Robert Heinlein works. Robert Heinlein: the best books. Long way to yourself

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Birthday: 07.07.1907

Date of death: 05/08/1988 (80 years old)

Zodiac sign: Goat, Cancer ♋

Robert Anson Heinlein was born July 7, 1907 in Butler, Bates County, Missouri. The third son of Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, he had two older brothers, Rex Ivar Heinlein and Lawrence Lyle Heinlein, and a younger sister, Louise Heinlein. When he was a young man, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Robert grew up there but spent summers with relatives in Butler.

He graduated high school in Kansas City in 1924 and went to college for a year. His brother Rex went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and Heinlein chose the same future for himself. He collected many recommendations and sent them to Senator James Reed. Reid was said to have received one hundred letters asking for Robert Heinlein to be appointed to Annapolis... Fifty, one for each candidate, and fifty from Robert Heinlein. Robert entered the academy in 1925.

Heinlein graduated from the academy in 1929 and served on various ships, including the Lexington (the first American aircraft carrier), the USS Utah and the Roper. Because of the constant pitching, Heinlein suffered a lot from seasickness, and in 1934 he fell ill with tuberculosis. He was cured and retired as unfit for service and received a small pension.

In early 1930, shortly after his retirement, he married Leslyn MacDonald. Heinlein never talked about Leslyn or the later divorce. Between 1934 and 1939 Heinlein worked various works in Los Angeles and Colorado Springs. He was a co-owner of a silver mine, but things went down the drain when another co-owner shot himself. He studied mathematics, architecture and engineering at UCLA (having a bachelor's degree from the Naval Academy). He also works as a broker, and possibly as a painter, photographer and sculptor, although the details of these activities are not fully known.

By 1938, Heinlein was working as editor and staff writer for Upton Sinclair's EPIC News, an organ of the EPIC trading firm. In November 1938, he ran for the Republican California Assembly, but was defeated, broke, married, and continued to live on his small naval pension. In late 1938, Thrilling Wonder Stories launched a short story contest, offering full bids (half a cent per word, up to $50) to any previously unpublished writer whose story was selected for publication.
Heinlein wrote in April 1939 in four days the story "The Line of Life" and submitted it not to the TWS, which he thought would be inundated with manuscripts, but to John Campbell in Astounding Science Fiction. Campbell quickly bought the story for one cent a word, for $70. With the exception of his service during the Second World War, Heinlein never again earned anything other than books.

Heinlein died peacefully on the morning of May 8, 1988, from pulmonary edema (emphysema) and a heart condition that plagued him for the last few years of his life.

Robert Anson Heinlein Born July 7, 1907 in Butler, Bates County, Missouri. The third son of Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, he had two older brothers, Rex Ivar Heinlein and Lawrence Lyle Heinlein, and a younger sister, Louise Heinlein. When he was a young man, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Robert grew up there but spent summers with relatives in Butler.

He graduated from Kansas City High School in 1924 and attended a year of college. His brother Rex went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and Heinlein chose the same future for himself. He collected many recommendations and sent them to Senator James Reed. Reed was said to have received one hundred letters asking for appointment to Annapolis... Fifty, one for each candidate, and fifty from Robert Heinlein. Robert entered the academy in 1925.

Heinlein graduated from the academy in 1929 and served on various ships, including the Lexington (the first American aircraft carrier), the USS Utah and the Roper. Because of the constant pitching, Heinlein suffered a lot from seasickness, and in 1934 he fell ill with tuberculosis. He was cured and retired as unfit for service and received a small pension.

In early 1930, shortly after his retirement, he married Leslyn MacDonald. Heinlein never talked about Leslyn or the later divorce. Between 1934 and 1939 Heinlein did various jobs in Los Angeles and Colorado Springs. He was a co-owner of a silver mine, but things went down the drain when another co-owner shot himself. He studied mathematics, architecture and engineering at UCLA (having a bachelor's degree from the Naval Academy). He also works as a broker, and possibly as a painter, photographer and sculptor, although the details of these activities are not fully known.

By 1938, Heinlein was working as editor and staff writer for Upton Sinclair's EPIC News, an organ of the EPIC trading firm. In November 1938, he ran for the Republican California Assembly, but was defeated, broke, married, and continued to live on his small naval pension. In late 1938, Thrilling Wonder Stories launched a short story contest, offering full bids (half a cent per word, up to $50) to any previously unpublished writer whose story was selected for publication.

Heinlein wrote in April 1939 in four days the story "The Line of Life" and submitted it not to the TWS, which he thought would be inundated with manuscripts, but to John Campbell in Astounding Science Fiction. Campbell quickly bought the story for one cent a word, for $70. With the exception of his service during the Second World War, Heinlein never again earned anything other than books.

Heinlein died peacefully on the morning of May 8, 1988, from pulmonary edema (emphysema) and a heart condition that plagued him for the last few years of his life.

Biography

Robert Anson Heinlein is an American writer, one of the largest science fiction writers, who largely determined the face of modern science fiction. He has been referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction Writers".

Heinlein became the first professional science fiction writer in the United States and one of the first to publish in major popular publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. His first stories appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1939, and he was one of a group of writers made famous by Astounding editor John Campbell. The writer's career lasted almost half a century; in his work, Heinlein touched on many topics, including social and philosophical ones: individual freedom, the individual's responsibility to society, the role and format of the family, the nature of organized religion, and many others.

In the Anglo-American literary tradition Robert Heinlein along with Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, they are classified as the "Big Three" science fiction writers. He became the owner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, the only writer, who received the "Hugo" for five novels. An asteroid and a crater on Mars are named after him.

Birth and childhood

Robert Anson Heinlein was born July 7, 1907 in the small town of Butler (Missouri) and became the third child in the family of Rex Ivor Heinlein and Bem Lyle Heinlein. In addition to two older brothers, Lawrence and Rex Jr., Robert later had three younger sisters and a brother. During this time, the parents lived with their maternal grandfather, Dr. Alva E. Lyle. Three years after his birth, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where his father took a job with the Midland Agricultural Machinery Company. Here Heinlein spent his childhood.

