Who is Robert A Heinlein?

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasise scientific accuracy in his fiction and was therefore a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction.
Thanks for watching.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...
#RobertHeinlein #sciencefiction #classicsciencefiction
____________________________________________________________________
MY STUFF
linktr.ee/bookodyssey​​​​​​
____________________________________________________________________
vvv MORE vvv
MY SCI-FI NOVELS
www.amazon.co.uk/Darrel-Willi...
DELPHINE DESCENDS
After her family is killed and her homeworld occupied, young Kathreen Martin is sent to the distant world of Furoris for re-education. She will live the rest of her life as a serf - to be bought and sold as a commodity of the Imperial Network.
When her only chance of escape is ruined, a chance mistaken identity offers her a new life as the orphaned daughter of a First-Citizen Senator and heiress to a vast fortune.
She vows to claw her way into power to sit among the worlds’ elite. Then, with her own hands, she will reap bloody vengeance on them all.
But to beat them, she must play their game. And she must play it better than them all.
BLACK MILK
Prometheus has the chance to bring his wife back from the dead, but doing so will mean the destruction of Earth.
Spanning time, planets and dimensions, Black Milk draws to a climactic point in a post-apocalyptic future, where humanity, stranded with no planet to call home, fights to survive against a post-human digital entity that pursues them through the depths of space.
Five lives separated by aeons are inextricably linked by Prometheus’s actions:
Ystil.3 is an AI unit sent back in time from the distant future to investigate Prometheus’s discovery...
The mysterious Lydia has devoted her life to finding a planet that the last remaining humans can call home…
Tom Jones (he’s a HUGE fan!) is an AI trapped inside a digital subspace, lost and desperate to find his way back to his beloved in real-time…
Dr Norma Stanwyck is a neuroscientist from 24th Century Earth whose personal choices ripple throughout time...
Prometheus must learn the necessity of death or the entire universe will be swallowed by his grief.
____________________________________________________________________
GOODREADS
You can stalk me on Goodreads to see what I'm currently reading. bit.ly/3rrcByD
____________________________________________________________________
IMAGE USE
The images in my videos are mostly licensed stock photos. However, occasionally I will use images found online. I always seek to properly credit artists and offer a link back to their amazing work but sometimes it's hard to find the original source of the work. If I've used an image you own and I haven't credited you, please feel free to get in touch as I am always more than happy to do so.

[@stonehartfloydfan]

“Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.” ― Robert A. Heinlein I put that quote up on the board for my first year engineering students, advancement happens where imagination and science dream together.

[@davidpalmer4184]

I hope it inspires your students, "We stand on the shoulders of giants"

[@stonehartfloydfan]

@@davidpalmer4184 much greater minds than mine for sure, the hope is my students are better than me.. some most certainly are and in that I can feel I did my job right because they should be.

[@davidpalmer4184]

@@stonehartfloydfan My wife has a masters in education and she agrees with me that the person that hopes that others around them are smarter than them is normally the smartest person in the room. Kudo's my friend.

[@AL_THOMAS_777]

🙌 👏 🙏 🤝 👍 GREAT quote ! Thats why I never listen to "experts" - - -

[@howardhudson5475]

Excellent quote and so very true. lol My favorite of his quotes is out of the Notebooks of Lazarus Long: Always store beer in a dark place. I still get a chuckle from that bit of wisdom.

[@pinkstarphoenix6182]

I'm 70 years old and remember reading his books as a tween. I have read many of them multiple times. I am currently reading both Time Enough For Love and Revolt In 2100. I'll then go on to Methuselah's Children. Finished Stranger In A Strange Land and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress again last year. I'm determined to read as many as I can again before leukemia takes me down. They keep me going, keep me fighting to keep going. My favorite author of all time

[@robjohnson8522]

I hope this find you well! If not, I hope to see you on the other side!

