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Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907-1948): Learning Curve
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) is generally considered the greatest American SF writer of the 20th century. A famous and bestselling author in later life, he started as a navy man and graduate of Annapolis who was forced to retire because of tuberculosis. A socialist politician in the 1930s, he became one of the sources of Libertarian politics in the USA in his later years. His most famous works include 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.
Given his desire for privacy in the later decades of his life, he was both stranger and more interesting than one could ever have known. This is the first of two volumes of a major American biography. This volume is about Robert A. Heinlein's life up to the end of the 1940s and the mid-life crisis that changed him forever.
622 pages, Hardcover
First published August 17, 2010
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527 people want to read
About the author
William H. Patterson Jr.
9 books6 followersWilliam Patterson lived in San Francisco, California. He published numerous articles and two books on the works of Robert A. Heinlein, and he was a frequent public speaker on Heinlein and his works.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
January 28, 2011
Robert Anson Heinlein is generally regarded as one of the best known and most important science fiction writers of the 20th century. When ‘the Big Three’ are mentioned, it’s usually Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke who are the authors who brought SF up to date in the golden years of the 1940’s to 1970’s.
Since their deaths, whilst Asimov and Clarke’s lives have been written of in some detail, Heinlein’s personal life has been very secret. In his lifetime, questions about Robert’s life, rather than his writing, were usually either totally ignored, or angrily denied by the author. Alexei Panshin’s Dimensions of Heinlein has a background tale about this as vibrant as some of Heinlein’s fiction.
So what to make of this authorized first volume of a biography of Robert Heinlein?
Well, the author of the biography himself is a recognised ‘independent scholar’. William J. Patterson’s knowledge of Heinlein’s work is quite well-known. He founded the Heinlein Journal in 1997 and co-founded the Heinlein Society with Virginia Heinlein in 1998.
So the credentials seem to be there. It must also be noted that this hefty book has not been rushed in its production, with considerable time to research and write it. Patterson’s website says, ‘On January 1, 2000, Mrs. Heinlein phoned Bill and asked him to undertake the formal biography of her husband, which he commenced researching in February 2000. The research phase occupied the years 2000 through about 2003, and he commenced writing in the latter part of 2002. Mrs. Heinlein saw and approved the first 120,000 words of the biography (including the Heinlein family history which has been moved to an Appendix in the published first volume of the biography).
Following Mrs. Heinlein's death in January 2003, he was asked by the newly-formed Heinlein Prize Trust, to consult with the Robert A. Heinlein Archive of Special Collections and Archives of the University of California, Santa Cruz's McHenry Library in integrating the material coming to the collection from Mrs. Heinlein's working files. As there was very nearly as much "new" material as already existed in the Archive, he had to make extensive re-organization of the files, preparing them for public accessibility. The research phase re-commenced for the next two years, as the writing simultaneously progressed. Each volume of the biography was drafted at approximately 375,000 words, and then cut to approximately 300,000 for submission in 2006.’
So; at least three years of research, with at least four years of writing. Access to the Heinlein Archives. Direct contact with the last Mrs Heinlein whilst writing, presumably to check and confirm details. What could go wrong?
Let’s start with the positives. The first volume is lengthy, detailed and readable. It deals with Bobby Heinlein’s early life, his childhood, education and career in the Navy and the beginning of his writing career. It ends just after his fortieth birthday, with his marriage to Virginia Gerstenfeld.
From this, many things can be learned. Bobby was a child of many, who was always in his older brother’s shadow even at the Naval Academy of Annapolis. His family lived in seemingly continuous poverty, Bobby having to work from an early age to provide money for school equipment, books and clothes. This continued even to Naval Academy, where he struggled constantly to stay financially solvent. His time in Naval training was generally enjoyed, though not entirely outstanding and not without some issues. Robert learned pretty quickly that there were times when he should keep his mouth shut, but didn’t.
He took up fencing and enjoyed it, though he excelled at the academic side of the Academy more that the physical training.
A bout of tuberculosis soon turned Bob’s naval career around and meant that early retirement ensued. This must have been a hammer-blow to the young Heinlein who, based on what is said in this book, loved the naval life and was clearly aiming for greater things.
He then turned to politics and helped in the campaign of Upton Sinclair's socialist EPIC (End Poverty in California) movement in the early 1930s. Horrified by the dirty tricks campaign of his opposition, Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but he was unsuccessful. He then turned away from politics and focused on writing SF, mainly under the guidance of John Campbell, legendary editor of Astounding/Analog. His first story, Life Line, was published in 1939 in Astounding.
The beginning of the Second World War for the US in 1942 meant that Heinlein tried repeatedly to re-enlist for active service, though this was (just as repeatedly) denied. Consequently he spent the war working for the U.S. Navy in aeronautical engineering, working at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania, recruiting Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp in the process.
After the war, Heinlein returned to writing. Sales to The Saturday Evening Post meant that Heinlein, unlike many of his contemporaries, broke into ‘the big time’. Reaching readers that didn’t read SF in the pulps, he was one of the first SF writers to be published in hardback, something almost unknown up to this point. This book ends as his science-fiction career was starting to (erm) rocket.
So: what does the reader gain from reading this biography? I guess the main interest is that there is lots of information here that you won’t get anywhere else, based on access to the Heinlein Archives that is not available to other biographers.
The $6 000 000 question though is whether we need to know as much information as is given here. Frankly, no. I suspect that this book, as readable as it is, will cater for an audience that already has an interest, and probably (like me) for the SF aspects. As you might gather, this doesn’t happen until after the midway point of this large volume. Consequently some readers may be disappointed, or get bored with the lengthy details of Heinlein’s childhood and naval training.
However the detailing of Robert’s early life does have a purpose, as there are clues here that Heinlein’s background and experiences are reflected in what and how he wrote later in life. His hard upbringing may have led to his somewhat hard-nosed approach to business. Heinlein’s first forty years seem generally to have been a succession of difficult times: from his difficult childhood to the time as his SF career begins (motivated by a need to make money) and takes off, Heinlein goes a number of trials, leading through to two divorces and a third marriage as the book ends. Each time Heinlein’s life reverts to new beginnings and it is clear that life is often hard.
For those with an interest in his connections with other SF writers this only really appears at about halfway through the book. There are some interesting insights about other SF writers along the way: Asimov was like an over-eager puppy, L. Ron Hubbard was a charismatic person who seems to have fallen out with Heinlein partly due to Hubbard’s complicated dalliances with women. Forrest Ackerman was an annoyance. In particular, Heinlein’s relationship with John Campbell is very interesting. The letters here show that they were friends, and close friends, at this time of Heinlein’s life. However this clearly did not continue throughout their lifetimes. (Bearing in mind this relationship I have always been surprised at how little was said about Campbell by Heinlein on Campbell’s death in 1971.) The business arrangements of Street and Smith, publishers of Astounding/Analog, clearly affected their relationship and this no doubt will be expounded on in the second volume.