The greatest influence on him during this period was Alva Lyle, whom Robert visited in Butler every summer until his death in 1914. Grandfather instilled in him a love of reading and the exact sciences, brought up a number of positive character traits. In memory of that, Heinlein later repeatedly used the pseudonym Lyle Monroe, in honor of his grandfather he also named the protagonist of the story "If this continues ...". Kansas City was located in the so-called "Bible Belt", respectively, Heinlein received a strict, puritanical upbringing and the laid down inner moral foundation remained with him until the end of his life.

In 1920, Heinlein entered Kansas City Central High School. By this time, he was very interested in astronomy, having read all available books on the topic from the Kansas City Public Library (English) Russian. He was also impressed by the study evolutionary theory Darwin, she influenced the further work of Heinlein. The school passion for non-standard mathematical problems was also sometimes reflected in the writer's works, such as, for example, the tesseract in the story "... And he built himself a crooked little house."

Navy service

After leaving school, Heinlein decided to follow the example of his older brother Rex to enter the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. This was not easy to do, since in order to be admitted to the entrance exams, one had to enlist the support of one of the congressmen or senators. An additional obstacle to its admission was that usually only one family member from one generation was accepted. So Heinlein began to actively collect letters of recommendation and send them to Senator James A. Reed for his petition. While Heinlein was waiting for the results, he took a course at the University of Missouri. During this time, Senator Reid received a hundred letters from applicants to the Annapolis Academy - fifty one from each person and fifty from Heinlein. Thus, the right to enter the academy was obtained, and in June 1925 Heinlein became a cadet of the academy after successfully passing the entrance exams.

While studying at the academy, Heinlein lived in Bancroft Hall - the cadet's dormitory. He successfully studied compulsory disciplines, and also became the champion of the academy in fencing, wrestling and shooting. He underwent practice three times - on the battleships Utah, Oklahoma and Arkansas (English) Russian. In 1929, Heinlein successfully graduated 20th out of 243 cadets and received the rank of ensign. In general, he was the fifth in the release rating, but due to disciplinary violations, he dropped to twentieth place.

After the academy, Heinlein was assigned to the new USS Lexington aircraft carrier as an officer in charge of radio communications with aircraft. In mid-1932, he was promoted to second lieutenant and transferred to the USS Roper destroyer. as an artillery officer. At the end of 1933 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he spent several months in treatment, first at the Fitzsimmons Hospital in Denver, then in a sanatorium near Los Angeles. During his stay in the sanatorium, he developed a water mattress (English) Russian, which he would later mention in some of his works, but did not patent it. Due to illness, Heinlein was soon declared completely unfit for further service and was forced to retire with the rank of lieutenant in August 1934, he was awarded a small pension. The military career of his older brothers was more successful: Rex Heinlein, after Annapolis, made a career in the US Army, where he served until the end of the 50s, Lawrence Heinlein also served in the Army, Air Force and the Missouri National Guard, rising to the rank of Major General.

Heinlein first married on June 21, 1929 to Eleanor Leah Curry of Kansas City, whom he had known since high school. Relations with his wife did not immediately work out, Heinlein, as a naval sailor, was mostly away from Kansas City, Eleanor did not want to move either to California or to other places where he served. As a result, in October 1930, she sued for divorce, and the marriage, which Heinlein did not even tell his family about, broke up. On March 28, 1932, he more consciously married Leslyn Macdonald, a political activist, a rather unusual and talented woman.

California

After resigning, Heinlein spent several weeks in graduate school at the University of California at Los Angeles (mathematics and physics); but left her, either because of ill health, or because of his passion for politics. He settled in Laurel Canyon (English) Russian, a suburb of Los Angeles, changed many specialties, including the position of a realtor real estate and an employee of the silver mines. Later, he joined the E. Sinclair movement under the slogan “End Poverty in California! (English) Russian.” (EPIC), popular in the early 1930s in California, becoming by 1935 secretary of the movement's district assembly and member of the EPIC constitution drafting committee. When Sinclair ran for Democratic governor, Heinlein actively participated in this disastrous campaign. In 1938, he himself ran for the California Legislature, but again unsuccessfully [~ 3].

Heinlein had a wide range of political views, some of which can be attributed to the socialist. It should be noted that American socialism at that time was not under the influence of Marxism, but had its own traditions, close to the utopian socialism of Saint-Simon. In addition to the influence of his second wife, Leslin, Heinlein read many books by Wells as a child, absorbing with them his progressive socialism, which was easily combined with the positions of the American left forces, including the movement of E. Sinclair. In 1954, having already thoroughly replaced Political Views, Heinlein wrote about it:

“... many Americans ... loudly declared that McCarthy created a "power of terror." Are you scared? I'm not, and I've had a lot of political action in my past that's too far left of Senator McCarthy's position.

Writing career

Political failure and a burdensome mortgage forced him to look for additional sources of income [~ 4]. Heinlein managed to sell to editor John Campbell his short story "Lifeline", which was written in four days in April 1939, and it was published in the August issue of Astounding Science Fiction. With the exception of work during the Second World War and brief participation in political campaigns, Heinlein subsequently earned a living exclusively by writing. Already in 1941, he was invited as a guest of honor to the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon-41), held in Denver (Heinlein was also an honored guest of this convention in 1961 and 1976).

During the war, Heinlein worked with Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp at the Naval Research Laboratory in Philadelphia. They developed methods for combating aircraft icing on high altitudes, equipment for blind landing and compensating pressure suits. Here Heinlein met Virginia Doris Gerstenfeld, whom he fell in love with, but did not want to break off the marriage with his wife.

In 1947, Heinlein nevertheless divorced Leslin, who by that time had worsened problems with alcohol; next year for the third and already last time he married Virginia Gerstenfeld, with whom he lived the remaining 40 years of his life. Virginia was never a co-author of her husband's works, but she influenced the process of writing them: she was the first to read new works, suggested various ideas, was his secretary and manager.

