50 Fun Facts About Robert A. Heinlein

Which two authors are grouped with Robert A. Heinlein as the 'Big Three' of English-language science fiction?

Asimov said the SF world accepted Heinlein as the best living science fiction writer from his very first story onward.

What nickname is Robert A. Heinlein often given?

He was among the first to insist on scientific accuracy in fiction and so pioneered hard science fiction.

In which Missouri town was Robert A. Heinlein born on July 7, 1907?

He was the third of seven children and grew up in Kansas City; the 1910 return of Halley's Comet sparked his lifelong interest in astronomy.

How many of Senator Reed's Naval Academy recommendation letters were for Heinlein?

Heinlein had been kept out at first because his brother Rex was already at Annapolis; the Pendergast machine helped too.

Aboard which new aircraft carrier did Heinlein serve in radio communications in 1931?

Its captain, Ernest J. King, later commanded the whole US Fleet in World War II.

Why was Heinlein discharged from the Navy in 1934?

During the long hospital stay he designed a waterbed, which he later described in Stranger in a Strange Land.

Which piece of furniture did Heinlein design while bedridden and later describe in a novel?

His novel The Door into Summer also anticipated computer-aided design with a machine called 'Drafting Dan'.

Whose socialist End Poverty in California (EPIC) movement was Heinlein active in during the early 1930s?

He was deputy publisher of the EPIC News and worked on Sinclair's 1934 run for governor.

By how many votes did Heinlein lose the 1938 Democratic primary for the California State Assembly?

He was a left-wing Democrat in a conservative district; afterwards he turned to writing to pay off his mortgage.

What was Heinlein's first published story, printed in Astounding Science Fiction in August 1939?

Written for a contest, it sold to Astounding for far more than the contest's first prize; 'Misfit' followed that November.

Which editor bought Heinlein's early stories and defined the era Pohl said Heinlein was the greatest writer of?

In 1940 alone, his second year, Heinlein wrote three short novels, four novelettes and seven short stories.

Which two SF writers did Heinlein recruit to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard during World War II?

The three brainstormed unconventional defences against kamikaze attacks, such as detecting planes by sound.

Which mainstream magazine published Heinlein's 'The Green Hills of Earth' in 1947?

It was the first of four influential stories he sold to the magazine.

Which 1950 film, with story and co-script by Heinlein, won an Oscar for special effects?

He also invented many of the effects for the documentary-style film, which later earned a Retro Hugo.

Which publisher issued Heinlein's juvenile novels once a year from 1947 to 1959, in time for Christmas?

The first, Rocket Ship Galileo, was initially rejected because a trip to the Moon was thought too far-fetched.

What was Heinlein's first novel published as a book?

Eight of the juveniles were illustrated by Clifford Geary in white-on-black scratchboard; Farmer in the Sky first ran in Boys' Life as 'Satellite Scout'.

Under what title was Heinlein's 1959 Mobile Infantry novel first serialised?

Scribner's rejected the book as too controversial, so Heinlein took it to Putnam and felt freed from writing for children.

What was the working title of Stranger in a Strange Land?

Heinlein interrupted work on it in 1958 to write Starship Troopers.

Stranger in a Strange Land began as a modernised version of which Kipling work?

Ginny suggested the child be raised by Martians instead of wolves; Citizen of the Galaxy is likewise a reboot of Kim.

What is the root meaning in Martian of 'grok', the word Heinlein coined in Stranger in a Strange Land?

It came to mean understanding something so fully as to become one with it, and entered the English language.

Which Heinlein story gave its title character's name to real-world remote-controlled mechanical arms?

He also coined 'speculative fiction' and popularised 'TANSTAAFL', 'pay it forward' and 'space marine'.

In which 1951 Heinlein novel was the phrase 'pay it forward' popularised?

The phrase already existed as an occasional quotation before Heinlein put it in the mouths of his characters.

For which four novels did Heinlein win Hugo Awards in his lifetime?

He was later given seven Retro Hugos, including two for best novel, for Beyond This Horizon and Farmer in the Sky.

How many Retro Hugos was Heinlein awarded for works published before the Hugos existed?

They included novellas for If This Goes On..., Waldo and The Man Who Sold the Moon and a novelette for The Roads Must Roll.

In which year was Heinlein named the first Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master?

The award, presented in 1975, is chosen by the association's officers and past presidents for lifetime achievement.

How many novels did Heinlein publish during his lifetime?

Plus 59 short stories and 16 collections; nine films, two TV series and a board game have been drawn from his work.