This leads us to another aspect covered here. Heinlein’s romantic involvements were many and varied. He led a life that involved affairs, open marriages, nudism and nude photography. What is most surprising here is how much detail of Heinlein’s marriages before his marriage to Virginia Gerstenfeld is covered. Virginia and Heinlein’s second wife, Leslyn, became friends before Virginia and Robert started their personal relationship.
There are some negatives. There are some astonishingly glib leaps of faith made in the narrative. Patterson, in the first page of his Introduction, nearly jumped the shark for me by claiming that the death of Robert A. Heinlein was an event of Elvis/Kennedy proportions. Whilst I accept that it was a major upset (it was for me!), I really doubt that it was of that scale, as much as I would’ve liked it to be. (So too Asimov and Clarke, for that matter.) Added to the facts that Heinlein was 80 and also that his health had been poor (if not to mention critical) for a good few years prior to that, it was sad but not really a shock.
Being an authorised biography can give a reader the impression that we may not be seeing the whole picture of this complicated person. Patterson does tend to give a positive spin on it, though I was surprised, and pleased, that not all was as positive as it could have been, had this been an attempt to canonise the man, which was my first impression.
There are others through the book. Jo Walton at Tor.com has also said that some of the details may not necessarily pass muster.
There is also the issue of where to draw the fine line. Do we need to know the details of Heinlein’s love life, his sexual habits and his letters to his lovers? There are quotes and inferences made about those, including some quite ghastly intimate extracts from letters written by Heinlein when his second marriage broke up and he was living in secret with Ginny. Whilst the point can be made that these help the reader outline what was going on with Heinlein whilst he was writing some of his classic work, I also felt a little voyeuristic in reading what were quite intimate comments clearly not meant for public reading.
For all its faults, what this book does do is give the reader an idea of the complicated character that was Robert Anson Heinlein. Annoyingly self-opinionated, extremely political, personally and romantically intricate, it does at least give some ideas of where Bobby/Bob/Robert developed his views on social community, politics and lifestyle that appeared through his fiction.
If you want to get an idea of what a complex, infuriating and opinionated person Heinlein was, you’re not going to get a more complete picture than this. Whilst it is perhaps limited by being an authorised biography, I was surprised by some of the details given here, particularly when such details have never been made available before.
For anyone interested in the creation of a genre, this is fascinating and perhaps revelatory stuff. For me that was the interest. Heinlein’s background in the military and in engineering as well as politics clearly were reflected in some of his writing. So too some of his moral views, from his means of aggressive management to his sexual habits and open marriages.
I now reread my Heinlein with a greater understanding of the man who wrote this material and now see more clearly how his personal views affected his work. Whilst I still may not agree with some of his views personally, I now at least understand the context and the reasons for his views. And though I have reservations, surely that is all a biography can ask for.
Since their deaths, whilst Asimov and Clarke’s lives have been written of in some detail, Heinlein’s personal life has been very secret. In his lifetime, questions about Robert’s life, rather than his writing, were usually either totally ignored, or angrily denied by the author. Alexei Panshin’s Dimensions of Heinlein has a background tale about this as vibrant as some of Heinlein’s fiction.
So what to make of this authorized first volume of a biography of Robert Heinlein?
Well, the author of the biography himself is a recognised ‘independent scholar’. William J. Patterson’s knowledge of Heinlein’s work is quite well-known. He founded the Heinlein Journal in 1997 and co-founded the Heinlein Society with Virginia Heinlein in 1998.
So the credentials seem to be there. It must also be noted that this hefty book has not been rushed in its production, with considerable time to research and write it. Patterson’s website says, ‘On January 1, 2000, Mrs. Heinlein phoned Bill and asked him to undertake the formal biography of her husband, which he commenced researching in February 2000. The research phase occupied the years 2000 through about 2003, and he commenced writing in the latter part of 2002. Mrs. Heinlein saw and approved the first 120,000 words of the biography (including the Heinlein family history which has been moved to an Appendix in the published first volume of the biography).
Following Mrs. Heinlein's death in January 2003, he was asked by the newly-formed Heinlein Prize Trust, to consult with the Robert A. Heinlein Archive of Special Collections and Archives of the University of California, Santa Cruz's McHenry Library in integrating the material coming to the collection from Mrs. Heinlein's working files. As there was very nearly as much "new" material as already existed in the Archive, he had to make extensive re-organization of the files, preparing them for public accessibility. The research phase re-commenced for the next two years, as the writing simultaneously progressed. Each volume of the biography was drafted at approximately 375,000 words, and then cut to approximately 300,000 for submission in 2006.’
So; at least three years of research, with at least four years of writing. Access to the Heinlein Archives. Direct contact with the last Mrs Heinlein whilst writing, presumably to check and confirm details. What could go wrong?
Let’s start with the positives. The first volume is lengthy, detailed and readable. It deals with Bobby Heinlein’s early life, his childhood, education and career in the Navy and the beginning of his writing career. It ends just after his fortieth birthday, with his marriage to Virginia Gerstenfeld.
From this, many things can be learned. Bobby was a child of many, who was always in his older brother’s shadow even at the Naval Academy of Annapolis. His family lived in seemingly continuous poverty, Bobby having to work from an early age to provide money for school equipment, books and clothes. This continued even to Naval Academy, where he struggled constantly to stay financially solvent. His time in Naval training was generally enjoyed, though not entirely outstanding and not without some issues. Robert learned pretty quickly that there were times when he should keep his mouth shut, but didn’t.
He took up fencing and enjoyed it, though he excelled at the academic side of the Academy more that the physical training.
A bout of tuberculosis soon turned Bob’s naval career around and meant that early retirement ensued. This must have been a hammer-blow to the young Heinlein who, based on what is said in this book, loved the naval life and was clearly aiming for greater things.
He then turned to politics and helped in the campaign of Upton Sinclair's socialist EPIC (End Poverty in California) movement in the early 1930s. Horrified by the dirty tricks campaign of his opposition, Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but he was unsuccessful. He then turned away from politics and focused on writing SF, mainly under the guidance of John Campbell, legendary editor of Astounding/Analog. His first story, Life Line, was published in 1939 in Astounding.
The beginning of the Second World War for the US in 1942 meant that Heinlein tried repeatedly to re-enlist for active service, though this was (just as repeatedly) denied. Consequently he spent the war working for the U.S. Navy in aeronautical engineering, working at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania, recruiting Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp in the process.
After the war, Heinlein returned to writing. Sales to The Saturday Evening Post meant that Heinlein, unlike many of his contemporaries, broke into ‘the big time’. Reaching readers that didn’t read SF in the pulps, he was one of the first SF writers to be published in hardback, something almost unknown up to this point. This book ends as his science-fiction career was starting to (erm) rocket.
So: what does the reader gain from reading this biography? I guess the main interest is that there is lots of information here that you won’t get anywhere else, based on access to the Heinlein Archives that is not available to other biographers.