Shortly after their marriage, Heinlein and Virginia moved to Colorado Springs, where they designed and built their house with a bomb shelter[~ 5].

In 1953-1954, the Heinleins undertook their first trip around the world, the impression of which indirectly influenced his travel novels (like Podkane the Martian). Only in 1992 was Heinlein's book "Tramp Royale" published, which describes this journey. And in 1959-1960 they visited the USSR, for which Virginia diligently studied Russian for two years. At first, Heinlein quite liked it in the Soviet Union, but the American U-2 reconnaissance spy plane with pilot Powers, shot down just at that time, spoiled his impressions.

In the mid-60s, due to chronic altitude sickness in Virginia, the Heinleins moved back to California, settling temporarily in the city of Santa Cruz until the new house in the nearby statistically isolated area Bonnie Doon (English) Russian [~ 6]. One of the reasons for leaving Colorado Springs was also the desire to be away from the primary targets for a nuclear attack, which was the headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Isaac Asimov believed that marrying Ginny [~ 7] also meant a change in Heinlein's political priorities. Together they founded The Patrick Henry League (1958) and were heavily involved in the 1964 re-election campaign of Barry Goldwater, and Tramp Royale contains two large apologia for McCarthy. The disillusionment and departure from Wells' socialism towards conservative views was not instantaneous, it began during the war. While Heinlein stuck to his traditionally patriotic and liberal-progressive views, politics itself changed, and he, along with millions of other American liberals, was forced to move away from American liberalism.

Heinlein's most important social act is still his novels for young people. He wrote them from a scientific point of view, while having excellent knowledge of the adult world, almost single-handedly creating the genre of youthful science fiction. His novels were relevant until Starship Troopers was rejected by Scribner in 1959. Then Heinlein was able to abandon the role of "leading author of children's books", from which he was already tired, and went on his own way. Starting in 1961, he published books that radically expanded the boundaries of the sci-fi genre, starting with his most famous novel, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961, also translated as Stranger in a Strange Land), and further - “The Moon is a harsh mistress” (1966, Eng. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, in another translation - “The moon lays hard”), which is considered the pinnacle of his work. Recognition of his merits is the invitation of television to commentate live on the moon landing of American astronauts in 1969, along with Arthur C. Clarke and Walter Cronkite.

Final years and death

Hard work brought Heinlein to the brink of death in 1970. The decade of the 70s began for him with peritonitis, extremely life-threatening, the cure took more than two years. As soon as he felt well enough to work, Heinlein wrote the novel Time Enough for Love, or the Life of Lazarus Long in 1973, in which many of the plots he developed in his later work appeared. In the mid-1970s, he was commissioned to write two articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica Yearbook and traveled the country with Ginny to organize blood donations, as well as being the guest of honor at the Third NF World Congress in Kansas City (1976).

Vacation in Tahiti in 1978 ended in a severe attack of coronary heart disease. He underwent one of the first coronary bypass operations. In July 1979, he was invited to address the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives. His speech testified to the belief that the income from the development of space technologies will provide significant assistance to the sick and the elderly.

Operations allowed Heinlein to start working again in 1980, when he prepared for publication the collection "Expanded Universe". Heinlein does not forget about the major literary form, in the 1980s he managed to write five more novels. In 1983 he visited Antarctica, the last continent he had not yet visited.

But the writer's health deteriorated significantly by 1987, which forced him and Ginny to move from Bonnie Doon to the nearby town of Carmel in order to be able to receive the necessary medical care. There he died in his sleep from the effects of emphysema on the morning of May 8, 1988, during the initial stages of work on a novel from the series "The World as a Myth". His body was cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

Creation

Periodization of creativity

The tradition of dividing the work of Robert Heinlein into several periods probably comes from Alexei Panshin's "Heinlein in Dimension" (1968). Panshin divided Heinlein's writing career into three periods: influence (1939-1945), success (1947-1958) and alienation (1959-1967) [~ 8]. Critic Gary Westphal, who does not agree with Panshin's periodization, divides all the writer's work into two parts: science fiction (1939-1957) and satirical (1958-1988), justifying such a division by the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, which summed up the writers' propaganda activities - science fiction writers. Russian critic and writer Andrey Balabukha identifies three periods: the initial (1939-1942), mature (1947-mid-60s, in two streams) and the last (1970-1988). Another Russian researcher of Heinlein's heritage, Andrey Ermolaev, without refuting Balabukha's periodization, points to a significant upheaval in the writer's soul in the 60s, which led to a noticeable contrast between later novels and earlier works. However, James Gifford is rather skeptical about such attempts to divide the author's works by periods, noting that each reader and researcher will have his own vision of such periodization, and at the same time there will always be works that do not fit into the developed scheme. Thus, there is no single generally accepted periodization of Heinlein's work.

Early work: 1939-1959

The first novel Heinlein wrote was called Us Living (1939), although it was not published until 2003. It was more like a series of lectures on social theories and proved to be a literary failure. However, John Clute, in his review of the novel, argued that if Heinlein and his colleagues could publish such an "adult" SF in the pages of the magazines of the time, then science fiction would now "at least not play such a fantastically bad role as some of its living ones." varieties."

Having failed with the novel, in 1939 Heinlein began selling his first stories in the editorial offices of magazines, which later formed the History of the Future cycle. His career at this stage was closely associated with the famous editor John Campbell. Looking back at this time, Frederick Pohl calls Heinlein "the greatest science fiction writer of the Campbell era". Isaac Asimov said that, starting with his first published story, Heinlein was recognized as the best science fiction writer and retained this title until the end of his life. In the journal Astounding Science Fiction, in May 1941, for the History of the Future, an outline of the political, cultural, and technological changes of the 20th century and beyond was published. However, in the future, Heinlein wrote many stories and novels that deviated from his earlier scheme, but formed independent cycles. The reality of the 20th century refuted his History of the Future. Heinlein managed to overcome inconsistencies in the 80s by introducing the concept of "The World as a Myth".