[@pinkstarphoenix6182]

@robjohnson8522 Thank you for your well wishes. I am better than I would expect after more than 2 years of chemo. I live alone, have no one coming in to help, and still get around under my own power. Too ornery to let go

[@kirkdarling4120]

Interesting thing: Heinlein wrote "Starship Troopers" between chapters of writing "Stranger in a Strange Land," even though one would guess from reading them that they were written by different authors.

[@robjohnson8522]

@@pinkstarphoenix6182 LOL! Heinlien said if ornery stubborness were not positive traits evolution would have bred it out of the species. You are proof!

[@robjohnson8522]

@@kirkdarling4120Well my friend, if you understand (real) libertarianism it is easy to see how both books came from the same libertarian author! :)

[@AaaSWE]

I am born in 81, his books had a huge impact on me in my teens. Many of his ideas formed me into the person I am today.

[@ravon1982]

Am looking for a book from him, I was listening to terence mckenna and he described of his, in which he forgot the title. about a man seeing glitches in the matrix. one scene about a man walks out of his house and see's a winged worm crawl from the ground then then begin to fly off. do you have any idea?

[@raydavison4288]

Me too. I was born in 1953.😊

[@libertyauto]

I read Stranger In A Strange Land as a 6th grader, stealing it from my older brother, mostly because he said I was too young for its concepts. It was the book that pulled me away from Hardy Boys mysteries and such to SciFi, and I never went back. Thanks for bio.

[@scottrodich3762]

My favorite author and a great influencer of my life.

[@lauriestlyon8773]

Discovered this man and his works in my Secondary School library as a 11/12 year old just trying to not get the crap kicked out of me. He Gave me a space and place to think, dream and discover my own courage. RIP.

[@stochasticdan]

This is a wonderful tribute to one of my favorite authors. Thanks for producing it.

[@lightbearer313]

Robert A. Heinlein is one of the most important writers in the history of SF, and all SF fans should read some (or preferably many) of his novels and short stories. Your video is a nice introduction to the man and his works.

[@ElGato1947]

Excellent tribute, Darel. Took me back 65 years to when I discovered RAH at age 10. Thank you!

[@JamesSavik]

What many people forget about authors is they are people of their time. Heinlein was a veteran of the biggest war in history. Calling him a fascist or a militarist is just stupid. Especially in Star Ship Troopers, where humanity was in a war of species survival. Hollywood will never give any of his books a fair go. Paul Verhoeven's take on SST was hot garbage. He didn't even read the book. He took literally EVERYTHING out of context. It's a shame, too. Done right, Citizen of the Galaxy would dwarf Dizney's Star Wars.

[@waverlyking6045]

Heinlein was very pro-military but at the same time he was extremely anti-censorship. Being pro-military doesn’t make you a fascist and opposing censorship is one of the least fascist things I can think of.

[@mctownes2013]

Exactly 💯. The label of fascist applied to Starship Troopers is definitely missapplied.

[@kirkdarling4120]

@@waverlyking6045 Having so recently come out of WWII, Heinlein knew exactly what "fascist" meant...from the fascists themselves...and he definitely wasn't one.

[@j.dunlop8295]

Grok! 😅

[@ubik5453]

​@j.dunlop8295 GROK is one of the best words ever made 🙌

[@kathleenhensley5951]

Is that where I got the idea? Didn't know Heinlein spoke of it... I've practiced that serveral times in my life and then told them to help someone else when they see a need.. .I read so much of Heinlein when young, that may have stuck in my mental woodwork?? It always amazes me how much I've been influenced by the science fiction I've read and watched. He was, also, involved with the Movie "Destination Moon" and it very loosely based on the man who sold the moon... I've always loved his concept the crazy years... just a favorite of mine, I am truly convinced I am living through the crazy years. This decade is crazier than the crazy years, really really! There was a concept ... I think it was in the novel .."Friday"? He said that when a civilization was in trouble, civility would be lost - and said his characters should flee earth when they saw that civility was being cast aside. My husband used to mention it.. you know when a civilization is vital and when it is going to fall by how civil people are in small things? Calling people 'sir' or 'madam' (I would be in so much trouble if I had to deal with the young, more. I call everyone 'sir' or 'madam'!!! I'd be in trouble for sure! .... or holding doors for women Or giving your seat to the old on public transportation. (sadly I am the OLD not the young.) We, upon retirement,did the second best thing, moved to a rural area.