The $6 000 000 question though is whether we need to know as much information as is given here. Frankly, no. I suspect that this book, as readable as it is, will cater for an audience that already has an interest, and probably (like me) for the SF aspects. As you might gather, this doesn’t happen until after the midway point of this large volume. Consequently some readers may be disappointed, or get bored with the lengthy details of Heinlein’s childhood and naval training.
However the detailing of Robert’s early life does have a purpose, as there are clues here that Heinlein’s background and experiences are reflected in what and how he wrote later in life. His hard upbringing may have led to his somewhat hard-nosed approach to business. Heinlein’s first forty years seem generally to have been a succession of difficult times: from his difficult childhood to the time as his SF career begins (motivated by a need to make money) and takes off, Heinlein goes a number of trials, leading through to two divorces and a third marriage as the book ends. Each time Heinlein’s life reverts to new beginnings and it is clear that life is often hard.
For those with an interest in his connections with other SF writers this only really appears at about halfway through the book. There are some interesting insights about other SF writers along the way: Asimov was like an over-eager puppy, L. Ron Hubbard was a charismatic person who seems to have fallen out with Heinlein partly due to Hubbard’s complicated dalliances with women. Forrest Ackerman was an annoyance. In particular, Heinlein’s relationship with John Campbell is very interesting. The letters here show that they were friends, and close friends, at this time of Heinlein’s life. However this clearly did not continue throughout their lifetimes. (Bearing in mind this relationship I have always been surprised at how little was said about Campbell by Heinlein on Campbell’s death in 1971.) The business arrangements of Street and Smith, publishers of Astounding/Analog, clearly affected their relationship and this no doubt will be expounded on in the second volume.
This leads us to another aspect covered here. Heinlein’s romantic involvements were many and varied. He led a life that involved affairs, open marriages, nudism and nude photography. What is most surprising here is how much detail of Heinlein’s marriages before his marriage to Virginia Gerstenfeld is covered. Virginia and Heinlein’s second wife, Leslyn, became friends before Virginia and Robert started their personal relationship.
There are some negatives. There are some astonishingly glib leaps of faith made in the narrative. Patterson, in the first page of his Introduction, nearly jumped the shark for me by claiming that the death of Robert A. Heinlein was an event of Elvis/Kennedy proportions. Whilst I accept that it was a major upset (it was for me!), I really doubt that it was of that scale, as much as I would’ve liked it to be. (So too Asimov and Clarke, for that matter.) Added to the facts that Heinlein was 80 and also that his health had been poor (if not to mention critical) for a good few years prior to that, it was sad but not really a shock.
Being an authorised biography can give a reader the impression that we may not be seeing the whole picture of this complicated person. Patterson does tend to give a positive spin on it, though I was surprised, and pleased, that not all was as positive as it could have been, had this been an attempt to canonise the man, which was my first impression.
There are others through the book. Jo Walton at Tor.com has also said that some of the details may not necessarily pass muster.
There is also the issue of where to draw the fine line. Do we need to know the details of Heinlein’s love life, his sexual habits and his letters to his lovers? There are quotes and inferences made about those, including some quite ghastly intimate extracts from letters written by Heinlein when his second marriage broke up and he was living in secret with Ginny. Whilst the point can be made that these help the reader outline what was going on with Heinlein whilst he was writing some of his classic work, I also felt a little voyeuristic in reading what were quite intimate comments clearly not meant for public reading.
For all its faults, what this book does do is give the reader an idea of the complicated character that was Robert Anson Heinlein. Annoyingly self-opinionated, extremely political, personally and romantically intricate, it does at least give some ideas of where Bobby/Bob/Robert developed his views on social community, politics and lifestyle that appeared through his fiction.
If you want to get an idea of what a complex, infuriating and opinionated person Heinlein was, you’re not going to get a more complete picture than this. Whilst it is perhaps limited by being an authorised biography, I was surprised by some of the details given here, particularly when such details have never been made available before.
For anyone interested in the creation of a genre, this is fascinating and perhaps revelatory stuff. For me that was the interest. Heinlein’s background in the military and in engineering as well as politics clearly were reflected in some of his writing. So too some of his moral views, from his means of aggressive management to his sexual habits and open marriages.
I now reread my Heinlein with a greater understanding of the man who wrote this material and now see more clearly how his personal views affected his work. Whilst I still may not agree with some of his views personally, I now at least understand the context and the reasons for his views. And though I have reservations, surely that is all a biography can ask for.
May 30, 2018
When assigning a numerical rank to a biography one must remember that the book itself is being ranked, not the subject. Also, the subject of this one being Heinlein, I'm reminded of a (possibly somewhat apocryphal) story from forty or so years ago in which Spider Robinson had reviewed L. Sprague deCamp's biography of H.P. Lovecraft somewhat unfavorably, partially because he felt that deCamp had included too many details of minutiae; Heinlein commented it seemed Robinson was criticizing deCamp for doing his job too well, and Robinson agreed and issued a retraction and apology. At times in this book I felt Patterson was including a little too much unnecessary detail, particularly in Heinlein's naval and political career, but agree it's better to have too much rather than too little knowledge. This book examines Heinlein's early life with a rare depth and eye for detail. I thought it offered some very interesting insights into middle-class life in the early half of the twentieth century, not just information about Heinlein. I don't think that one would have to be a big Heinlein fan to enjoy reading this one (despite the copious footnotes!). I was surprised quite a few times by events described in this one; Heinlein had phenomenal success as a writer, but had many long years of not particularly noteworthy service in the Navy and as a politician prior to that. He wasn't always the role model of the proverbial Heinlein man. He also had some terrible health issues and personal challenges. I did learn a lot from this book, and look forward to reading the next volume.
August 31, 2010
I've read three other, much shorter, biographies of Heinlein. Two were hatchet jobs, and the third misinterpreted the man and his work. To my knowledge, this is the only biography available of Heinlein that was written by a person who can receive Heinlein's wavelength. Thus, it is the only biography of Heinlein worth reading for those who enjoy Heinlein's work and want to know something more about the author. Given the misleading biographies of him that were available before, this book was sorely needed.
Even better, Mr. Patterson had access to Heinlein's files at the University of California Santa Cruz and the cooperation of Heinlein's widow Virginia and the members of the writer's extended family. He had more information to work with than any previous biographer, so this biography is far more comprehensive than any other now available.
For those readers who have enjoyed Heinlein's work and want to know more about the man who created such outstanding stories, this biography gets my highest recommendation. It does not, however, examine Heinlein's work in detail. For those wanting an overview of Heinlein's writing for researching a term paper, for example, this book will not serve.
I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Even better, Mr. Patterson had access to Heinlein's files at the University of California Santa Cruz and the cooperation of Heinlein's widow Virginia and the members of the writer's extended family. He had more information to work with than any previous biographer, so this biography is far more comprehensive than any other now available.