Heinlein's first novel was published as a separate publication only in 1947, it was the Rocket Ship Galileo. Initially, the editors rejected this novel, because the flight to the moon was then considered completely irrelevant. Only at the end of the war did Heinlein find a publisher - Charles Scribner's Sons, who began to publish every Christmas a novel for young people written by Heinlein. The eight books in the series, beginning with Space Cadet, were illustrated in black and white by Clifford Gehry in the style of scratched paper. During this period, the novel "Farmer in the Sky" (Eng. Farmer in the Sky - in Boys' Life magazine, in four issues for August - November 1950, called Satellite Scout ("Star Scout"), which fifty years later was nominated for a retrospective Hugo Award for Achievement in Science Fiction, and also nominated for the Hugo Award for Juvenile Novels, which has become quite popular, I've Got a Space Suit - I'm Ready to Travel.

Heinlein's early novels are interesting for both children and adults. His main characters of this period are usually very extraordinary intellectual teenagers who make their way to the top in adult society. In form, these novels are simple - a story about adventures, conflicts with teachers and parents, etc. Heinlein was well aware of censorship restrictions, and therefore his novels are often conservative in form, which did not prevent him from pursuing ideas that were impossible in "teenager" fiction. other authors of the same years. Heinlein believed that young readers are much more sophisticated than is commonly believed, so in his books he tried to encourage them to think. In The Red Planet (1949), which deals with a revolution involving boarding school students on Mars, the editor requested changes. He was embarrassed that teenagers deftly handle weapons, and besides, the mechanism of reproduction of the Martians looked too exotic (who had three sexes, coinciding with the stages of development). Heinlein had no luck with publishers at all: in The Martian Podkane, the ending had to be rewritten, and Puppeteers and Stranger in a Strange Land were first published in a greatly abridged form. In the late 1950s, the conflict of Heinlein's views and lifestyle with his role as a writer for teenagers became obvious.

James Blish in 1957 attributed the success of Heinlein's early novels to high-quality technique and writing structure, to his innate, almost instinctive understanding of the techniques in fiction that other writers learned through bitter experience.

The juvenile novel series was ended with Starship Troopers (1959), which was supposed to be the next novel for Scrinber's, but because of its controversial nature was not accepted by the publisher. This novel was a response to US calls for a unilateral cessation of nuclear testing.

Mature creativity: 1961-1969

During this period, Heinlein wrote his most famous novels. His work explores all themes during this period, from libertarianism and individualism to free love, in a somewhat shocking contrast to the themes of his early novels. It all started with Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), which is a logical continuation of an unpublished literary debut with the same themes of free love and radical individualism[~ 9].

Stranger in a Strange Land took over 10 years to write and was originally titled The Heretic, completed after taking a break from Starship Troopers. Perhaps Heinlein would have published the novel earlier, in one of the earlier versions, but in the 50s, due to the sexual content of the book, it was almost impossible to publish it. Even in the early 60s, the author had difficulties with the publication of the novel, Putnam was reluctant to publish it because of the topic of sex and religion, and in general the editors were more hopeful that Heinlein would continue to write successful novels for young people. Only by reducing the book from 220,000 words to 160,000 did he achieve the publication of the novel, proving at the same time his ability to write and sell works of fiction of any genre category.

According to critics and the public, Heinlein's best novel is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966). It describes the war for the independence of the lunar colonies, outlining the anarchist doctrine of the danger of any government - including the Republican - to individual freedom.

During this period, Heinlein also turns to fantasy. He wrote several short stories in this genre as early as the 1940s, but his only "pure" fantasy was Valor's Road (1963).

Later work: 1970-1987

Heinlein's next novel - "I Fear No Evil" (1970, in another translation "Passing the Valley of the Shadow of Death") - is colored with noticeable satirical motifs and even elements of dystopia. Logically, this novel adjoins another - "Time Enough for Love" (1973).

Health problems haunted the writer for the next few years. It wasn't until 1979 that he finished his next novel, The Number of the Beast, after which he wrote four more novels, including Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987). All these books are clearly related to each other by the characteristics of the characters, as well as the time and place of action. This pentalogy became an exposition of Heinlein's philosophy. They contain a lot of philosophical mono- and dialogues, satires, a lot of reasoning about the government, sexual life and religion. Many critics spoke negatively about these novels. None of them were awarded the Hugo Award.

The plots of later novels are not of the same type. "The Number of the Beast" and "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" begin as light-hearted adventure stories, merging into a stream of authorial philosophy at the end. Critics are still arguing whether literary “carelessness” is a sign of the master’s fatigue, his inattention to the form of the story, lack of editorial control, or whether it is a conscious desire to break with genre stereotypes and expand the boundaries of science fiction, move to a new creative level. The style of "The Number of the Beast" can be classified as a kind of "magical realism". Critics believe that Heinlein's later novels are a kind of offshoot of the "History of the Future" and are united under the general title "The World as a Myth" (from the slogan of pantheistic solipsism - an exotic doctrine proposed by one of the heroines of "The Number of the Beast").

The novels "Friday" and "Job, or the Mockery of Justice" stand somewhat apart here. The former is a more traditional adventure work with subtle references to Heinlein's early work, while the latter is a clear anti-religious satire.

Posthumous publications

Virginia Heinlein (who passed away in 2003) published Grumbles from the Grave in 1989, a collection of Heinlein's correspondence with his publishers. In the collection Requiem: Collected Works and Tributes to the Grand Master, 1992, some early stories with which Heinlein was dissatisfied and did not publish during his lifetime. Heinlein's nonfiction books were published: "Tramp Royale", a description of their round-the-world trip in the early 50s, as well as the book Take Back Your Government (Eng. Take Back Your Government, 1946). In 2003, his first novel For Us, the Living, which was previously considered lost, was published for the first time. In 2012, a 46-volume edition of Heinlein's complete works, known as the Virginia Edition, was completed.

Spider Robinson, a colleague, friend and admirer of Heinlein, based on his unpublished sketches from 1955, wrote the novel Variable Star. The novel was published in 2006 with Heinlein's name on the cover above Robinson's.