[@stevemann5319]

When I was a kid I went from Jules Verne to Heinlein's youth books and then Puppet Masters. I've read them all. A couple of my favorites are Farnham's Freehold and Glory Road.

[@chrishince8947]

Heinlein is one of my favorite sci-fi authors of all time. I think the youth of today could benefit from reading some of his novels. Citizen of the galaxy would be a great start.

[@krisandersen8695]

Robert Heinlein was the second SF/Fantasy author i ever read (first was Robert E. Howard), and I still re-read as many of his books/stories as i can get my hands on. Many people say that he was a militaristic fanatic, but i personally like the idea he put forth in "Starship Troopers". That idea being that if you are unwilling to risk your life for you society, then you have no right to have a say in how it is run. I say this because, back when most of the USA Politicians were veterans, the country ran a lot better than it is now, when more than half of the politicians state that they hate our country.

[@PamArtsValentine]

My favorite sci-fi author of all time. His work is fantastic.

[@plambdin]

Heinlein has long been my favorite SF author, and his meaning has changed for me as I have aged. "Friday" takes on a different meaning now than it did in 1982!

[@raydavison4288]

Heinlein had a huge influence on me. I patterned much of my life after Heinlein's story, "The Man Who Was Too Lazy To Fail".

[@davidpalmer4184]

Thank you for this, Heinlein is by far my favourite author. I love all of his books, but time enough for love and stranger in a strange land are my favourites. I read them in my early teens (I am now 60) and have read them many times since, It's like putting on an old, comfortable familiar jacket. I weep that my kids don't have a love for books despite much encouragement.

[@andrewb5555]

Sometimes it skips a generation, keep at it and one day the grandkids might find your bookshelf, I read many from my grandfathers library, unfashionable choices and out of print sometimes but worth ready and I still have them today.

[@bnic9471]

Same goes for my son. He's enormously curious, but not much of a printed word fan. I did read him plenty of Heinlein when he was little. Last week, we sat and talked for over two hours about time travel, philosophy, math, and relativity, which stunned me. Something is getting through, somehow.

[@thinking6307]

Thank You, Palmer. You wrote "my" comment!

[@davidpalmer4184]

@@thinking6307 Sorry, my friend, I didn't mean to plagiarise. I just love the authors books from a very young age. Much love from Australia.

[@thinking6307]

@@davidpalmer4184 HA!! No..worries! I meant You got there BEFORE ME!!! "Good on 'ya!" ...as they said to me when I was in Sydney in 1968. Say...remember Long's comment in TEFL...."Sense..is never common." I'm trying to remember more.. :D

[@dreadogastusf3548]

Thanks for this video "Mr. Odyssey". I read very little sci-fi these days. This work reminds of my youth. Reading stories that filled me with wonder and scientific info. And then there was Heinlein. Setting examples of strong character. Challenging my unexamined conceptions of how the world worked. Of what good morals should be. I will be sending this link to my children that have an interest in science-fiction.

[@EllySpace]

Good biography and well presented. His books are great .

[@exile220ify]

Good video but you missed something important: he was also writing strong female and minority characters, in an age where that was considered taboo. The lead in "Tunnel In The Sky" is Black, and the lead in "Starship Troopers" is Filipino. And the leads of both "Friday" and "Podkayne Of Mars" are female.

[@joannaohnanik2079]

Thank you for this video. Robert Heinlein is one of my lil-time favorite authors. I was introduced to sci-fi with Red Planet (which I’m now rereading). I especially like his “juveniles”, as Heinlein never wrote down to his audience. I also enjoy his “Grumbles from the Grave”, with his reflections on writing, publishing, and editors. Thanks again!