For those readers who have enjoyed Heinlein's work and want to know more about the man who created such outstanding stories, this biography gets my highest recommendation. It does not, however, examine Heinlein's work in detail. For those wanting an overview of Heinlein's writing for researching a term paper, for example, this book will not serve.
I enjoyed it thoroughly.
February 19, 2015
I discovered Heinlein, I think, about the same time I discovered Star Trek; when I discovered the idea that we could build a better world and go live in it. For some heady teenage years I read him again and again, delighted and fascinated by this brave new world with such people in it who were tackling the big questions with seemingly clear eyes. And then I stopped, increasingly soured by his flat characters, their smugness and certainty, the intrusive bits of racism, misogyny and homophobia, and my increasing discomfort with whatever the frell Lazarus Long was doing with his mother.
In my more forgiving years, I realize the man was a progressive and so much better than he should have been. Recruiting engineers for the World War Two effort he took schools that did not allow women to take classes to task and accused them of losing the war. He had characters of various religions and ethnicities and would not budge to make his books more palatable to publishing houses. He worked hard on anti-poverty programs. He tried hard not to succumb to the prejudices of his culture and succeeded more than most of us.
This book was a bit of a hagiography and I ended up skimming large portions where, as far as I can tell, Heinlein lived an ordinary life. But I liked the bits where he didn’t.
In my more forgiving years, I realize the man was a progressive and so much better than he should have been. Recruiting engineers for the World War Two effort he took schools that did not allow women to take classes to task and accused them of losing the war. He had characters of various religions and ethnicities and would not budge to make his books more palatable to publishing houses. He worked hard on anti-poverty programs. He tried hard not to succumb to the prejudices of his culture and succeeded more than most of us.
This book was a bit of a hagiography and I ended up skimming large portions where, as far as I can tell, Heinlein lived an ordinary life. But I liked the bits where he didn’t.
August 26, 2010
Clearly written by the pro-Heinlein side, but willing to show him with what some will see as warts. Could easily have been a very "Kitty Kelly-ish" book. Instead. it's a Just-the-facts bit of journalism for the most part, and you get to draw your own conclusions.
If you like Heinlein, you must read this book. For a fan like me, this is a 5. For the general interested reader, a four. I can hardly wait for volume 2.
If you like Heinlein, you must read this book. For a fan like me, this is a 5. For the general interested reader, a four. I can hardly wait for volume 2.
January 4, 2014
Despite being an avid Heinlein fan since my formative years this biography sat on my shelf for a long time before I could bring myself to read it. Perhaps I thought at 600+ pages for just the first of a two volume biography it would be too heavy going. Or perhaps I was afraid of what I might learn about the man whose works I treasured and whose influence in my own life I thought I recognised.
But I need not have been concerned on either account.
William H Patterson Jr succeeds in presenting a fastidiously complete biography with numerous references and extracts from correspondence and memoir yet does so in a manner which - if not a page turner - is certainly an absorbing and compelling good read.
Those not familiar with Heinlein's work may find less to interest and entertain than fans, certainly, but the subtitle ("In Dialogue With His Century"), is highly apt, with the perspective on early 20th Century American and World history that Heinlein's life provides being intrinsically interesting for anyone even remotely aware of how the world has changed - and how it perhaps has not - over the past 100 years.
But I need not have been concerned on either account.
William H Patterson Jr succeeds in presenting a fastidiously complete biography with numerous references and extracts from correspondence and memoir yet does so in a manner which - if not a page turner - is certainly an absorbing and compelling good read.
Those not familiar with Heinlein's work may find less to interest and entertain than fans, certainly, but the subtitle ("In Dialogue With His Century"), is highly apt, with the perspective on early 20th Century American and World history that Heinlein's life provides being intrinsically interesting for anyone even remotely aware of how the world has changed - and how it perhaps has not - over the past 100 years.
September 1, 2010
Fascinating, absolutely fascinating... and while I admit that Heinlein, like everyone else, had his blind spots and areas where he was a rampaging asshole/whatever other epithet you want to sling at him, his life story still makes marvelous and engaging reading.
April 19, 2014
Robert Heinlein has been one of my touchstone authors for as long as I can remember, in part because how my own reactions to his work has changed as I have read and re-read them throughout my life. Certainly as one of the most prominent authors of the "Golden Age" of science fiction, a full fledged biography and critical review of his work is warranted. In that respect, Patterson's book so thoroughly meets the need for the former, he can be forgiven for giving virtually no attention to the latter. In truth, had he tried to do both, I expect we'd be looking at an 8-10 volume work rather than the two volume work he is in the process of completing. (Volume II comes out this summer.) In any event, for a long time reader and admirer of Heinlein, Patterson has written an incredibly thorough while still thoroughly readable biography of Heinlein's life up to 1948. Readers with less interest in Heinlein or science fiction in general might find the book less interesting but for us, the living (sorry, couldn't resist) beneficiaries of Heinlein's incredible output this is an essenttial volume.
One point to keep in mind when starting this book. It is an authorized biography and on the first page the risk that this would be nothing more than a detailed hagiography seems high. Patterson risks his credibility in the introduction by intimating that the death of Heinlein on May 8, 1988 was as memorable and impactful an event as the assassinations of JFK and RFK, the first Moon landing, the Challenger disaster and 9/11. Fortunately once you get past this statement, one that Heinlein himself I think would have found in questionable taste as a writer and evidence of throughly screwed up priorities given the loss of life involved in some of these events, Patterson regains his equilibrium. While his admiration for Heinelin is evident, he is relatively even handed in laying out his stregths and weaknesses as a person. My advice, skip the introduction!
One point to keep in mind when starting this book. It is an authorized biography and on the first page the risk that this would be nothing more than a detailed hagiography seems high. Patterson risks his credibility in the introduction by intimating that the death of Heinlein on May 8, 1988 was as memorable and impactful an event as the assassinations of JFK and RFK, the first Moon landing, the Challenger disaster and 9/11. Fortunately once you get past this statement, one that Heinlein himself I think would have found in questionable taste as a writer and evidence of throughly screwed up priorities given the loss of life involved in some of these events, Patterson regains his equilibrium. While his admiration for Heinelin is evident, he is relatively even handed in laying out his stregths and weaknesses as a person. My advice, skip the introduction!
September 3, 2014
I have read almost everything Robert Heinlein wrote; so I was interested in his biography. And I went through almost 500 pages of text. (Btw, no. of pages is given as 622 but over 100 pages are notes--I skimmed a few of the longer notes--not all).
I found the biography very readable and did enjoy the book. If you are interested in Heinlein as a person---rather than in his writings--there is a great deal of information here.
It is definitely a pro-Heinlein biography The author, Mr. Patterson, got many letters from the Heinlein Archives and taped interviews from Virginia Heinlein as well. Nevertheless, I found the picture I got of Heinlein to be sympathetic, but not biased. Of course, there may be factual errors of which I am unaware.