The main issues raised in the work

Politics

Heinlein's political views fluctuated greatly during his lifetime, which affected the content of his works of art. In early works, including his unpublished novel We the Living, elements of Roosevelt's politics are simply transferred to 21st century space, for example, the Space Construction Corps from the story "Loser" is clearly a futuristic version of the Civilian Environmental Conservation Corps.

Novels from the youthful series are written from the position of conservative values. In Space Cadet, it is under military leadership that the world government ensures world peace. Patriotism and strong support for the military are key elements of Heinlein's conservatism, who ceased to consider himself a democrat since 1954. Starship Troopers, which talks about the positive role of violence in the history of mankind, is called by some critics an apology for fascism and militarism. Contrary to such criticism, the author himself only argued that there is not a single chance to get rid of wars in the foreseeable future, since such are the realities of a diverse human civilization, and was also against universal military duty.

It should not be denied that Heinlein had more than liberal views. Written at the same time as Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land became a hippie cult book, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress served as an inspiration to libertarians. Both groups responded to his themes of personal freedom of thought and action. Among American writers who have had a literary influence on libertarianism, Heinlein is ranked second only to Ayn ​​Rand.

Christianity and Power. Specific were Heinlein's views on Christianity, so relevant in the United States. In particular, he was against any fusion of power and religion, which led to the writing of Job, where he literally pilloryed any organized religion. Much has been written about this in Stranger in a Foreign Land. Future History contains an eclipse period in which fundamentalists establish a Protestant dictatorship in the US.

The positive evaluation of the military, especially in teen novels, is closely linked to Heinlein's preaching of individualism. His ideal military (especially in the novels Between the Planets, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Red Planet and, of course, Starship Troopers) are always individual volunteers, sometimes rebels. Therefore, the government for Heinlein is a continuation of the army, which must protect a free society (such an idea is contained even in the novel "Time Enough for Love").

The early Heinlein leaned towards socialism, but remained a staunch anti-communist for the rest of his life. Heinlein returned from a trip to the USSR in 1960 as an anti-Soviet, which was reflected in a series of essays such as "Pravda means Truth" and "Intourist from the inside."

Malthusianism and wars. Heinlein was a convinced Malthusian, for he believed that the pressure of the population on environment dictates social behavior. This was especially evident in the novels The Red Planet and The Heavenly Farmer (1950). Here is an interesting episode in The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973), which describes the collision of farmers with a bank, where Heinlein very prominently portrayed the tragic process of turning a pioneer society into a civilized one. Heinlein clearly favors the evolutionary path of society, although many of his novels are chronicles of revolutions (on Mars, Venus and the Moon). A vivid example of his ideology is "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", where the colonists who overthrew the authoritarian regime become victims of the common path of human development, which is more and more infringing on the individual (this, however, has already been written in the novel "The Cat Passing Through Walls").

anti-racism

Heinlein grew up in a society with racial segregation, and as a writer became famous during the struggle of African Americans for their civil rights. Covert attacks against racism first appear in Jerry the Man (1947) and the 1948 novel Space Cadet. His early works were ahead of their time in their explicit rejection of racism and the presence of "non-white" characters, since prior to the 1960s science fiction characters were more likely to have green skin than black. He sometimes played with the skin color of his characters, first making readers identify with the main character, and then casually mentioning his non-white background, as was the case in "Tunnel in the Sky" and "Starship Troopers". Heinlein openly touched on this topic (precisely on American material) in the novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

The most provocative in this sense was the 1964 novel Farnham Freehold, in which white characters with a black servant were abandoned two thousand years into the future, where there is a caste slave society in which slaves are all white, and the ruling caste is black and Muslims.

Before the war, in 1940, Heinlein wrote the story "The Sixth Column", where the American resistance is fighting the aggressors of the yellow race, who had already captured the entire Eurasian continent (including Russia and India) by that time. He later disassociated himself from the racist aspects of the story, admitting that he created it on the basis of Campbell's oral retelling of the plot of his unwritten story, and also for the sake of a guaranteed fee. In general, many critics tried to convict Heinlein of propaganda of the "yellow threat", which can also be seen in some episodes of "The Tunnel in the Sky" and "Sky Farmer". However, in the same "Sixth Column" an American of Asian origin zealously serves the United States, and a white professor dreams of a future dictatorship of scientists.

Individualism

Many of Heinlein's novels are stories of revolution against political oppression. However, Heinlein is far from Manichaeistic, therefore he portrays the oppressors and the oppressed sometimes even ambiguously. In Farnham Freehold, the protagonist's son initially tries to separate, but then undergoes neutering for his own place in life.

Heinlein further shifts his focus to the oppression of the individual by society rather than government.

For Heinlein, the concepts of individualism and high intelligence and competence are inseparable. This is very clearly and directly preached in novels for young people, and in The Lives of Lazarus Long, a collection of aphorisms ends with the crown: "Specialization is for insects."

sexual emancipation

For Heinlein, personal freedom also meant sexual freedom, so the theme of free love appears in him in 1939 and does not disappear until his death. The development of the theme of sex in the early work of the writer is often criticized for cuteness, clumsiness and the lack of direct descriptions. For a number of reasons, early on Heinlein touched on sexuality in very few of his writings, but since Stranger in a Strange Land (which was one of the first sf books to openly discuss sex), this topic has become a significant part of his work. Toward the end of his career, Heinlein began to view erections and orgasms with humor and aplomb.

The short story "You Are All Zombies" (1959) and the novel "I Fear No Evil" (1970) both deal with the subject of gender reassignment.

In some novels, especially at a later stage in his work, Heinlein turns to the study of child sexuality and incest. For example, in Farnham Freehold, the daughter of the protagonist Karen, according to a number of hints from the author, has an Elektra complex: she directly says that choosing between her father and her adult brother, as husbands, she will prefer her father. The theme of incest also appears in The Children of Methuselah, The Road of Valor, Enough Time for Love.

