Robert A. Heinlein

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Robert Anson Heinlein (/ˈhaɪnlaɪn/ Butler, Missouri; 7 May July 1907 - Carmel, California, May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won four Hugo Awards for Double Star (1956), Space Troops (1960), Stranger in a Strange Land (1962) and The Moon is a cruel lover (1967). He was elected Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association of America (SFWA) in 1974, thus becoming the first recipient of this distinction.

Usually rigorous about the scientific basis of his stories, even his fantasy stories contain a logical scientific structure. One of the defining characteristics of his writing was introducing administration, politics, economics, linguistics, sociology and genetics into the subject matter of science fiction. He was also one of the champions of individualism, which was reflected in the richness of the characters (a clear example is Lazarus Long), both in knowledge and skills.

Another of the recurring themes in this author is questioning contemporary, cultural, social and sexual customs, describing societies with ideals quite far removed from those of Western society of his time. These ideas are reflected in several of his books, such as Stranger in a Strange Land or The Number of the Beast (1980).

A story that stands out for its social prediction was Incomplete Solution (1940), in which he predicts that during the initial creation of atomic weapons, the United States would believe that it would be the ultimate weapon of control world. And in the same story the "nuclear threat" for which many countries would refrain from using war -and these weapons- before the imminent destruction of both their own and their opponent.

Biography

Cadet Heinlein in 1929 at the yearbook of the United States Naval Academy.

Heinlein was born in Butler, a small town in Bates County, Missouri, on July 7, 1907. The son of Rex Ivar Heinlein, an accountant, and Bam Lyle Heinlein, he was the third of seven children (four boys and three women). Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he grew up. He received his basic education at Central High School, graduating in 1924. Following the example of his older brother Rex, he continued his studies at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland until 1929, when he graduated as a mechanical engineer. His first destination was the & # 39; USS Lexington & # 39;, one of the first two aircraft carriers of the US Navy and where he worked in radio communications. He subsequently served on the destroyer USS Roper , reaching the rank of lieutenant. In 1929 he married Eleanor Curry of Kansas City in Los Angeles; although this link only lasted a year.

His military career ended early, in 1934 at the age of 27, when he was discharged as unfit for service for medical reasons after a long convalescence due to tuberculosis. He had married Leslyn MacDonald in 1932 and was in Los Angeles, retired with a small pension, insufficient to support himself. Until 1939 he engaged in various occupations, including a brief foray into politics.

In this year he began to publish science fiction, with the submission to Astounding Science-fiction magazine of the story La línea de la vida (Lifeline). Within two years he rose to fame in the world of science fiction, but then his country entered World War II and Heinlein left writing to rejoin the Army.

However, he was rejected again for medical reasons. He eventually got a hand in the war effort by working as a civil engineer at the Naval Air Experimental Station near Philadelphia, a Navy materials laboratory. As soon as the war was over, he left the lab, returned to California, and sought out literary agents to break into new markets. And he got what he wanted, getting to publish in the Saturday Evening Post , the highest paying and most prestigious magazine of the time. This was a boost for the science fiction genre, which thus began, hand in hand with Heinlein, to leave the ghetto. In this period, Heinlein began to write so-called "juvenile books", adventure books for teenagers. Also in these years his personal situation became complicated, arriving in 1948 to divorce Leslyn. He soon remarried, to Virginia Doris Gerstenfeld, whom he had met at his job during the war. This marriage lasted until the end of his life, and Virginia also became Heinlein's main collaborator in his work.

He settled with her in Colorado Springs and continued to write. In 1948 he created a script that was made into a film with her collaboration the following year under the title Destination Moon ( Destination Moon ). During the 1950s, he won two Hugo Awards, one in 1956 for Double Star (Double Star ) and another in 1959 for Space Troops (Starship Troopers), a novel that, to Heinlein's surprise, was controversial as well as successful. In 1960 he finished one of his most important works, Stranger in a Strange Land ( Stranger In A Strange Land ), an extensive novel that he cut at the request of the publisher, despite which again won the 1962 Hugo Award.

Due to his wife's health problems, in 1965 the Heinleins returned to California, this time to Santa Cruz. In 1967 he again won the Hugo for The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress . During the 1970s he suffered numerous health problems, which caused a significant decline in his literary output. In 1970 peritonitis almost ended his life. His recovery stretched over two years and required multiple blood transfusions. In 1978 he was diagnosed with an obstruction in a carotid artery and underwent surgery to perform a bypass, one of the first operations of this type to be performed. In 1973 he had published Time Enough For Love (Time Enough For Love) and the following novel, The Number of the Beast (The Number of The Beast), was not published until 1980. Four other novels followed until May 8, 1988 when he passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean, his wife Virginia's following him when he died in 2003.

The asteroid (6312) Robheinlein was named in his honor.