[@charlesachurch7265]

Tunnel in the sky is my favourite.

[@PeBoVision]

Robert A Heinlein and Kurt Vonnegut Jr were my authors of choice as an adolescent. My adult worldview is based in no small part on their works. I've often dreamed of a film adaptation of Stranger in a Strange Land, to bring it to a new audience, but Vonnegut's repeated failures at successful film translations (Slaughterhouse Five excepted) and the recent ill-advised adaptation of Asimov's Foundation, makes me realize that perhaps it is a kinder fate to be consumed as an audio-book. I would love to see Farnham Freehold's "Holy Sh*t" time paradox moment play out on the big screen though. Today's ageing/de-ageing technology could make it quite effective.

[@NaughtyVampireGod]

Excellent mini-bio of the Dean of Science Fiction.

[@kathleenhensley5951]

PS. He was also a cat lover. There was a cat in several of his novels...

[@5400bowen]

“The Door Into Summer”, what a great story!

[@randocasshatian5677]

Pixel. Yes, he was Heinlein's cat. Pixel also appears in a couple of Spider Robinson's novels.

[@bhatkat]

Got me to thinking I'd never neuter my cats. Well that only lasted so long...

[@user-en8vb9th5v]

One of the authors of all time

[@LaputanMachad]

Thank you for this very respectful and concise mini-doc about the Deen

[@andrewnelson2801]

My favorite author. I've read (or listened to) every one of his novels. Praise be to R.A.H. Thanks for covering the Dean!

[@richarddean4763]

This man casts a long shadow

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

As a boy I read Time for the Stars and was hooked. The end was fantastic and I will never forget the big surprise! Thanks man!

[@davidivester7025]

My fave of the juveniles. Makes you think about relativity.

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

@@davidivester7025 The line at the end of the book: How about next tuesday? Stunning. And I still remember after more than 40 years. (Ofcourse I read the dutch translation).

[@erospsicopompo]

Your channel is such a gem. I'm really glad I found it! Keep up the great work, luv!

[@Zonker66]

The favorite author of my youth... loved Lazarus Long. I loved the quotes of Lazrus in the center pages of one of the books... Number of the Beast or Time Enough for Love. Exremely nice memorial.

[@ericpierce3660]

As a sheltered teen from an ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian family, Heinlein's questioning of religion in 'Time Enough for Love' was my introduction to the idea that maybe the religion I was raised with was all bs. Happily atheist now!

[@jimjohhnston9992]

You forgot TANSTASAFL

[@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber]

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (you put in an extra S. ) = TANSTAAFL !

[@glennstubbs8232]

One of the all time great authors.

[@jaimehudson7623]

Wonderful video! I read that Heinlein paid it forward to Philp K. Dick, who had owed on back taxes once. They both were 'ailurophiles' (cat lovers). "Where there is a cat, there is civilization" - my favorite Heinlein quote. A patriot in the best sense.

[@johnthefinn]

Actually, HG Wells mentioned a waterbed in The Sleeper Awakes (1899). We know Heinlein read this because Wells actually autographed Heinlein's copy of it when they briefly met.

[@bhatkat]

Yeah, general rule with such inventions is if you look long and hard enough you can always find someone who came up with it earlier.

[@johnthefinn]

@@bhatkat The point is, we know for a fact that Heinlein encountered the idea of waterbeds in literature many years before he wrote about them himself.

[@Arnsteel634]

My all time favorite author.

[@GROK99]

Thank you for this wonderful tribute to my #1 of all time science fiction writer.