Interestingly, almost all of Heinlein's female characters have a clearly rational mind and character. They are invariably competent, smart, intelligent, brave, and always in control of life circumstances (as far as possible), not inferior in these qualities to male characters. The model for strong female characters in Heinlein's early work may have been his second wife, Leslyn MacDonald, who was later replaced by Virginia Heinlein. Although they often have antipodes - sanctimonious, narrow-minded women with whom the protagonist is married - as in "Farnham's Freehold", "Job, or the mockery of justice."

However, Heinlein should not be considered an apologist for feminism. So, in "Double Star" (1954), secretary Penny (quite smart and reasonable) - allows emotions to interfere with her position and marries her boss - a successful politician.

Philosophical views

An important source for us here is the novel "Sail Beyond the Sunset", where the main character Maureen Johnson asks the question: "The purpose of metaphysics is to ask such questions: Why are we here? Where do we go after death? And - Why are these questions unresolvable? Questions are the basis of Heinlein's metaphysics. Lazarus Long (her son) rightly states in the 1973 novel that in order to answer the question “what is the universe?”, it is necessary to go beyond it.

The most concentrated philosophical problems are expressed by Heinlein in works of short form. Solipsism - "They", causality - "In their own footsteps", the limitations of human perception - "Aquarium with goldfish", the illusory nature of the world - "The unpleasant profession of Jonathan Hoag".

In the 1930s and 1940s, Heinlein was deeply interested in Alfred Korzybski's theory of general semantics and attended his seminars. Then Heinlein became interested in the teachings of the mystic Peter Demyanovich Uspensky.

The world is like a myth

The idea of ​​the World as a myth (eng. World as Myth) belongs to Heinlein and was developed by him in the book "The Number of the Beast". According to her, myths and fictional worlds exist as an uncountable set of Universes, in parallel with ours. More precisely, the number of fictional universes is 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056 or ((6)^6)^6. In this multiverse, Heinlein's story of the future is just one of the vast number of universes that make up the world as a myth.

Novels that make up the cycle:
Enough time for love
Number of the Beast
cat walking through walls
Sail away into the sunset

Heinlein's rules

Robert Heinlein did not leave behind any of the famous trinity of laws that Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke had. However, in the 1947 essay "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction", he spoke of five rules for writing success:

You must write
You must finish writing
You must refrain from rewriting unless the editor requires it.
You must bring your work to market
You must keep it on the market until it is bought.

The writer did not hide these rules from potential competitors, as he believed that very few authors would be able to fully follow them.

Heinlein's legacy

Along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlein is ranked as one of the three Great Masters of Science Fiction, he was recognized as the first of this trio. He was one of the brightest representatives of the Golden Age of Science Fiction and his early career was closely associated with Astounding Science Fiction editor John Campbell.

Fame came to Heinlein very early. As early as 1953, in a survey of the leading sf authors of the time, he was listed as the most influential contemporary author. In 1974, he was the first science fiction writer to receive the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. for lifetime services to science fiction. Critic James Gifford wrote, "While many other authors have surpassed Heinlein in impact, few can claim to have had such an extensive and productive influence on the genre as he has. Dozens of science fiction writers of the pre-war Golden Age still trust Heinlein with undisguised enthusiasm to develop their own careers, form their own style and plots.

Heinlein also contributed to space exploration. The 1950 film Destination the Moon, based on his screenplay, promotes the idea of ​​a space race with the Soviet Union ten years before the phenomenon became recognizable, and the film was promoted through an unprecedented print advertising campaign. Many astronauts and others involved in the US space program have been inspired by the work of Robert Heinlein, such as his novella The Man Who Sold the Moon.

In just 48 years of his writing career, Heinlein created 33 novels [~ 10], 59 short stories and 16 collections of works. Based on his writings, 4 films, 2 television series, several radio shows, and more have been shot.

In the USSR, Heinlein was first translated back in 1944, but by 1990 the number of Heinlein's publications in Russian did not exceed 20. Mostly these were stories, only in 1977 in the magazine "Around the World" (No. 1-5) a novel was published "Stepsons of the Universe". Since the 1990s, the popularity of the writer in Russia has grown sharply (45 editions in 1992, by 2003 - more than 500), several representative collected works have been published. The first of these was The Worlds of Robert Heinlein in 25 volumes.

In 2003, the organization responsible for the preservation of Heinlein's legacy established his personal prize, which is awarded for writing works that inspire people to explore space. There is also a literary award (English) Russian. named after the hero of the story "Green Hills of the Earth" - an astronaut who lost his sight, but not space and became a space bard - awarded for the best fantastic work written in poetic form.

And Arthur Clarke. Repeatedly received the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards. An asteroid and a Martian crater bear his name. This is Robert Heinlein, an American writer who has greatly influenced the way science fiction looks today.

Childhood and youth

Robert Anson Heinlein was born in Butler, Missouri on July 7, 1907. His parents had seven children, Robert the third. The family lived in Bem's parental home until the boy was three years old. Just then, his father found a job in Kansas City, and the family moved there.

For four more years, Robert stayed with his grandfather in the summer until he died. Grandfather Alva Lyle rendered on the future science fiction writer big influence, instilled a love of reading and the exact sciences. Robert, in honor of his grandfather, often used the pseudonym Lyle Monroe when he first began his writing career.

In 1920, having entered the Central High School, Robert became interested in astronomy. The theory of evolution impressed him and was reflected in his subsequent work. Decisive lover non-standard tasks in mathematics, the young man used this hobby later, for example, in the story "... And he built himself a crooked little house."

After school, Heinlein decided to connect his future life with the fleet. To do this, it was necessary to enter the Naval Academy, which turned out to be a difficult task. First, in order to be able to pass the entrance examinations, the patronage of one of the members of the Senate or Congress was required.

Secondly, one of the family was taken to the academy, and Robert's older brother was already studying there. The young man had to work hard - collecting letters of recommendation, he immediately forwarded them to Senator James A. Reed in the hope of support. During the year, the senator received 100 letters from prospective applicants for the Annapolis Academy, 50 of them from Heinlein.

