Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with his Century: 1948-1988 The Man Who Learned Better: The real-life story of Robert A. Heinlein in the second volume of the authorized biography by William H. Patterson! Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) is generally considered the greatest American science fiction writer of the twentieth century. His most famous and widely influential works include the Future … the Future History series (stories and novels collected in The Past Through Tomorrow and continued in later novels), Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress–all published in the years covered by this volume. He was a friend of admirals, bestselling writers, and artists; became committed to defending the United States during the Cold War; and was on the advisory committee that helped Ronald Reagan create the Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s.
Heinlein was also devoted to space flight and humanity’s future in space, and he was a commanding presence to all around him in his lifetime. Given his desire for privacy in the later decades of his life, the revelations in this biography make for riveting reading.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Tl;dr –
This volume is not a warts-and-all biography. It’s a biographer effectively suggesting warts aren’t even possible on as flawless a man as Heinlein. What others might mistake for a wart must really be another feature of Heinlein’s perfect beauty, which we can grok if we’re smart and non-collectivist enough. (“The Emperor’s New Facelift”)
I would rate this book as 4 stars for deep Heinlein fans like myself, and 3 or even 2 stars for those less interested in Heinlein. It also has much to offer those interested in science fiction or in writing as a profession. But as someone interested in all 3 of these topics, I am very frustrated with what was left outside this book. This review is doubling as a way to organize my thoughts.
The first volume was quite entertaining, and got under the hood for Heinlein’s formative years and his almost accidental introduction to writing science fiction. In contrast, this volume covering the second half of Heinlein’s life is long on details and aggravatingly short on analysis.
However one feels about Heinlein’s writing or his life outside of it, he’s a fascinating character. He grew up in deep poverty in the early 1900’s, worked hard jobs as a teenager to support his family while studying non-stop, and then when grades alone wouldn’t suffice he politicked himself into the Naval Academy. After serving he became a liberal socialist, working extensively in Upton Sinclair’s political campaigns in California. He went from being an FDR supporter to emerge decades later as an early advocate for what we now call libertarianism. He was quite sexually adventurous and had three separate open marriages, at times when a whiff of such flagrant disregard for social norms could ruin careers.
He started several different modern fiction trends, from YA books to military SF, breaking new ground with non-white and even female leading characters. He was a near-fanatical proponent of science and engineering, and left a scholarship to reward advancements in engineering. His book “Stranger in a Strange Land” became a signpost of the 1960s counterculture, at the same time that he was hanging out with the John Birch Society and writing articles for magazines too right-wing for William F. Buckley(!!).
This volume covers all of the above aspects of his life, and offers next to no insight into them. So as a reader I’m left lamenting many missed opportunities. Here are some:
1. Heinlein corresponds with the leader of Jefferson Airplane over a concept album based on “Stranger in a Strange Land”. He states how much he appreciates their music, lists a bunch of their records, and requests that the band send him an autographed album. Did he get it? What else was in Heinlein’s record collection? What did he think of other Scifi/fantasy rock groups, such as fantasy author Michael Moorcock’s association with Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult? For that matter, what did he think of Bebop? Did he have any exposure to afro-futurism through groups such as the Sun Ra Orchestra?
2. The previous volume of the biography mentions Heinlein’s early interaction with L. Ron Hubbard, who started out as a pulp science fiction writer and ended as the founder of Scientology. Heinlein began with a deep admiration for Hubbard’s experiences as a combat veteran. I expect it deeply hurt Heinlein to see Hubbard end up as a con man, cult leader and crank. I read elsewhere that later on Hubbard sent Heinlein a congratulations letter for one of Heinlein’s recent books as an opening for renewed friendship. Heinlein responded with a cool professional acknowledgement, as polite as a softly closing door. Clearly Heinlein wanted nothing to do with Hubbard, as I would consider both warranted and wise. Coming to that conclusion from their earlier warmth must have entailed some thought on Heinlein’s part – we see none of it. We don’t even see Heinlein’s response. (Unless this was in one of the pages I found myself skipping to find any analysis.)