[@kirkdarling4120]

The first science fiction I ever read was "Have Space Suit-Will Travel" in February of 1965. Yes, I remember that. I was still in elementary school. It was in the classroom bookcase behind my desk. I had watched the television western "Have Gun-Will Travel," and was intrigued by the title. After reading that novel, I tracked down his other novels at the library. The science fiction books were in their own section, which lead me to other science fiction authors...which I read in alphabetical order....Asimov, Clarke, et cetera. Another aspect of reading that book: It pushed me to beg my mother for a sliderule. I found a book by Asimov to learn how to use it. I've still got a slide rule on my desk right now. While I was in the Air Force for 26 years, I kept two copies of Starship Troopers at my desk...one had my margin notes, the other was to lend to hapless lieutenants. I've read that book over 40 times. I worked for two Marine colonels during my career...both of them had Starship Troopers in their office libraries.

[@andrewb5555]

I believe starship troopers was required reading at Westpoint at one time, not sure if it still is.

[@kirkdarling4120]

@@andrewb5555 I know it was long on the USMC professional reading list.

[@clasicradiolover]

I have a sliderule. One like Kip's, but I never learned to use it.

[@emmanuelboakye1124]

Thank you for this great video👍

[@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber]

Thank you for presenting us these important authors. Great job. Those seeking a fuller bio will find it on Wikipedia, of course.

[@General_reader]

I am currently going through your author focus collection and I have to say I really enjoy this! I hope you can find the time to add to the series

[@larryd69]

forgot his popularization of the acronym TANSTAAFL which has since been adopted across many fields of had science. probably his greatest contribution.

[@VicDumb]

Robert A. Heinlein is my favorite author of all time. I love all of Lazarus, but I can't say what my exact favorite is. Just finished reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and I'm currently reading Number of the Beast. The guy who narrates The Moon is a Harsh Mistress audiobook does an amazing job

[@jasonmershon3941]

His books gave me the foundation to be who I became. Silicon Valley was only beginning in his productive life, but it enabled the greatest expansion of human capability since WW2

[@thomassmith6232]

I started reading the juveniles of Robert Heinlein in the seventh grade. My favorites were Space Cadet and Red Planet. My favorite story of all time is The Man Who Sold the Moon.

[@ncblee]

I read almost everything from "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" forward when I started with RAH ("Moon" was the first Heinlein I read knowingly; I probably read a few before "awakening" to "Moon" and I did go back before "moon" and read more RAH later). When I got to "-Number of the Beast" I got stopped cold. The first time, I made it about a third of the way in and couldn't keep going, it was such a departure. And I kept trying and kept trying, only to bog down and quit. Then I read an essay by Spider Robinson (IIRC it was the one titled "Rah, rah, R.A.H.!") where he explained (and proved!) that all of Heinlein's books were not merely novels, but teaching books/manuals (depending on the subject), and that NotB was about lifeboat rules and their necessity (along with being a love-letter/tour of RAH's seminal influences (especially Oz and Doc Smith!)). From then on, not a speck of trouble, even with "Job" (which would have stopped me just as badly as NotB if I hadn't know what was going on), and all of his other works gained added depth. Heinlein has an honored place in my library. But I never did like "Stranger", any more than he did.

[@5400bowen]

Yeah, I couldn’t finish “Stranger”, it was just to rambling and disjointed, and dealt with what was basically magic, not science. Only book of his I didn’t get much pleasure from. I read every book he wrote up to 1969 by then when I was 15.

[@Idahoguy10157]

Robert Heinlein and HP Lovecraft were both pioneers and master of their genres

[@donaldsmith6814]

First there was Edgar Rice Brurroughs, then Heinlien; then the mold was broken!

[@donaldclemens5097]

My Favorite SF Writer.

[@asmaloney]

Great video! If you're interested in the history of SciFi, I really enjoyed "Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction" by Alec Nevala-Lee. Goes into detail about these guys, their lives, and their interactions/influence on each other.

[@thomaskendall452]

Thanks, asmaloney, for the book recommend. Somehow I missed that one.

