Robert Heinlein

Robert Heinlein is one of the three early giants of science fiction, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. He was the winner of four Hugos and the Science Fiction Writers of America named him their first Grand Master.

Heinlein was no stranger to firsts. He was the first modern science fiction writer to make a living solely from the sale of his stories. He was the first to turn a science fiction novel into a bestseller. And his most famous novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, was the first book to ever be a bestseller twice: Once when it was first released and again 30 years later when the uncut version was released (his editors had made him trim the story by 30% as well as take out the more explicit sex scenes). He was the first science fiction author to sell science fiction stories to a magazine with a general audience to The Saturday Evening Post.

Born in 1907, Heinlein was a Navy lieutenant in the late 20s and early 30s. He even gave up writing during World War II to research high-altitude pressure suits and radar for the Navy. Heinlein was a prolific writer who at one point adopted several pen names because magazines didn't want two stories by the same author in the same issue. His pen names included Anson McDonald, Lyle Monroe, Caleb Saunders, John Riverside, and Simon York.

Heinlein died on May 9, 1988

Bibliography

--B. Redman