I suspect I enjoyed the first half of this biography more than I might enjoy the second book, which I DO plan to read. Possibly it is because in the part of his life up to 1948, Heinlein faced many trials and hard times. I find it easy sympathize with Heinlein when he is the underdog. For example, after working so hard at the Naval Academy. it no doubt was a crushing experience to be retired on medical disability with tuberculosis.
Also, when first starting out he had to please his editors more and cooperate with them. In later life, his fiction was much more opinionated; much more sexually explicit and not imho only of course, as good as his early work.
Even if you dislike Heinlein, he is still an interesting and fascination character. You may not always agree with him---I do not--but the biography was very interesting and I did enjoy it.
I found the biography very readable and did enjoy the book. If you are interested in Heinlein as a person---rather than in his writings--there is a great deal of information here.
It is definitely a pro-Heinlein biography The author, Mr. Patterson, got many letters from the Heinlein Archives and taped interviews from Virginia Heinlein as well. Nevertheless, I found the picture I got of Heinlein to be sympathetic, but not biased. Of course, there may be factual errors of which I am unaware.
I suspect I enjoyed the first half of this biography more than I might enjoy the second book, which I DO plan to read. Possibly it is because in the part of his life up to 1948, Heinlein faced many trials and hard times. I find it easy sympathize with Heinlein when he is the underdog. For example, after working so hard at the Naval Academy. it no doubt was a crushing experience to be retired on medical disability with tuberculosis.
Also, when first starting out he had to please his editors more and cooperate with them. In later life, his fiction was much more opinionated; much more sexually explicit and not imho only of course, as good as his early work.
Even if you dislike Heinlein, he is still an interesting and fascination character. You may not always agree with him---I do not--but the biography was very interesting and I did enjoy it.
June 30, 2014
OK, so I read volume 1 after I read volume 2. This one takes Heinlein up till 1948, when he marries his third wife, Virginia. Heinlein washes out of the Navy as a young man because of tuberculosis, and tries his hands in politics in California. He's very liberal, and is actually working for Sinclair Lewis, who was before running for California Governor, a Socialist. Politics isn't very successful for him, so he turns to writing, and science fiction fits the bill. As Vol 2 did, this book ably chronicles the writing of many of his stories, but beyond talking about some disagreements with editors, does not delve deeply into his techniques and themes; it's not a literary biography. There's more in this book about Heinlein's sexual life (his open marriages) than the second volume did, but more in the notes at the end of the book than in the text itself. This is fascinating stuff, mostly because Heinlein's nudism and certain open attitudes about sex were pretty key to his fiction. Still, I read these books pretty quickly, because many of the stories were just not that interesting, except where he breaks with old friends (as he did with Willy Ley because Ley worked for Von Braun -- in the U.S. not Germany). As with the second volume, if you've read most everything Heinlein wrote, then this may be for you; it's not for the more casual reader.
January 17, 2025
Review to come.
Bottom line: it’s not bad, but whoever edited this book committed a grievous crime against nature. Over and over, Patterson repeats himself. Worse than providing a fact twice, he does so using the same semi-cute phrase. Most of the repetition occurs within a single chapter.
I don’t understand how the author could butcher the narrative like that. But authors are well known simpletons—everyone says that about my journal articles. Yet that’s why the good Lord created editors. Whoever it was must have been sleeping off a bender.
Bottom line: it’s not bad, but whoever edited this book committed a grievous crime against nature. Over and over, Patterson repeats himself. Worse than providing a fact twice, he does so using the same semi-cute phrase. Most of the repetition occurs within a single chapter.
I don’t understand how the author could butcher the narrative like that. But authors are well known simpletons—everyone says that about my journal articles. Yet that’s why the good Lord created editors. Whoever it was must have been sleeping off a bender.
November 7, 2010
A 4.5 book, rounded up for the importance it has on the history of Science Fiction writing.
This is a fairly exhaustive biography of one the founding fathers of Science Fiction. It has a wealth of information on the genesis of Heinlein's writings and one can see how themes that he followed in his writing until the end of his life were formed as a boy. The downside of exhaustive biographies is that it is inevitable that there will be sections that the reader feels are too long and Learning Curve is no different. For me, the section documenting Heinlein's political career was the long slog of the book. On the other hand, I could not get enough of the sections covering Heinlein's time at the Naval Academy and in the pre-war Navy.
The biggest bone I have to pick with the author is his stated aversion to actually critiquing Heinlein's stories within the book. I feel this is a diservice to the reader and it weakens the book. Hopefully the future volume, covering 1950 until Heinlein's death and the bulk of his output, will include critical comment, if not from the author, then the comments of others.
Irreplacable to the Science Fiction fan that wants a front row seat to the Golden Age of the genre.
This is a fairly exhaustive biography of one the founding fathers of Science Fiction. It has a wealth of information on the genesis of Heinlein's writings and one can see how themes that he followed in his writing until the end of his life were formed as a boy. The downside of exhaustive biographies is that it is inevitable that there will be sections that the reader feels are too long and Learning Curve is no different. For me, the section documenting Heinlein's political career was the long slog of the book. On the other hand, I could not get enough of the sections covering Heinlein's time at the Naval Academy and in the pre-war Navy.
The biggest bone I have to pick with the author is his stated aversion to actually critiquing Heinlein's stories within the book. I feel this is a diservice to the reader and it weakens the book. Hopefully the future volume, covering 1950 until Heinlein's death and the bulk of his output, will include critical comment, if not from the author, then the comments of others.
Irreplacable to the Science Fiction fan that wants a front row seat to the Golden Age of the genre.
July 6, 2022
When I was around 10, my mother handed me my first two Heinlein novels, and I was hooked. I have read most of his published work, and liked most of what I read. It makes enormously more sense now that I understand the author's career and circumstances! Moreover, a great deal else now makes sense to me.
A capsule summary: Heinlein grew up in a large but impoverished family in Kansas City, joined the navy, was forced out for medical reasons, spent some time in progressive politics, took up writing, made a great success of himself, drifted right, continued to write, and ultimately passed away after having had enormous influence on the science fiction world and perhaps the world as a whole.
This volume, though, is only his career through 1948 -- the part where the world shaped him, not the part where he shapes the world.
There's a good deal of material about his time in the navy. It's remarkable how much of the material for his later work was drawn from that. There's a wonderfully vivid discussion in Citizen of the Galaxy about fire control for spaceships. This has no relation to any plausible future technology but is a near-exact match for how real capital-ship fire control worked in the 20s and 30s. I only figured that out in later life.
There's quite a bit about his sex life. He in fact had a good time as a young man. At one point he was in Greenwich Village, while detached for training in gunnery at the gunnery computer factory on Long Island. And he got himself a lesbian bff and they went around picking up chicks together.
A capsule summary: Heinlein grew up in a large but impoverished family in Kansas City, joined the navy, was forced out for medical reasons, spent some time in progressive politics, took up writing, made a great success of himself, drifted right, continued to write, and ultimately passed away after having had enormous influence on the science fiction world and perhaps the world as a whole.