Featured Bibliography

Novels

Beyond the horizon (1948). Beyond this Horizon
Puppet masters (1951), as well as Subtle invasion or Titan invades Earth. The Puppet Masters
Revolt in 2100 (1953). Revolt in 2100
Double star (1956) (Hugo Award, 1956). Double Star
Summer door (1956). The Door Into Summer
Citizen of the galaxy (1957). Citizen of the Galaxy
The children of Matusalén (1958) The 100 lives of Lazarus Long). Methuselah's Children
stranger in strange land (1961) (Hugo Award, 1962, published in original version in 1991). Stranger in a Strange Land
Route of glory (1963). Glory Road
The domains of Farnham (1964). Farnham's Freehold
The Moon is a cruel lover (1966) (Hugo Award, 1967). The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Time to love (1973). Time Enough for Love
The number of the beast (1979). The Number of the Beast
Friday (1982). Friday
Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984). Job: A Comedy of Justice
The cat that crosses the walls (1985). The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners
Travel beyond twilight (1987). To Sail Beyond the Sunset.
The pursuit of the Pankera (2020). Posthumous editing of an alternative version The number of the beast

Youth novels

Rocket Ship Galileo (1947)
Space Cadet (1948)
Rebellion in Space (Red Planet(1949)
The farmer of the stars (1950) (Retro Hugo Award - 1951, 2001)
The Stones (1952). The Rolling Stones
The star beast (1954). The Star Beast
Tunnel in space (1955)
The time of the stars (1956)
Citizen of the galaxy (1957)
Get a space suit. (1958)
Space Troops (1959) (Hugo Award, 1960)
Daughter of Mars (1963). Podkayne of Mars

Collections of stories

The nasty profession of Jonathan Hoag (1959).

Short stories and novels

And he build a crooked house

Collected in History of the future

The line of life (1939)
Inadapted (1939)
Réquiem (1940)
«If this continues...» (1940) (Retro Hugo 1941 Award for the best short novel, awarded in 2016)
The roads must be rolling (1940) (Retro Hugo 1941 Award to the best story, given in 2016)
Coventry (1940)
Explosions occur (1940)
Logic of the Empire (1941)
Universe (1941)
The children of Matusalén (1941)
«... we also walk dogs» (1941)
Common sense (1941)
The green hills of the Earth (1947)
Space Jockey (1947)
«How great it is to be back!» (1947)
The Black Moon Fairy (1948)
Gentlemen, remain seated (1948)
Dalila and the space mounter (1949)
The long guard (1949)
The man who sold the moon (1950) (Retro Hugo 1951 Award to the best short novel, awarded in 2001)
The Threat of the Earth (1957)
Light Ray (1962)

Movie adaptations

Some of Heinlein's novels or stories have been brought to the big screen with more or less success:

Starship Troopers
Someone moves the threads(based on Puppet masters)
Human leeches(based on Puppet masters)
To the Moon(Oscar to the best special effects, 1951; Retro Hugo Award - 1951, 2001)
Jerry Was to Man
Predestinationbased on the story "All You Zombies".
Summer door

Influences received

The primary influence on the writing style may have been Rudyard Kipling. Kipling is the first known model example of indirect narrative exposition, a writing technique for which Heinlein later became famous. In his famous text on "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction", Heinlein quotes Kipling this way:

There are nine-and-sixty ways
Of constructing tribal lays
And every single one of them is right

(There are nine hundred and sixty ways //// to build tribal ties //// And every one of them is correct)

Stranger in a Strange Land originated as a modernized version of Kipling's The Jungle Book. His wife suggested that the child could be raised by Martians instead of wolves. In the same way, Citizen of the Galaxy can be considered a reboot of another Kipling novel: Kim.

The Starship Troopers idea of needing to serve in the military in order to vote can be found in "The Army of a Dream" (The Army of a Dream) by Kipling:

But as a small detail we never mention, if we do not volunteer in any body (as fighters if we are fit, as non-combatants if we are not) until we are thirty-five years old, we do not vote, and we do not receive help from the poor, and women do not want us.

Poul Anderson once said of Kipling's sci-fi short story "Air Control Board (As Easy as A.B.C.)", "a wonderful strand of sci-fi, showing the same eye for the detail that would later distinguish the work of Robert Heinlein".

Heinlein described himself as also being influenced by George Bernard Shaw, having read most of his works. Shaw is an example of an earlier author who used competent man, a favorite archetype of Heinlein's. He denied, however However, any direct influence of Return to Methuselah on The Children of Methuselah.

Additional bibliography

Franklin, H. Bruce (1980). Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction (in English). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-502746-9.
Panshin, Alexei (1968). Heinlein in Dimension (in English). Advent. ISBN 0-911682-12-0.
Patterson, Jr., William H. (2010). Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue With His Century: 1907–1948 Learning Curve. An Authorized Biography, Volume I. (in English). Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 0-7653-1960-8.
Patterson, Jr., William H. (2014). Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue With His Century: 1948–1988 The Man Who Learned Better. An Authorized Biography, Volume II. (in English). Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 0-7653-1961-6.
Stover, Leon (1987). Robert Heinlein (in English). Twayne.

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