[@jaimeosbourn3616]

@@thomaskendall452 A good thing too. The book contains nothing that is not well known. And it goes to much into gossip about the individual writers so called sexual proclivities. He dismisses Randall Garrett "as a sexual predator" without explanation or proof. And tries to portray Asimov as a serial sexual assaulter of women. The book belongs in the ranks of a gossip columnist. It is a low brow attempt to cancel most of the great scifi writers (male) of the last century.

[@counselorjay2047]

In 1967, I went to my 6th grade library and checked out "The Rolling Stones"...you can guess what I thought it was. Thus began my addiction.

[@TheShootist]

School librarian suggested Red Planet in 2nd grade. I never looked back.

[@yw1971]

3:30 - in "The door into summer" he predicted MOST of modern Hitech

[@iannicol-wood4370]

I believe he gave Philip kindred Dick a typewriter.

[@VicDumb]

I remember as a kid reading Bruce Covilles my teacher is an alien series, I then moved on to The Indian in the Cupboard series, Indian in the cupboard was the last "youth" books I ever read. My father gave me a copy of The Star Beast, and haven't looked back since🤣 named my first cat Lummox🤣

[@LeydenAigg]

He's still alive? Good heavens! 😏

[@robjohnson8522]

YOU SAID HIS NAME RIGHT! YOU SAID HIS NAME RIGHT! Oh thank you!

[@FlorisDVijfde]

What is the ambient music tune on the background? Would love to know.

[@TheShootist]

Now do Who is Jerry Pournelle.

[@codehardr1209]

Heinlein's actual page on wikipedia: the video

[@woodswitch23]

Long live Woodrow Wilson Smith!

[@rickdowdle7999]

Tunnel in the Sky . As a Recondo in the Army there were missions where you are the rabbit ! Read the book and see what I mean .

[@rochellewarren6219]

💜💥

[@PravdaSeed]

🧞💫 Thanks

[@michaelwalston2438]

The more fanciful tales from the 50s (I include both Scribners and Doubleday) have held up better as literature than when he got all preachy and serious when he moved to Putnam. ETA: the 50s are also the only time he wrote aliens convincingly. Perhaps some of the differences are attributable to the fact that he was actually edited in the 50s. Many of the Putnams books were solid, though. He was still a good writer even without much editing. I include Troopers, Stranger (IMO the weakest of the lot; it hasn't aged well) , Podkayne (women are for having babies, but a good story), Glory Road (a little too much lecturing), Farnham's (which modern readers dislike as a knee-jerk reaction, but which I feel is a brave look at race relations), and Harsh Mistress, which I also feel is too preachy even though I like its premises (and I thank Heinlein for the term "rational anarchist" which applies to me--and which gives credence to the idea that Troopers was merely a sort of thought experiment rather than a statement of principle). Fear no Evil is interesting but suffers from the fact that Heinlein didn't get to do a final rewrite. After that it is a downhill ride. Still. Friday seems to be a solid attempt to write an old fashioned yarn to please his readers, and Job is a pretty successful exploration of attitudes toward Religion. I was always a fan and the first book I didn't really like was Time enough for Love, though it is better than the latter books featuring Lazarus. His worst book was his last. Sunset creeped me out with its attitudes toward incest but aside from that it is basically a long flashback which is a terrible structure for a novel. Regarding Heinlein as prophet: Friday did predict the internet, albeit in a fom it SHOULD have taken.. And, oh yeah, Heinlein foresaw the digital piano in Podkayne. I love that!

[@jamesmurray8558]

Starship Troopers.

[@FlorisDVijfde]

Heinlein's heroes are the opposite to Philip K Dick's anti heroes. This seems heavily influenced by their environment. Heinlein was a marine, Dick met with many people on the fringe of society with drug problems and such. I find both writers fascinating in their own right!

[@veramae4098]

Heinlein was a NAVAL OFFICER. He left a lot of money to the Annapolis Naval College to build a navigation library.

[@5400bowen]

Heinlein was forced to step down from his naval career by tuberculosis, so he entered a sci-fi writing contest in 1939 and won.