This volume, though, is only his career through 1948 -- the part where the world shaped him, not the part where he shapes the world.
There's a good deal of material about his time in the navy. It's remarkable how much of the material for his later work was drawn from that. There's a wonderfully vivid discussion in Citizen of the Galaxy about fire control for spaceships. This has no relation to any plausible future technology but is a near-exact match for how real capital-ship fire control worked in the 20s and 30s. I only figured that out in later life.
There's quite a bit about his sex life. He in fact had a good time as a young man. At one point he was in Greenwich Village, while detached for training in gunnery at the gunnery computer factory on Long Island. And he got himself a lesbian bff and they went around picking up chicks together.
December 18, 2020
Robert Heinlein was a fascinating person and author. I've read every one of his books, though not the short stories.
This author is the most boring writer I have ever read. Perfect for falling asleep at night.
Much of Heinlein's life was interesting and shaped him to be this wonderful author but I don't need to know about every single detail of every single course he took in school, every single detail of the personalities that taught him, every single day of his training on the navy ships.
It gets a little better by the time he tries his hand at writing short stories with an editor who believes in him and becomes a friend.
I didn't have to know the names of every single friend, and every party he attended, never mind his first marriage to an idiot on a whim. It reminds me of Facebook posts where people post pictures of their food each and every day. (boring).. Or each and every day post countless memes that brag about how strong and independent they are.. also boring
I've slogged through half this book will read the last 2 chapters tonight because it's almost due back at the library. Based on what I've read so far, the level of day to day detail will surely make me scream (or wake up with a strart). Most books take me 2-3 days to read. This one.. just plods along
This author is the most boring writer I have ever read. Perfect for falling asleep at night.
Much of Heinlein's life was interesting and shaped him to be this wonderful author but I don't need to know about every single detail of every single course he took in school, every single detail of the personalities that taught him, every single day of his training on the navy ships.
It gets a little better by the time he tries his hand at writing short stories with an editor who believes in him and becomes a friend.
I didn't have to know the names of every single friend, and every party he attended, never mind his first marriage to an idiot on a whim. It reminds me of Facebook posts where people post pictures of their food each and every day. (boring).. Or each and every day post countless memes that brag about how strong and independent they are.. also boring
I've slogged through half this book will read the last 2 chapters tonight because it's almost due back at the library. Based on what I've read so far, the level of day to day detail will surely make me scream (or wake up with a strart). Most books take me 2-3 days to read. This one.. just plods along
January 31, 2015
The first volume of William H. Patterson's Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century is a fascinating read for anyone interested in perhaps the most famous and influential name in modern science fiction. Based upon wide research in Heinlein's personal correspondence, and also upon seemingly countless interviews and e-mails with Ginny Heinlein and others, the text is engagingly written, and backed up with copious footnotes well worth examining. After giving a useful little history of the family into which Heinlein was to be born, Patterson takes us from the birth of the author-to-be in 1907 through 1947, his breakout from the "pulps" like Astounding Science-Fiction and into prestigious "slicks" such as The Saturday Evening Post.
The beginnings of Heinlein's career are interesting, of course, and yet so, too, are the details of the boy's relentless self-education, the youth's career in the Navy before being invalided out due to tuberculosis, and--though, at least for myself, to a lesser extent--his early Leftist political activity. Patterson reveals Heinlein's 1929 marriage to Eleanor Curry, a year-long union that was lost to history until the twenty-first century, but it is the story of his 1932-1947 marriage to Leslyn MacDonald that is particularly eye-opening. Heinlein's second marriage--which for decades was called his first--is something about which most fans knew only vaguely, as his marriage to Virginia Gerstenfeld from 1948 onward always loomed largest. Robert and Leslyn were, however, married for fifteen years, and it is quite touching to see, not just from Patterson's evaluation but also even from Robert's letters to Ginny after the breakup, how truly devoted they were for so long. It is interesting as well--though not surprising, perhaps, to anyone who has read Heinlein's fiction from the 1960s onward--to learn that Robert and Leslyn occasionally visited nudist resorts, and that his first two marriages were open, or "swinging," relationships. Most likely Heinlein was a fairly private person in any event, but such details help explain his drive to bury so thoroughly the history of his life with Leslyn. These were things that a children's author of the late 1940s and 1950s simply could not afford to have noised about.
Patterson's book follows the Heinleins' work as civilian employees for the Naval Air Experimental Station during the Second World War, Robert's momentous move into the "slicks" and the beginning of what was to be a twelve-year association with Scribner's for a series of "juvenile" novels, and Leslyn's decline into alcoholism and the simultaneous growth of the relationship between Robert and Ginny. The ultimate failure of Heinlein's second marriage is surprisingly bittersweet after reading of the long years of such companionship and support, but of course we, the readers of half a century later, knew it was coming. The rise of Heinlein's final love, however, is perhaps even more reassuring, and thus a fine place for this first volume to end.
February 13, 2025
The Architect of Future Histories: A Review of Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907–1948)
Science fiction is the literature of possibility, of speculation, of that peculiar brand of American optimism which insists that, even in the face of chaos, the mind can impose order and reason upon the cosmos. And if one were to assemble a Mount Rushmore of science fiction’s greatest architects, Robert A. Heinlein’s chiseled, square-jawed visage would sit front and center—perhaps delivering a stern lecture about personal responsibility while designing a lunar republic in his spare time.
But Heinlein was never merely a science fiction writer.
He was a philosopher, an ideologue, an engineer of futures both utopian and authoritarian, a libertarian firebrand, a militarist, a futurist, and, depending on the reader’s politics, either a visionary genius or a dangerous reactionary.
With Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907–1948), author William H. Patterson Jr. attempts to demystify the man behind the mythology. This is a biography of exhaustive research, grand ambition, and, at times, frustrating opacity—a work that illuminates Heinlein’s formative years while occasionally treating him with the reverence of a disciple chronicling a saint.
It is an essential volume for understanding Heinlein.
But like Heinlein’s own novels, it is a book that raises as many questions as it answers.
The Historical Moment: Science Fiction Before Heinlein
Before Heinlein, science fiction was largely a genre of juvenilia and pulp adventure.
The grand tradition of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne had given way to flashy, lurid, often scientifically dubious tales of ray guns, Martian invasions, and two-fisted space warriors.
American science fiction in the early 20th century existed primarily in pulp magazines, where the prose was often purple, the physics were optional, and the primary objective was entertainment rather than intellectual engagement.
Then, in 1939, a former naval officer with an engineering mind, a political conscience, and a distinctly American brand of scientific pragmatism arrived to change the genre forever.
Robert A. Heinlein, more than any other single writer, transformed science fiction from adolescent fantasy into an arena for serious intellectual and political debate.
Patterson’s biography, at its best, captures this transition with exquisite detail.
The Man: An Engineer of Worlds and Ideas
Patterson’s Heinlein is a man of endless contradictions, which makes for a fascinating, if sometimes uneven, subject.