What was the profession of Heinlein's third wife, Virginia 'Ginny' Gerstenfeld?

She was also a rocket test engineer, held a higher Navy rank than Heinlein and won four varsity letters as a college athlete.

What house number did the Heinleins choose for the home they designed in Colorado Springs?

The area was newly developed so they could pick their own number; the design was featured in Popular Mechanics.

Why did the Heinleins move from Colorado Springs to Santa Cruz, California, in 1965?

They built a circular house in the nearby village of Bonny Doon; his archive is now at UC Santa Cruz.

What did Heinlein ask fans to sign, alongside their autographs, at conventions in the 1970s?

Transfusions of his rare A2 negative blood had saved him from peritonitis in 1970, and he hosted a blood drive at the 1976 Worldcon.

What was Heinlein's rare blood type?

He needed multiple transfusions during a two-year recovery from peritonitis that began the 1970s.

Which body, chaired by Jerry Pournelle and meeting at Larry Niven's house, did Heinlein join in 1980 to advise Reagan?

Its papers helped shape what became Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, and Heinlein testified to Congress in 1983.

How did Heinlein die on May 8, 1988?

One of the earliest carotid bypass operations had re-energised him in the late 1970s and let him write five more novels.

What was the 1989 collection of Heinlein's letters and notes edited by Ginny called?

Tramp Royale is his travelogue of their 1953-54 voyage round the world; Take Back Your Government is his 1946 politics manual.

Which writer completed the novel Variable Star from Heinlein's outline and notes?

It was published in 2006; Heinlein's first novel, For Us, the Living, finally appeared in 2003.

What was the title of Heinlein's first-written novel, unpublished until 2003?

Critics call it a disguised lecture on his social theories, but it seeds many later themes, including the lawless exile land of Coventry.

The 2020 reconstructed novel The Pursuit of the Pankera is an alternative version of which Heinlein book?

The first third of the two books is mostly the same, then the storylines diverge; it pays homage to Burroughs and E. E. 'Doc' Smith.

Which Neopagan organisation, founded in 1962, was modelled on the religion in Stranger in a Strange Land?

Founder Oberon Zell-Ravenheart borrowed water-sharing rituals and the phrases 'grok', 'Thou art God' and 'Never Thirst'; Heinlein corresponded but never joined.

Which of these business figures does Wikipedia list among those inspired by Heinlein?

Lee Felsenstein, designer of the first mass-produced portable computer, and browser pioneer Marc Andreessen are also named.

What was named after Heinlein on Mars in 1994?

Main-belt asteroid 6312 Robheinlein, discovered at Palomar in 1990, also carries his name.

Which stock character type, a polymath able to do almost anything, recurs throughout Heinlein's fiction?

He cited George Bernard Shaw as an earlier writer who used the archetype, and Ayn Rand's heroes impressed him too.

Which 1984 Heinlein novel is a sharp satire of organised religion?

Heinlein himself was agnostic; the book was originally set on a cruise like the one described in Tramp Royale.

Which large 1974 novel introduced many themes of Heinlein's late fiction, written after his peritonitis?

His late novels lean heavily on his Kansas City childhood for setting; the five 1980s books were criticised as didactic by David Langford.

Which astronomical event of 1910 sparked the young Heinlein's lifelong interest in astronomy?

He grew up in Kansas City, drawing on its 'Bible Belt' atmosphere for the settings of Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset.

At sixteen, Heinlein lied about his age to enlist in which body in Kansas City?

His family could not afford college, so he then sought an appointment to a military academy instead.

Heinlein ranked fifth academically in his 1929 Naval Academy class but stood 20th of 243 for what reason?

The academy did not confer degrees then; his training was the equivalent of a bachelor of arts in engineering.

How long did Heinlein's first marriage, to Elinor Curry of Kansas City in 1929, last?

His second marriage, to Leslyn MacDonald in 1932, lasted 15 years and was, by his own account, an open one.

What did Heinlein build under his house at the height of the Cold War, like the one in Farnham's Freehold?

He was also a nudist, and body taboos are discussed frequently in his fiction.

Which of Heinlein's juvenile novels can be seen as a reboot of Kipling's Kim?

Eight of the Scribner's juveniles were illustrated by Clifford Geary in a distinctive white-on-black scratchboard style.

Under what name do Niven and Pournelle include Heinlein as a character in their novel Footfall?

Heinlein had given the pair extensive advice on The Mote in God's Eye and blurbed it as possibly the finest science fiction novel he had ever read.