[@FlorisDVijfde]

@@veramae4098 my bad, not a marine but in the navy. In Dutch we call that "in de marine" and thus "marinier";-).

[@stevo43068]

I thank (and antithank, heehee) RAH for helping me: keep my mind open, and my ego in check.

[@Visitor2Earth]

My favorite RAH books are: SPACE CADET THE ROLLING STONES PODKAYNE OF MARS FARMER IN THE SKY I like his juve series of books, but I'm not crazy about his books with strong sexual overtones.

[@MrBurntfinger]

TANSTAAFL! There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

[@Pemulis1]

Farnham's Freehold is the weirdest book ever. Not in an out there sort of way, like Naked Lunch or Infinite Jest, for instance. It's weird in the sense that I think Heinlein had no idea how far out it was. It's jaw-droppingly racist and sexist while at the same time considering itself enlightened and benevolent. A must read.

[@5400bowen]

No the book isn’t racist and sexist, he uses it to say that people are racist and sexist, and that every race is racist, as he points out in “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

[@bhatkat]

Not sure I'd call it racist, more like showing black people can be just as bad. Was quite the shock to the hippies who were so taken with Stranger in a Strange land.

[@sproctor1958]

TANSTAAFL - RAH

[@bigantplowright5711]

50 odd years ago, I read one of his stories about a man who woke up with brown matter under his finger nails and climbed through a window and was beaten up. Any ideas what story it was??

[@m0dulegirl]

The story you are thinking of is By His Bootstraps a short story collected in Menace From Earth. It was one of several time travel paradox stories he wrote, All You Zombies being another.

[@bigantplowright5711]

@@m0dulegirl Thanks for that, the cover of the book had a silhouette of a man with a devil shadow.

[@lightbearer313]

That is his novella 'The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unpleasant_Profession_of_Jonathan_Hoag

[@bigantplowright5711]

@@lightbearer313 That's the one!!! i remember now thanks. I wonder what I done with it........

[@magellan500]

I think that was The Man Who Sold the Moon.

[@wesinfidel9184]

A better role model than Ron Hubbard.

[@KenAlbertson]

Heinlein wrote the best juvenile novels in the field. The closer he remained to this theme the better the results. The further he strayed from this theme the worse the results. Although Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress were not juveniles they were close enough to be good. Heinlein's attempts at first person female viewpoints were appallingly bad.

[@TheShootist]

Who was Mr. Heinlein? He (and God) are the reasons real Space Rockets take off and land straight up and down.

[@4CardsMan]

It took me many years to get over Heinlein. Glad I did.

[@joebrooks4448]

I am still a major fan of RAH. Aways will be. Let me qualify that. I do not recall the illness he suffered about 1960, but that hurt his writing dramatically. Nothing after "Glory Road" seemed like RAH. Actually, only "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" out of all of them after 1962 is not an embarrassing abomination, including "Stranger in a Strangeland". I am not usually that blunt, as he deserves respect for his prior tremendous accomplishments. Nearly everything he wrote before the disastrous "Farnham's Freehold" is good to as good as it gets.. For RAH in his prime, read "The Past Through Tomorrow." Short stories, novelettes, wide variety. For a short novel, "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," is great. And you will see that influence right up thru today... I just reread both of these and a few others, "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" is fantastic SF in nearly every way, just my opinion. I have read it 20 times over 50 years... Starship Troopers is a masterpiece, so is Citizen Of The Galaxy, Requiem, on and on.

[@__shifty]

idgaf if he was an actual nazi or even a serial killer. if a book is good its good.

[@AlistairGale]

. A lightweight fascist with hippie leanings, i.e. an American libertarian

[@thomasciarlariello3228]

Jeannet Ngo objected to Heinlein's racism while "Starship Troopers" is no exaggeration of how ROTC dominates public schools so at least Heinlein's work inspired great covers by Tim White.