So in 1925, Robert achieved his goal and began to study with zeal. After 4 years, graduating from an educational institution, the guy was a champion in fencing, wrestling and shooting, and also became the twentieth in the ranking of graduates out of more than two hundred people. And he could have become fifth, but he lost his position due to problems with discipline. Until 1934, Robert served in the Navy, then was forced to leave his military career due to tuberculosis.

Literature

Russian literary critics share creative life Heinlein for periods. However, their foreign colleagues prefer to avoid separation, as there are always works that are tight in any framework.

Robert Heinlein's first novel, To Us Who Live, was a failure. Fantast began to write stories, from which the cycle "The History of the Future" later arose. The 20th century turned out to be unlike the writer's predictions, but in the 1980s he created the cycle "The World as a Myth", which explains and corrects the inconsistencies between reality and fiction.

The first novel to be published was Rocket Ship Galileo in 1947. Initially, they did not want to print the novel, since the topic of flying to the moon seemed irrelevant. But the science fiction writer nevertheless found a publisher and began to publish a book every year, which then entered the so-called youthful cycle.

These books are interesting to the reader of any age, they are quite simple and conservative in form, but not in content. This did not always please the censors. For example, in The Red Planet, the editor did not like the way the inhabitants of Mars reproduce and the fact that teenagers confidently wield weapons.

Popular among fantasy fans are Door to Summer (1956) and Citizen of the Galaxy (1957). The first was repeatedly recognized as the best science fiction novel.

In the late 1950s, Robert Heinlein stepped down from his role as a teen writer. This happened thanks to the novel "Starship Troopers" - a kind of response to the call for the United States to unilaterally stop nuclear tests. After this novel, the writer was accused of militarism.

Beginning in 1961, Robert wrote for an adult audience and significantly changed the SF genre itself. He became so popular and recognized as a science fiction writer that he even commentated live on the landing of astronauts on the moon in 1969.

In the 1960s, the science fiction writer returned to the fantasy genre, using the canons of which he wrote a number of stories in the 1940s. Valor Road (1963) is the author's only "pure" fantasy. Satire, dystopia, author's philosophy were added to later works. The writer worked for 48 years, and now his bibliography consists of 32 novels and many small works, including 59 short stories.

There are 4 films based on Heinlein: Starship Troopers, Destination Moon (based on the novel Rocketship Galileo), Time Patrol (based on the short story "You Are All Zombies") and Puppeteers. Of these, only the last can be called a film adaptation, because in the rest, the scriptwriters and directors interpreted the author's intention too freely.

Personal life

Heinlein first married in 1929 with Eleanor Curry, whom he had known since school. The marriage broke up already in 1930. Elinor did not want to leave hometown, a military service Roberta did not assume a settled life. Two years later, the future science fiction writer married again - to a political activist and just an extraordinary woman, Leslyn McDonald.

Having ended his military career due to illness, Robert, at the suggestion of his wife, took up political activities that had a socialist orientation. Then, in 1938, he made an attempt to get into the Legislative Assembly, which turned out to be unsuccessful.

During the war, Robert met Virginia Gerstenfeld. At first, although he fell in love, he did not want to destroy the marriage with Leslin, but nevertheless divorced in 1947, when she began to have difficulties associated with alcohol. A year later he married Virginia.

This marriage turned out to be the most successful - the couple lived together for 40 years. The wife helped the science fiction writer and supported him, offered ideas, was at the same time the first reader, manager, and secretary.

The 1970s brought problems for the writer - for more than two years he was treated for peritonitis. In 1978, after a severe attack of cardiac ischemia, Heinlein required a coronary bypass. After undergoing several heart surgeries, the science fiction writer wrote five more novels. And even in 1983 he went to Antarctica, and before that he had visited all the other continents.

Death

By 1987, Heinlein's health had deteriorated and he needed constant medical attention. Robert and Virginia had to leave their home in Bonnie Dun and move to the city of Carmel. On May 8, 1988, Robert Heinlein died in his sleep. Emphysema interrupted the biography of the famous science fiction writer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific waves.

After the death of the writer, in 1989, his wife published the collection "Grumbling from the Grave", which included his correspondence with the publishers. The 1992 collection "Requiem: A Tribute to the Master's Memory" included early stories that were not published during the author's lifetime.

In 2003, the first novel "To Us, the Living" was published, written in 1939 and considered lost. And with the advent of the Internet, photos of Robert Heinlein, his creations and many quotes from the books of the great master of science fiction became available to everyone.

Bibliography

• 1941 - "Children of Methuselah"
• 1942 - "There, beyond"
• 1947 - Rocket ship "Galileo"
• 1948 - "Space Cadet"
• 1949 - "Red Planet"
• 1950 - Farmer in the Sky
• 1951 - Puppeteers
• 1951 - Between the Planets
• 1952 - Stone Space Family
• 1953 - "Astronaut Jones"
• 1954 - "Star Beast"
• 1955 - "Tunnel in the sky"
• 1956 - "Double Star"
• 1956 - Time for the Stars
• 1956 - Door to Summer
• 1957 - Citizen of the Galaxy
• 1958 - "There will be a spacesuit - there will be travel"
• 1959 - Starship Troopers
• 1961 - Stranger in a Strange Land
• 1963 - Stepchildren of the Universe
• 1963 - Valor Road
• 1963 - Martian Podkane
• 1964 - "Farnham Freehold"
• 1966 - "The moon is a harsh mistress"
• 1970 - “I will not fear evil” (“Passing the valley of the shadow of death”)
• 1973 - Time Enough for Love
• 1979 - "The Number of the Beast"
• 1982 - "Friday"
• 1984 - "Job, or the Mockery of Justice"
• 1985 - "Cat passing through the walls"
• 1987 - "Sail into the sunset"
• 2003 - "To us who live"

July 7, 1907. There he spent his childhood. The greatest influence on the formation of the child's personality was made by his grandfather, who, firstly, instilled in him a love of reading, and, secondly, developed positive character traits in him, such as purposefulness and responsibility. The passion of both was the game of chess, accustomed to logical thinking.

