HEINLEIN Traveled On Many Levels

Philadelphia Inquirer (via philly.com) ^ | October 31, 2004 | Marc Schogol

[Lancey Howard]

Reviewed by Marc Schogol

Glory Road By Robert A. Heinlein

If it weren't for 'Stranger in a Strange Land', Robert A. Heinlein probably would have been known only by science fiction buffs.

But with its out-of-this-world motifs, including a mind-melding, mind-bending communal lifestyle where everything - everything! - was free and shared, 1961's 'Stranger in a Strange Land' made Heinlein a Sixties counterculture icon.

The irony, as anyone familiar with Heinlein and his other works would have known, was that the late science fiction master's political and philosophical bent was very libertarian/anti-egalitarian. Like Jack Kerouac, who was never comfortable with his reputation as the spiritual father of the hippies, Heinlein (1907-1988) was not, and never wanted to be, a guru to the Woodstock generation.

(snip)

Originally published two years after 'Stranger', it ('Glory Road') has been considered a lightweight effort by many science fiction aficionados. But others loved it then and have found themselves enjoying periodic rereadings since.

(snip)

[GeronL]

Write more.

OK.

---

It was a dark and stormy night on Triton....

[Bernard Marx]

I loved "Slan", "The Weapon Shops of Isher" and "The worlds of Null-A" (null A meaning Non-aristotelean thinking) series. One little noticed gem is "The Voyage of the Space Beagle."

I read 'em all and probably have those and more buried in my bookcases somewhere. The null-A stuff got me onto an Alfred Korzybski kick. I didn't understand too much of it at the time but it led me to Hayakawa and a lot of reading about general semantics which expanded my thinking enormously. I agree that "Beagle" is a classic.

It may have been a "round table" discussion in which Hubbard made the claim that he COULD create a religion.

One of the references I came across said Hubbard's comment came during a bull session at a SF con at which several people including Campbell were present. That seems likely to me.

As for Campbell slamming Hubbard in an editorial, I don't rememer that. As I recall he ran quite a series of editorials promoting Dianetics and challenging people to try it and determine its validity. It was those editorials that prompted me to actually order the book and read it. I give myself a pat on the back because even at that young age I identified it as pure BS.

[Drammach]

My father was a Science-Fiction fan, and I cut my eye-teeth on classic Sci-Fi..

Short stories, especially.. He subscribed to "Astounding Science Fiction" ( now called "Analog" ) magazine, and others, which often didn't last long but had great writers / short stories, novellas, etc..

Other great favorites of mine are E.E. "Doc" Smith, ( "Skylark" series, "Lensman" series ) A.E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne, Andre Norton, Larry Niven, Carl Sagan, H.G. Wells, and many, many others..

I've been lucky enough to have attended 2 World Science Fiction conventions, and enjoy the genre "to the max"..

[Darkwolf377]

It was a dark and stormy night on Triton....

Then again...;)

When asked if she thought college courses discouraged people from becoming writers. Shirley Jackson said "Not enough of them!"

[Steely Tom]

Wow. This thread has prompted me to do something I've never done before: enter the search string Heinlein pseudonym into the Google search engine. What a treasure trove of sites results!

How RAH would have loved the internet. It is better than his best predictions of how it would be.

(steely)

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I started reading Robert Anson Heinlein in the 1950s and I think his best story was "The man who was too lazy to fail"
in "Time Enough For Love".

For ERB and H.G Wells books that are out of copyright

http://www.blackmask.com/page.php

Free ebooks.

[Drammach]

One little noticed gem is "The Voyage of the Space Beagle."

Gene Rodenberry noticed it..
He created a sci-fi series based on a "Five Year Mission" in space.. changed the main character(s) a bit, and ...
You've got "STAR TREK"..

[Lancey Howard]