Heinlein the Naval Officer – Before he was a writer, Heinlein was a dedicated, almost fanatical believer in discipline, hierarchy, and military order. His expulsion from active service due to tuberculosis was, by all accounts, the great heartbreak of his life, and it left him with an unshakable need to impose structure, whether on fictional societies or his own ideological outlook.
Heinlein the Socialist – In a revelation that may surprise those who associate him exclusively with the militaristic undertones of Starship Troopers, Heinlein, in the 1930s, was an avowed socialist. He campaigned for Upton Sinclair, flirted with technocratic progressivism, and saw centralized planning as a potential solution to the chaos of the Great Depression.
Heinlein the Libertarian – By the 1940s, this faith in centralized authority had curdled into a fierce individualism. Patterson traces Heinlein’s intellectual evolution with forensic detail, showing how his experience in wartime bureaucracy, his exposure to Ayn Rand, and his growing suspicion of government power led him toward a libertarianism that would define his later works.
These contradictions—militarist and anarchist, engineer and dreamer, pragmatist and utopian—are what make Heinlein such a difficult, yet endlessly compelling figure.
The Writing: The Dawn of Heinlein the Novelist
The latter half of Learning Curve focuses on Heinlein’s literary ascent, tracing his journey from unknown pulp writer to the genre’s most influential voice.
His debut story, "Lifeline" (1939), was an immediate revelation—a work that introduced Heinlein’s obsession with logic, probability, and the cold, dispassionate realities of technological progress.
His early stories for Astounding Science Fiction, under the guidance of legendary editor John W. Campbell, were radically different from anything that had come before—filled with political speculation, rigorous scientific accuracy, and a profound respect for human ingenuity.
By the mid-1940s, Heinlein was no longer just a writer of science fiction. He was science fiction’s defining intellectual force.
Patterson meticulously reconstructs this period of Heinlein’s life, though at times, the book becomes so engrossed in minutiae—contracts, correspondence, financial arrangements—that it loses sight of the larger narrative arc.
For those fascinated by the publishing history of mid-century science fiction, these details are invaluable.
For those seeking a psychological portrait of Heinlein the man, they can sometimes feel like footnotes in search of a thesis.
The Art: Heinlein’s Influence on Science Fiction’s Visual Imagination
Though Heinlein was a man of words, not images, his work revolutionized the aesthetic and conceptual language of science fiction art.
The first great wave of serious science fiction illustration—the sleek, functionalist designs of Chesley Bonestell, the atomic-age modernism of 1950s magazine covers, the emergence of NASA’s own visual language—owes a debt to Heinlein’s meticulous worldbuilding.
The cinematic vision of science fiction, from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Lucas’s Star Wars, was shaped by Heinlein’s insistence on realism, technology, and a plausible future.
His novels, particularly those of the postwar era, set the standard for how science fiction worlds should be imagined—not as fantasy landscapes, but as rigorously engineered realities.
Though Learning Curve does not delve deeply into this visual legacy, it remains an undeniable part of Heinlein’s influence.
Final Verdict: A Fascinating, If Reverential, Portrait of a Giant
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1 is, without question, an indispensable work of scholarship for Heinlein enthusiasts.
Patterson’s research is painstaking, his prose is clear and engaging, and his ability to situate Heinlein’s career within the broader historical context of American politics, science, and culture is impressive.
Yet, at times, the book leans too far toward admiration.
Heinlein’s intellectual inconsistencies, his ideological rigidity, his sometimes overbearing personality—these are all acknowledged, but never fully interrogated.
The book’s exhaustive detail is, at times, more dutiful than revelatory—a biography that tells us everything Heinlein did but sometimes struggles to tell us who he was.
Nonetheless, for those interested in how science fiction became serious literature, how an American naval officer became the genre’s most influential mind, and how one man could shape our vision of the future for generations to come, this book is required reading.
Because some authors write about the future.
But Heinlein?
He built it.
As well he should.
Science fiction is the literature of possibility, of speculation, of that peculiar brand of American optimism which insists that, even in the face of chaos, the mind can impose order and reason upon the cosmos. And if one were to assemble a Mount Rushmore of science fiction’s greatest architects, Robert A. Heinlein’s chiseled, square-jawed visage would sit front and center—perhaps delivering a stern lecture about personal responsibility while designing a lunar republic in his spare time.
But Heinlein was never merely a science fiction writer.
He was a philosopher, an ideologue, an engineer of futures both utopian and authoritarian, a libertarian firebrand, a militarist, a futurist, and, depending on the reader’s politics, either a visionary genius or a dangerous reactionary.
With Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907–1948), author William H. Patterson Jr. attempts to demystify the man behind the mythology. This is a biography of exhaustive research, grand ambition, and, at times, frustrating opacity—a work that illuminates Heinlein’s formative years while occasionally treating him with the reverence of a disciple chronicling a saint.
It is an essential volume for understanding Heinlein.
But like Heinlein’s own novels, it is a book that raises as many questions as it answers.
The Historical Moment: Science Fiction Before Heinlein
Before Heinlein, science fiction was largely a genre of juvenilia and pulp adventure.
The grand tradition of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne had given way to flashy, lurid, often scientifically dubious tales of ray guns, Martian invasions, and two-fisted space warriors.
American science fiction in the early 20th century existed primarily in pulp magazines, where the prose was often purple, the physics were optional, and the primary objective was entertainment rather than intellectual engagement.
Then, in 1939, a former naval officer with an engineering mind, a political conscience, and a distinctly American brand of scientific pragmatism arrived to change the genre forever.
Robert A. Heinlein, more than any other single writer, transformed science fiction from adolescent fantasy into an arena for serious intellectual and political debate.
Patterson’s biography, at its best, captures this transition with exquisite detail.
The Man: An Engineer of Worlds and Ideas
Patterson’s Heinlein is a man of endless contradictions, which makes for a fascinating, if sometimes uneven, subject.
Heinlein the Naval Officer – Before he was a writer, Heinlein was a dedicated, almost fanatical believer in discipline, hierarchy, and military order. His expulsion from active service due to tuberculosis was, by all accounts, the great heartbreak of his life, and it left him with an unshakable need to impose structure, whether on fictional societies or his own ideological outlook.
Heinlein the Socialist – In a revelation that may surprise those who associate him exclusively with the militaristic undertones of Starship Troopers, Heinlein, in the 1930s, was an avowed socialist. He campaigned for Upton Sinclair, flirted with technocratic progressivism, and saw centralized planning as a potential solution to the chaos of the Great Depression.
Heinlein the Libertarian – By the 1940s, this faith in centralized authority had curdled into a fierce individualism. Patterson traces Heinlein’s intellectual evolution with forensic detail, showing how his experience in wartime bureaucracy, his exposure to Ayn Rand, and his growing suspicion of government power led him toward a libertarianism that would define his later works.