Education and hobbies

Christian traditions were strong in Robert's family, so he was brought up in a strict puritanical spirit. It was the teaching of the Methodists, popular in that region of the USA. It included prohibitions on drinking alcohol in any quantity, gambling, dancing, and much more. Over time, Heinlein moved away from these strict rules, which also affected the heroes of his books.

At school, the child was most interested in the exact sciences: mathematics, astronomy, and biology. His worldview changed a lot when he learned about the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. In the city of Kansas City, where he lived, his favorite place was the public library, from where he drew all possible literature on the above topics.

Education

Robert Heinlein had three brothers and three sisters. He followed the example of the elder - Rex - and went to serve in the army. His target was the city of Annapolis, where the US Naval Academy was located. American system enrollment of applicants in such universities is quite difficult. Unlike civilian universities, where it is enough to mail all Required documents, here it was also required to secure positive recommendations from congressmen who could issue quotas for admission. The situation was complicated by the fact that, according to the rules, only one person per generation could get into the academy from one family. This was already the older brother Rex, but Robert did not give up and began to fill up with letters of responsible persons with requests.

It took him a year to do this. During this time, Robert Heinlein took one course at the University of Missouri. When the academy began to select applicants, it turned out that there were about 50 applications from 50 people and another 50 applications from one applicant. This was Robert. He successfully enrolled and moved to Bancroft Hall. This was the name of the midshipmen's hostel where the cadets lived.

Fleet

The service will later find its reflection in the writer's work. In 1948, he wrote the novel "Space Cadet" (Space Cadet - also translated as "Space Patrol" in Russia). In the book, the author indulges in nostalgic memories of the time spent in the Navy through the prism of his own fantasy. Main character works enters the school of the Patrol Service, after which he goes on an expedition to Venus.

Robert Heinlein himself marked his naval career with many brilliant achievements. In addition to the fact that he succeeded in the traditional disciplines in the training program, he also practiced shooting, fencing and wrestling. In all these endeavors, he became the champion of his own academy. After graduation, his name was on the list of the best cadets.

After graduating from the academy in 1929, Heinlein received the rank of ensign. It was a junior officer rank. While still a student, he practiced on various ships - "Utah", "Oklahoma" and "Arkansas". His first real assignment was to the aircraft carrier Lexington, which was in the ranks of the US Navy. His duty was to monitor the quality of communication between the ship and the aircraft. However, the career was ruined due to a state of health - a young officer was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Even after Robert recovered, he was not allowed to return to the service and was assigned a pension.

Beginning of writing

Failures in normal activities and debts on loans gave Heinlein an incentive to start writing and publishing his own fiction. In 1939, he sold his first story, The Line of Life, to a publisher. After that, he earned mainly by writing, putting aside all other hobbies.

"Lifeline" is written in a genre that has become the leitmotif of all creativity, which Robert Heinlein followed. Reviews for the story were positive, and the writer decided to continue the "Line of Life" with a cycle of similar works.

The result was the "History of the Future." This cycle included several short stories, novellas and novels. The plot summarized the history of mankind in the period from the 20th to the 23rd century. Most of the books were written at the beginning of the author's career, as well as from 1945 to 1950. The editor called the series "The History of the Future" and promoted it in many publications.

For easy navigation through the fantasy universe, a special table was created, including the chronology and the main characters, authored by Robert Heinlein himself. The best of this cycle became a classic of the genre, and The History itself was nominated for the Hugo Award in 1966, but lost it to Isaac Asimov's Foundation.

Children's literature

Awards and success

The novel "Double Star" was the first to win the prestigious Hugo Award. In the future, the works "Starship Troopers", "Stranger in a Foreign Country", "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" sought the same award. As one of the founders of the genre, the author was later awarded other prizes, including posthumously.

The first novel to break out of this "childish" concept was Starship Troopers, written in 1959 on a wave of indignation. nuclear program USA. From that moment on, the motives of social conflicts and other serious topics were of great importance to the author.

Stranger in a foreign land

In 1961, his most successful and famous novel"Stranger in a foreign land". The American public at the time was shocked by the sharp questions raised by Robert Heinlein. The quotes included debates about free love, libertarianism, individualism, and other philosophical concepts.

This book was created over a decade, which is a record for the author. One of the reasons for this was the then censorship, which forbade raising sexual issues. In one of the first editions, the work was called "The Heretic", which reveals the meaning of the plot. The protagonist of the bangs, brought up by the Martians, returns to Earth, where he becomes the messiah among the local population. Censorship stopped about a quarter of the text due to sexual and religious motives. The complete author's edition was published only in 1991.

The work had many allusions, including the story about Mowgli, used by Kipling. The very title of the novel is a reference to the Bible.

Stranger in a Strange Land raises a debate about the dangers of merging religion and power. Brought up in a Christian family, the author rethought his own views on canonical teachings.

Meaning

In addition, this theme was continued somewhat later in the novel "Job". It was a satirical book that became the symbol of the last stage of the bibliography, authored by Robert Heinlein. The works received many hidden allusions and comparisons that an unprepared reader could hardly understand.

The writer is considered one of the three Great Masters of fiction along with and His name is closely associated with the golden age of this genre, when it was especially popular among the general readership. Propaganda scientific ideas in these works has become an important symbol and forerunner of the Space Race and numerous studies in this direction.

Personal life

In the year of graduation from the academy (1929), Heinlein married a girl whom he had known since his school years. However, due to her husband's business trips, the marriage did not work out, and soon the wife filed for divorce. In 1932, Robert decided to connect his life with political activist Leslyn MacDonald. Their marriage lasted longer and ended only in 1947. Then the writer married Virginia Gerstenfeld, whom he met during the war, when he worked in Philadelphia.

The wife had a great influence on her husband's work, she was his manager and secretary. She proofread all of his works before they went to publishers. This played an important role in the activities that Robert Heinlein led. The author's best works include scenes inspired by his wife.