Short Fiction

"Life-Line" Aug 1939
"Misfit" Nov 1939
"Requiem" Jan 1940
"'If This Goes On -'" Feb-Mar 1940 (Rewritten and expanded for book collection 1953)
"Successful Operation" as "Heil!" summer 1940 (under 'Lyle Monroe')
"Let There Be Light" May 1940 (under 'Lyle Monroe')
"The Roads Must Roll" Jun 1940
"Coventry" Jul 1940
"Blowups Happen" Sep 1940 (Rewritten for first anthology in 1946)
"Magic, Inc." Sep 1940 as "The Devil Makes the Law"
"- And He Built a Crooked House -" Feb 1941
"Logic of Empire" Mar 1941
"Beyond Doubt" Apr 1941 (under 'Elma Wentz and Lyle Monroe', never reprinted)
"They" Apr 1941
"Solution Unsatisfactory" May 1941 (under 'Anson MacDonald')
"Universe" May 1941
"' - We Also Walk Dogs'" Jul 1941 (under 'Anson Macdonald')
"Elsewhen" Sep 1941 (under 'Caleb Saunders')
"By His Bootstraps" Oct 1941 (under 'Anson MacDonald')
"Common Sense" Oct 1941
"Lost Legacy" Nov 1941 (under 'Lyle Monroe')
"'My Object All Sublime'" Feb 1942 (under 'Lyle Monroe', never reprinted)
"Goldfish Bowl" Mar 1942 (under 'Anson MacDonald')
"Pied Piper" Mar 1942 (under 'Lyle Monroe', never reprinted)
"Waldo" Aug 1942 (under 'Anson MacDonald')
"The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" Oct 1942 (under 'John Riverside')
"A Bathroom of Her Own" 1946
"Free Men" 1947
"No Bands Playing, No Flags Flying -" 1947
"On the Slopes of Vesuvius" 1947
"The Green Hills of Earth" (in Saturday Evening Post) 8 Feb 1947
"Space Jockey" (in Saturday Evening Post) 26 Apr 1947
"Columbus Was a Dope" May 1947
"They Do It with Mirrors" May 1947 (under 'Simon York')
"It's Great to Be Back!" (in Saturday Evening Post) 26 July 1947
"Jerry Was a Man" Oct 1947
"Water is for Washing" Argosy, Nov 1947
"The Man Who Traveled in Elephants" 1948
"The Black Pits of Luna" (in Saturday Evening Post) 10 Jan 1948
"Gentlemen, Be Seated" May 1948
"Ordeal in Space" May 1948
"Our Fair City" Jan 1949
"Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon" Apr-May 1949
"Poor Daddy" Aug 1949
"Gulf" ASF, Nov-Dec 1949
"The Long Watch" Dec 1949 (Also as "Rebellion on the Moon")
"Delilah and the Space-Rigger" Dec 1949
"The Man Who Sold the Moon" 1950
"Cliff and the Calories" Aug 1950
"Destination Moon" Sep 1950
"The Bulletin Board" 1951
"The Year of the Jackpot" Mar 1952
"Sky Lift" Mar 1953
"Project Nightmare" Apr-May 1953
"The Menace from Earth" Aug 1957
"Tenderfoot in Space" May-Jul 1958 (aka "Tenderfoot on Venus")
"- All You Zombies -" Mar 1959
"Searchlight" (in Scientific American) Aug 1962

[Swordmaker]

Other great favorites of mine are E.E. "Doc" Smith, ( "Skylark" series, "Lensman" series )

I think the Lensman series and the Skylark series would make great movies... wonder why no one has picked them up? Do you suppose it might be a Boskonian conspiracy lead by Blackie DuQuesne? With CG both series could be spectacular!

[Swordmaker]

"- All You Zombies -" Mar 1959

THE absolute best Time Travel story of all time... the ultimate "what happens if you go back and kill your father before he sires you" question. Paradox upon paradox!

[Lancey Howard]

I belonged to the Science Fiction Book Club for several years in the late '60s. I still have everything I got from them, up in the attic somewhere. It is amazing how I can recall so many of the titles even though I haven't seen the books in decades. Impressionable youth, I suppose.

I remember getting 'The Past Through Tomorrow', 'The Foundation Trilogy', 'I, Robot', '2001: A Space Odyssey', and various other books by the likes of Kate Wilhelm and Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg and Ray Bradbury. Of course, I noticed that the paper stock and binding weren't exactly what you found in the book stores, lol.

Them were the days....

[Drammach]

I think the Lensman series and the Skylark series would make great movies...

Especially Lensman..
Law enforcement Hero, War on Drugs, the Bosconians, super powers, the "badge"..
Just the first couple of books would be a fantastic Movie or Television series..
( "Spacehounds of the IPC" .. the precursor to Lensman.. )

[GeronL]

I was kidding. One of the longer lost stories I had written was called These Worlds of Ours... and it included some poetry... how much do we want to bet that RAH didn't have an impact on that?

The last thing I wrote and lost was called Vortex, sort of a space opera that includes a ship that is the 'last great hope for mankind'. It included an attempt at a mutiny by two lesbians. *shrug*. Too bad I lost it.

and I wrote a prequel short story, prints to about 7 pages called Nightmares of Command

[Lancey Howard]

Check out post #88. There's a bunch of psuedonyms noted for several of his stories.

[GeronL]

Nightmares of Command can be found at my old geocities site here. Its a very short 'prequel' to the story Vortex that I lost with a lot of my stories when an old computer ..um.. failed...

[Lancey Howard]

See post #88.
A bunch of his stories were published under 'Anson MacDonald'.
I still have my paperback copy of 'The Day After Tomorrow' and it has the author as Robert Heinlein. It also says on the cover something to the effect of, "Previously published as 'The Sixth Column'. That's the only way I knew that both books were one and the same.

[Drammach]

Are you aware of the "on-line" Science Fiction magazines?

It's a good place to try out your stories..
Some are strictly free and volunteer writers, content, access, others are subscription, pay a little for stories.. ( and I do mean a "little".. )

I mean, what the heck, if you can't get published in Analog right off the bat, you can always start out publishing "digitally", even starting your own on line magazine..

[Swordmaker]

"-'The Foundation Trilogy'

What a coincidence. We are in the process of a major remodeling around the Swordmaker house and today I was packing up books to move them out of the way and regretfully decided to finally toss my dog-eared, broken spined SFBC copy of the Foundation Trilogy. It is residing in my trashcan even as we type!

[GeronL]

well, I did get a free website to put my 'prequel' story Nightmares of Command up. Now you can find it on my old geocities site Here.

Too bad that computer... broke down... and I lost most of my old stories.

[Lancey Howard]

I sat on the beach in Surf City, New Jersey and read that book cover-to-cover in two weeks back in circa 1968. My kids will have to throw it away when I'm dead. Along with everything else pack-rat me throws in the attic.

By the way, can there be any doubt where George Lucas got (at least some, probably a whole lot) of his inspiration for Star Wars?