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| Robert A Heinlein image credit: https://bcmuseum.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/robert-a-heinlein.jpg |
Ah, the elephant in the room. When it comes to speculative fiction fans of the early baby boomer era, the ones who discovered speculative fiction in their youth, there is one dominate figure – Robert A Heinlein. All of us must have read his “juveniles” in hardcover, with those distinctive black & white interior illustrations. And for many of us, he was one of our favorite, if not our favorite speculative fiction writer. I find that I have a dedicated list of the books of his that I either owned or read from back in the day. The two other dedicated lists I have are for the books of Andre Norton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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| Starman Jones Image credit: https://www.rafeeqmcgiveron.com/scribnerrsquos-yajuveniles.html |
Though I read most of the juveniles as library books, I do have some of those books in mass market paperback in my collection as well, purchased in the mid to late 1960’s. However, I first got to know those books on the Greendale Library book shelves. They may’ve held them all. They were mostly good, even great, and were, along with the works of Andre Norton, they were the perfect introduction to speculative fiction.Starman Jones was
my favorite SF book for quite a while, along with Ben Bova’s Star
Conquers. Everyone has their favorite Heinlein juvenile, and it
seems that Starman Jones was not a common pick. But it was
mine. Looking back, and looking forward, I think it was my favorite
for two reasons. The first was its opening set on a farm. Every
summer my mom would take us kids back to her childhood home, a dairy
farm in Wisconsin for two weeks, so that the farm setting resonated
with me. The second reason is that there was just a faint hint of
romance in the story. Though, perhaps I just read that into the
story. In any event, given the appeal of Edgar Rice Burroughs books
had on me, with their common thread of romance, I think this had to
be a factor as well.
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| Starman Jones image credit: https://www.rafeeqmcgiveron.com/scribnerrsquos-yajuveniles.html |
These juveniles were
perfect for a very specific age in one’s life. I reread Starman
Jones, just six years later, and I was surprised how “thin” the
story actually is. When I first read it, I had been making believe
all my life as a child, and I suspect that this ability allowed me to
flesh out the story with my own make believe. Later, as that ability
faded, and I was left only with the book Heinlein had written, I
found it rather disappointing. In any event, I read all of his
juveniles, and still remember the plot of Tunnel in the Sky,
though all
others,
have left
no specific memories. I think I enjoyed Citizen of the
Galaxy a lot, and seem to recall
that The Star Beast wasn’t
very good at all.
Below is my current collection of Heinlein books:
Like my Norton collection, what is missing is telling. So what is missing? First is Stranger in a Strange Land. I did have a paperback copy, but I got rid of it. Now I usually keep all my books, so when I get rid of a book, you have to know that I really, really didn’t like it. Stranger in a Strange Land falls into that category, as does my Science Fiction Book Club edition of Farnhan’s Freehold. I can still remember selecting that as one of my monthly selections, and being really disappointed it when I got and read it. Beginning with Farnham’s Freehold and Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein and I started to part ways. My records show that I finished Stranger in a Strange Land on 24 Jan 1966. Following that, I read Gulf,(?) Podkaybne of Mars, Glory Road, Assignment in Eternity and The Puppet Masters all in 1966.
Glory Road was the last of Heinlein’s new books that I enjoyed. Though, strangely enough, I only recently discovered that I had a copy of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress on my shelves. I have no memory of ever reading it, much less owning it. But there it is. However, I can not find it listed on any of my lists, so I may’ve picked it up sometime in the early 1970’s after I stopped recording books I read. Who knows?
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| Starman Jones image credit https://www.rafeeqmcgiveron.com/scribnerrsquos-yajuveniles.html |
Once again, taking out my “Science- fiction Books I Have Read, 1/5/65” list, I find that at that date I had read and rated the following Heinlein books:
Starman Jones E
Space Cadet E (No memory what so ever.)
Double Star A (ditto)
Starship Troopers B (I’m surprised I rated it that high.)
The Star Beast C (I guess I remembered correctly)
Tunnel in the Sky A (I know I read this twice.)
Rocket Ship Galileo B
Farmer in the Sky B
Between Planets A
Time for the Stars B
The Door into Summer B (Another book that I am surprised I rated it this high.)
Citizen of the Galaxy B (Only a B, but on a later list it is upgraded to an E, perhaps I reread it.)
Podkayne of Mars B
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel B
The Rolling Stones B
Waldo & Magic, Inc C & A
The Green Hills of Earth B (I’m surprised that this collection of short stories is rated so high.)
In short, a solid “B” writer. With a couple of standouts, and a couple of average books. By the end of 1965, I had added, but not rated; Orphans of the Sky, Methuselah’s Children, The Puppet Masters, Revolt in 2100, The Man Who Sold the Moon, Farnhan’s Freehold, Red Planet, and Beyond this Horizon to my list of Heinlein books read. And as I already mentioned, I read six more Heinlein books in 1966. I also have an undated list of only Heinlein books – 33 in total – with my ratings. On it, I had rated Waldo, The Star Beast, Farmhan’s Freehold, 6XH, and Stranger in a Strange Land all “C”s None of my lists include The Moon if a Harsh Mistress.