[@docastrov9013]

Not really a biography. I'd like to hear about his early socialism and Upton Sinclair.

[@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber]

Thank you and Please will get you more results..

[@NaughtyVampireGod]

@@Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber Yeah . . Also this isn't a bad bio for being only 7 minutes long.

[@treefarm3288]

I enjoyed reading Heinlein from my childhood in the 50s and 60s, and when I was at university Stranger in a Strange Land was popular. I wouldn't say it was controversial, but if it was cut as you say, maybe we missed parts. Everybody talked about whether they 'groked' a point in a discussion or politics. However when I read 'Starship Troopers' during the Vietnam War, I saw it as the worst kind of right wing polemic and never read any more of his work.

[@5400bowen]

That book was a thought experiment, not his world view. Many people miss that point. It was based on history and human nature…it was supposed to be an interesting perspective, not the way it’s taken since the movie.

[@joereadel]

So reciting a Wikipedia page is what passes for content these days? Also you pronounced his name wrong.

[@martinstent5339]

During the 1960s and early 1970s, I uncritically read and greatly enjoyed (almost) all the Heinlein books he had published up till then. But in around 1977 I was chatting to a young lady at a bus-stop about what I was reading, and she said “Heinlein, that sexist lecher! His female characters are all in subservient roles and available for sex any time that the heroes feel like it!” Now, there was a lot of truth in that, and I’m a little ashamed now to admit that as a hot-blooded adventure loving young man, I hadn’t taken issue with it. In Heinlein’s later books, he tried to counter his anti-feminist image with some female heroes, but the criticism is still valid I feel. And in this day and age perhaps very much more so!

[@mikechristian-vn1le]

"Plural marriage" is a Latter-day Saint, Mormon, term for polygyny one man, more than one woman,. THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and STRANGER IN A STRAMGE LAND feature group marriage, more than one of both men and women. In HARSH MISTRESS, the group marriages are corporate, that is, they survive the founding generations, too, with young new wives and husbands joining as the others, including the okd, die. Plural marriage is not a general term. "Polygamy" is.

[@artfrontgalleries1818]

Heinlein also had a Facist edge. Starship Troopers and other works suggest loyalty to the State over ethics or personal liberty

[@FuturistFrontier]

That’s not fascism. It’s militarism.

[@tomspencer1364]

There is no mention of dictatorship or forced conformity in that novel. You should try reading it and remember that the main character is a volunteer soldier and in an organization pretty much parallel to US Marines in function. What do you expect from a naval officer? Furthermore, a system where tested voters know what a government is and can tell the difference between freedom and criminal license is worth considering and might avoid tendencies toward demagoguery and real fascism.

[@artfrontgalleries1818]

@@tomspencer1364 Hi, Tom.. Heinlein's soldiers were allowed to vote not because of education but because they proved themselves superior. In The Cat That Walked though Walls, a minor character was singled out because he was from a financially inferior community. In Glory Road, the disparity between the elite and the preterit was a theme. In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, the political arguments are pro elite and they speak of the regular people as being unable to govern themselves. At the vry best, he is a neo Platonist wjho writes that we all need a benevolent dictator to keep things in order and that dictator may be responsible for but is not responsible or accountable to the populace. This does not mean that I don't love his work. He writes with grace and styles

[@tomspencer1364]

@@artfrontgalleries1818 Like I said: you should try reading the book. Your statement about the soldiers voting shows that you weren't paying attention. Arguments from other works aren't germane. The system in Starship Troopers is not fascist. Soldiers don't vote. Only after a term of service ( not necessarily military service) can anyone vote. Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

[@artfrontgalleries1818]

@@tomspencer1364 First, as I said, I love reading his work. If you'll pardon me being a borderline elitist snob. I read most o these for the first time when I was in Highschool. My education was in English lit and philosophy. My senior project was in Ethics. Politically, he is still close to Facism and philosophically, he is a Neo Platonist. I still love reading his work