About the Author
Robert A.Heinlein's early short stories and novels, appearing in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION from l939-l942 before he went into War service established him immediately as the finest US writer of science fiction. He was viewed as a true successor in this country to H.G.Wells. Heinlein, like Wells, was a writer who showed the way to contemporaries and all of the generations of science fiction writers following. SOLUTION UNSATISFACTORY (l94l) accurately forecast the Cold War nuclear balance of terror, BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS was the first and finest of all time paradox stories, novelettes like UNIVERSE and COMMON SENSE depicted the generations-long star voyage with accuracy and despair. Notably, METHUSALEH'S CHILDREN (l942) described the secret society formed by despised immortals feared and hated by society. After World War II, Heinlein turned for more than a decade to the series of juvenile novels which made his reputation in another field - FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD, CITIZEN OF THE GalAXY, RED PLANET, HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL - as well as brilliant "adult" novels such as DOUBLE STAR and THE PUPPET MASTERS. In l96l, Heinlein entered into a new phase of his career with the landmark STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, a Martian odyssey narrated by a human born on Mars which put the word "grok" and the concept of the commune into contemporary literature. Other long and influential novels followed - THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, FRIDAY, JOB, THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS - and in l975 Heinlein was awarded the first Grand Master award of the Science Fiction Writers of America. Guest of honor at three world science fiction conventions and four-time winner of the Hugo Award for novels, Heinlein's accomplishment kept him at the top of the science fiction field for almost 50 years. Almost all of his work remains in print. He died in California in l988..