Heinlein, but will await with great interest more information on the LeFevre/de la Paz question when  Volume II of William Patterson, Jr's. biography becomes available:

Both in his physical appearance — the wavy white hair, the dimples, the smiling voice — and in his ideas, Professor Bernardo de la Paz bears a striking resemblance to a real-life libertarian who flourished and enjoyed considerable influence within the libertarian movement during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s — Robert LeFevre. Now it so happens that Robert A. Heinlein and his third wife, Virginia Heinlein, lived in Colorado Springs throughout the 1950s and through the first half of the 1960s, the very period during which Robert LeFevre, a neighbor of theirs as it turns out, was serving as editorial page editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph.

A Lovely Image of Robert and Virginia

From the collection of the University of California Santa Cruz.

"Connections" in the Biography by William Patterson: Part I

Last summer I was delighted to buy and read the the first volume of William H. Patterson, Jr.'s biography of my favorite author, Robert Heinlein. Robert A Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century: Volume 1 (1907-1948): Learning Curve has almost 500 pages of text (and almost 100 pages of notes) on the first half of Heinlein's life. I loved the book and wrote a brief, favorable review on Amazon back in June 2011. There I noted that I had

"plans to write about the 'Connections' that I made to other books and people, during and after reading, but it will take a few more days to get to that.

More than a "few days" have passed, obviously, but here at last is the first installment of some "Connections" that I found in Chapters 1-3, covering Heinlein's life through high school and his admission to the United States Naval Academy in 1925.

Authors must make choices of what to include in a book of this nature, else the book could grow beyond any reasonable length; obviously this one had to run to two volumes even with everything the author had to leave out. One of the choices Patterson made in this book was to avoid deep literary analysis of the works he describes being written in the biographical narrative. Several of the reviewers at Amazon lamented this, but I appreciate that the biographer wanted to tell Heinlein's story rather than turn the book into a textual analysis.  Patterson previously co-authored a book on what is perhaps Heinlein's best known work, Stranger in a Strange Land. This biography is more about a man. I hope that some of the "connections" below can add to the enjoyment and appreciation of the biography and Heinlein's work.

(All numbers in ( ) refer to pages in the hardback first edition of the biography).

(17) "[A] half-brother of the famous Dan Patch."

See the 1948 story "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants": He picked out a likely-looking nag of the Dan Patch line, bet and won...

(23) "Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress--three books that transcend genre and give Heinlein an important place in the lives of his readers."

In a private communication, Patterson hinted that in Volume II there may be some deeper examination of these three works than there was for any individual work in Volume I.

(25) "Thou art God."

A major theme of Stranger in a Strange Land.

(28) "He practiced [card tricks] covertly, even in church..."

See the card trick/coded message scene in "Gulf."

(31) "He liked...the wry humor of Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat."

See Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, where Kip references his father's love for the book, and a specific scene where the men are trying to open a tin of pineapple. This is also one of many, many books that I looked for and read after seeing a reference in Heinlein.

(33) "[H]uman beings must never be judged by categories, but only as individuals."

I just note this as individualism is such a bedrock of Heinlein's work throughout his career.

(36) "He learned to read and speak Esperanto..."

Esperanto appears in a several of Heinlein works as a future universal or common language, including, I believe, Starship Troopers and "The Green Hills of Earth." There may be others.

(40) "He also wanted to travel and unsuccessfully entered a National Geographic contest to for a prize trip to India,to see the Taj Mahal."

See the Skyway Soap "Trip to the Moon" contest in Have Spacesuit, Will Travel.

(46) "...he lost his virginity during the Coolidge Administration (1923-1929) to a grandmother..."

See the sequence in I Will Fear No Evil where protagonist J.S.B Smith thinks he is perhaps dead and/or trapped in some sort of purgatory, and tried to remember his life, starting with losing his virginity as a young teenager to a woman in her 30s.

I will post a Part II in the near future. We're only 10% through the biography.