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| Farmer in the Sky image credit: https://www.rafeeqmcgiveron.com/scribnerrsquos-yajuveniles.html |
From
these lists,
it would seem that Farnham’s Freehold was
the book that started to sour my relationship with Heinlein. But
I rated it a “C” so it could’ve been worse, and
I continued to buy Heinlein books after Farnham’s
Freehold, I guess I took Farnham
as just one of those bad apples every writer occasionally produces. I
also remember that, while I purchased them, when I came across them,
I was never a huge fan of Heinlein’s short stories from the 40’s
in those anthology books published by Signet. However, seeing that I
seemed to have rated them in my Heinlein only list as “B” books,
it is possible that my later falling out with Heinlein has colored my
recollections of them. In any event, in 1966 I read five Heinlein
books, starting with Stranger in a Strange Land, and only one
of his books in 1967. My list of books I read for 1970 has no
Heinlein books. Clearly, by the time he wrote I Will Fear No Evil,
Heinlein was history.
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Between Planets
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I did try, in the
1980’s or 90’s, to read several of his later novels, but I found
them so bad – sorry soapboxes for Heinlein, the self-styled
philosopher, to preach his strange philosophy from – that I
couldn’t get more than a couple of chapters into them. A sorry end, in
my opinion. If he aspired to be a philosopher, he should have
published his ideas and insights in non-fiction books, not plow them,
into fiction “stories.” These days, the more I learn about the
man, the less I like him. So, unlike Andre Norton, I no longer have any fond
memories of this pillar of my early speculative fiction reading. I guess that rereading my favorite story only half a dozen
years after I first read it, and finding it lacking, tells the story
of Robert A Heinlein in my life.
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ReplyDeleteHi
I enjoyed this post. Your introduction to science fiction seems to have been quite similar to mine. I started in the public school library with Heinlein juveniles, Andre Norton, some Asimov and Clarke. As I grew older, I read a lot of his short fiction. I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Beyond This Horizon a bit later, I am not sure if these were from the school library or the public library. In hindsight, the most intriguing bits were his attempt to imagine the economy of the future. I think I discussed them with the only friend I had who read SF, which makes it no later than grade nine, but it was probably grade eight because there was no one to discuss SF with.
I read Stranger In a Strange Land about the same time, but while I still read his work that predated it I did not read anything he wrote after that. The lectures which seemed to have a purpose in the juveniles were out of place when directed at adults, and the books become long and tedious. I have collected hard covers of his juveniles and some early Astoundings, mostly with the Hubert Rogers covers. One re-resding his treatment of women is often appalling, as is the case with many of the writers of the period. But also l found writers I liked more who provided more compelling visions of the future. My favourite is Between Planets with Sir Issac Newton and the move-overs. I also liked Farmer in the Sky and Starman Jones. Upon re-reading Starman Jones, I realized the most interesting part was the alien Centaurs who had a civilization based on using living organisms as tools, but he only devoted a few pages to them. Heinlein seemed to provide plots that offered imaginative opportunities for young people, but I am unconvinced he could present a future that most adults wanted to live in. I do want to take another look at Waldo because it seems to link science and magic in a manner that is uncharacteristic of most of his work. I have gone on too long, but I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your post.
Guy
Hi Guy, thanks for taking the time to comment and share your experience with Heinlein, which is, as you say, much like mine. I find it amusing these days to read about all of his philosophy that he included in his stories. I seem to recall talk about politics in Tunnel in the Sky, The Door to Summer, and Starship Troopers, but I think I just took it all as “world building” and never gave them anymore thought. I was just reading SF as pure adventure stories. There was only so much I could say about Heinlein, since I have a very poor memory of my life and almost no recollection of most of the books I have read. I do remember the premises of Starman Jones and The Tunnel in the Sky, and their opening scenes, but that’s about it. Most books I don’t even remember reading, so it’s a good thing I kept some records of books I did read, back in the day. Edgar Rice Burroughs is my next entry in this series, and I discovered with those records that my memory of when I came to be a big ERB fan was completely wrong. After letting my blog languish between book releases, I’m now using it to practice writing, and I think I can keep up the pace of a new entry every 3 to 4 days for a while yet.
DeleteI visit your blog several times a day, there’s always some new blog links, if you haven’t written a new post. I found your take on the Murderbot stories interesting. I don’t know if you are a member of the Tor ebook club and picked up those stories from there, but if you are, have you picked up the last release, The Calculating Stars? I’ll be posting my thoughts on that book as my next post, in a few days. Will I be seeing yours?
Once again, thanks for your comments. They are always more than welcome. I don’t often hear from people who read my blog. I wish readers had more to say, as it is always interesting.