3. Heinlein’s ongoing relation with Philip K. Dick, another giant of sf and fantasy who translated out of genre into being a respected American author. In his own writings, PKD relates a time when he was very broke and Heinlein, the diametric opposite of PKD politically, sent PKD a kind letter, a check and a typewriter so he could keep writing. Not even knowing anyone involved personally, I find that really moving. It shows a deep level of class on Heinlein’s part. It’s barely referenced here. And what of other authors Heinlein had correspondence with – Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison? I expect he was personally generous with all of his respected colleagues – where is that?
4. Heinlein’s most famous book, “Stranger in a Strange Land”, had extensive counterculture power and association with sexual liberation movements – but it also had some instances of significant homophobia. His later books did not have this homophobia. This growth is admirable – how did Heinlein come to it? Did he actually explore bisexuality, and if so did that affect his art?
5. One of Heinlein’s books after “Stranger”, “Time Enough For Love”, veered deep into non-mainstream sexuality to the point of exploring adult consensual incest. Was this him exploring kinks, to see where they might lead? Or was this intentionally shocking bait for exploration of the human condition by analogy? A lot of this was done in the story via the plot device of time travel, with period detail draws deeply from Heinlein’s own childhood in 1900’s Missouri. It would have been really interesting to see a deep analysis there as well. I’ll have to look elsewhere for that.
7. What might it say that Heinlein left a generous scholarship for studies in engineering that would aid space travel – but no such similar scholarships for writing?
8. I would have loved a more detailed examination of Heinlein’s early correspondence with Alexei Panshin, who went on to be a heavy critic of Heinlein. Since reading this book I’ve read some of Panshin’s critiques and found them to both yield interesting insights into Heinlein, and indicate Panshin’s real emotional hurt. It would have been interesting to see a bit into Panshin’s background. I would wonder if his youth might have been in some ways similar to Heinlein’s, with Heinlein coming across as similar to a family member Panshin had struggle with. We won’t see that kind of exploration in this book either.
9. Did Heinlein vote for Nixon, when he ran against JFK or later? The text doesn’t say, so I’m leaning towards him doing it. Reagan is only mentioned in his second term, which to me makes it likely he voted for Reagan then too. I would think that Reagan running against Jimmy Carter, a formal Naval officer and nuclear scientist, would have at least given Heinlein some things to think about. No mention of this at all.
Politics shouldn’t matter so much for any artist’s work, perhaps, except when it does…and when that artist was so political outside of their fiction as well as inside it.
The biographer has a most unfortunate habit of inserting his own political opinions into the text – and even worse, those opinions are often ignorant of context or straight wrong. I accepted this the couple of times this occurred in volume 1. But it’s so prevalent in this volume that it’s worth pointing out. The problem here even goes beyond whether the biographer is actually correct – I’m not buying this book to read about William H. Patterson Jr’s politics. I’d much rather hear Heinlein’s own opinions, right or wrong, than hear this biographer try to explain away Heinlein’s harsher opinions. Let alone read the biographer’s textbook right-wing misinterpretations of what “liberals” “really” stand for.
The detriment of all these unanswered questions, and the biographer’s own unsolicited opinions, is that it all can take away from the good things Heinlein did besides his writing. He was often working himself to death on things he really cared about, because he really did care about humanity. In this volume we see him exhausting himself to the point of repeated hospitalizations in support of NASA and spaceflight, blood drives, charities… and also giving his all to try and rouse up everyone in the middle of the deepest red-scare anti-Communism.
He also plans and builds a bomb shelter by hand and makes sure his neighbors have a key. When he has a nasty argument with those same neighbors, he still insists they keep the key. In these moments we catch a glimpse of the sweet marshmallow inside this often prickly exterior. When the prickliness is handwaved away, the sweetness is less interesting and the man less understood.
I can pursue answers to the above questions myself of course – and I should spend that time writing my own works, which someday if I’m lucky will reveal my own quirks and kinks. Perhaps at that point I can get into troll wars with reviewers like Heinlein did with Panshin.
Regardless of all the above complaints, I did get quite a lot of value from the overview of Heinlein as a working professional writer and artist, focused on writing stories that mattered to him and getting those tales sold. Within that is a desire to give his audience genuine entertainment as the fairest part of their exchange. Regardless of politics and also considerations, this respect for intent, craft and audience is a model to admire for every creative person.