These contradictions—militarist and anarchist, engineer and dreamer, pragmatist and utopian—are what make Heinlein such a difficult, yet endlessly compelling figure.
The Writing: The Dawn of Heinlein the Novelist
The latter half of Learning Curve focuses on Heinlein’s literary ascent, tracing his journey from unknown pulp writer to the genre’s most influential voice.
His debut story, "Lifeline" (1939), was an immediate revelation—a work that introduced Heinlein’s obsession with logic, probability, and the cold, dispassionate realities of technological progress.
His early stories for Astounding Science Fiction, under the guidance of legendary editor John W. Campbell, were radically different from anything that had come before—filled with political speculation, rigorous scientific accuracy, and a profound respect for human ingenuity.
By the mid-1940s, Heinlein was no longer just a writer of science fiction. He was science fiction’s defining intellectual force.
Patterson meticulously reconstructs this period of Heinlein’s life, though at times, the book becomes so engrossed in minutiae—contracts, correspondence, financial arrangements—that it loses sight of the larger narrative arc.
For those fascinated by the publishing history of mid-century science fiction, these details are invaluable.
For those seeking a psychological portrait of Heinlein the man, they can sometimes feel like footnotes in search of a thesis.
The Art: Heinlein’s Influence on Science Fiction’s Visual Imagination
Though Heinlein was a man of words, not images, his work revolutionized the aesthetic and conceptual language of science fiction art.
The first great wave of serious science fiction illustration—the sleek, functionalist designs of Chesley Bonestell, the atomic-age modernism of 1950s magazine covers, the emergence of NASA’s own visual language—owes a debt to Heinlein’s meticulous worldbuilding.
The cinematic vision of science fiction, from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Lucas’s Star Wars, was shaped by Heinlein’s insistence on realism, technology, and a plausible future.
His novels, particularly those of the postwar era, set the standard for how science fiction worlds should be imagined—not as fantasy landscapes, but as rigorously engineered realities.
Though Learning Curve does not delve deeply into this visual legacy, it remains an undeniable part of Heinlein’s influence.
Final Verdict: A Fascinating, If Reverential, Portrait of a Giant
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 1 is, without question, an indispensable work of scholarship for Heinlein enthusiasts.
Patterson’s research is painstaking, his prose is clear and engaging, and his ability to situate Heinlein’s career within the broader historical context of American politics, science, and culture is impressive.
Yet, at times, the book leans too far toward admiration.
Heinlein’s intellectual inconsistencies, his ideological rigidity, his sometimes overbearing personality—these are all acknowledged, but never fully interrogated.
The book’s exhaustive detail is, at times, more dutiful than revelatory—a biography that tells us everything Heinlein did but sometimes struggles to tell us who he was.
Nonetheless, for those interested in how science fiction became serious literature, how an American naval officer became the genre’s most influential mind, and how one man could shape our vision of the future for generations to come, this book is required reading.
Because some authors write about the future.
But Heinlein?
He built it.
As well he should.
December 2, 2021
The author Bill Patterson Jr., was my brother-in-law and I miss him dearly. He gave me this book and the 2nd when he completed writing them and the painful process of getting it past the editor. When I read it, I hear Bill speaking the words in my head.
This is a must for anyone who is a fan of Heinlein. It is good for anyone who likes to learn the history of what went into a man who was such a prodigious writer of good work. It is very detailed so you really get a feel of walking in Heinlein's shoes as he produced his stories, first in pulp magazines, and then into books. Unfortunately now many only recognize his work 'Starship Troopers' from the movie, but of course the book is always better. For anyone who doesn't recognize Heinlein at all, take a moment at least to look him up on Wikipedia.
I would recommend reading this at the same time as the Virginia Edition, which contains all of the works Heinlein created. Read in the biography up to the point the story or book is mentioned, then read the book or story, then when you are finished, read up to the next story, continue reading in the Virginia edition on that story, and so forth, until you read both Bill's Biography's and all of Heinlein's work. :-)
This is a must for anyone who is a fan of Heinlein. It is good for anyone who likes to learn the history of what went into a man who was such a prodigious writer of good work. It is very detailed so you really get a feel of walking in Heinlein's shoes as he produced his stories, first in pulp magazines, and then into books. Unfortunately now many only recognize his work 'Starship Troopers' from the movie, but of course the book is always better. For anyone who doesn't recognize Heinlein at all, take a moment at least to look him up on Wikipedia.
I would recommend reading this at the same time as the Virginia Edition, which contains all of the works Heinlein created. Read in the biography up to the point the story or book is mentioned, then read the book or story, then when you are finished, read up to the next story, continue reading in the Virginia edition on that story, and so forth, until you read both Bill's Biography's and all of Heinlein's work. :-)
August 11, 2019
Detailed first volume of two-volume biography. I had hoped this book would stimulate my interest in Heinlein's SF novels, as I prefer the work of contemporaries Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. As this volume ends before Heinlein writes his most famous novels, it doesn't quite succeed for my purpose; however, my attention was held, and I will definitely read the second volume. Heinlein comes across as a principled, opinionated, hardworking writer. I learned more about his background in the navy than I bargained for, but it is crucial to understanding his character.
Read
February 28, 2021I'd have to say that this is the definitive biography of Heinlein, except that it's not, quite...there's still another volume to come. It's already the kind of massive tome you can bludgeon an armed intruder with. Patterson had full access to the Heinlein archives and a lot of help from his widow, Virginia, other family members and acquaintances. Most of Heinlein's actual friends have passed on by now, so they didn't provide a lot of input.
One of the fun things about reading this book is getting little glimpses and hints of where Heinlein came up with the inspiration for his characters, plots and themes. One of the things that's perhaps not so fun is wading through the incredible amount of detail, including his personal and professional correspondence, unclassified work he did for the Department of the Navy during WWII, and the amount of rent he paid for each place he lived.
The book takes us from his birth in 1907 to his marriage to Virginia (Ticky) in 1948. I hadn't known a whole lot about his first wife...or second wife...before I read this. The second wife, Leslyn, comes off as a real cast-iron bitch, with serious psychological problems and an alcohol addiction. I have to wonder if this impression isn't colored by how Virginia felt about her.
I also hadn't realized that he'd been so active in the Democratic Party in the 30s, running campaigns for other candidates, and even running for office in California, himself. His political beliefs were an interesting smorgasbord, not exactly what I expected from having read all his novels, and they may indeed have evolved somewhat over time to something I'd recognize as distinctly Heinlein.
I was also somewhat surprised to see how bad his health was. I knew that he'd had a medical discharge from the Navy not too long after being commissioned as an officer, but hadn't realized that he continually suffered from a number of ailments, and writing was one of the few professions that was physically undemanding enough for him to pursue. We might never have known of his vast storytelling talents had he not been forced to retire from a more active career.
Heinlein seemed from this history to run with a very bohemian, bon vivant sort of crowd. Patterson describes him several times as being very spiritual, but he wasn't - in the religious sense. He'd pretty well rejected formal Judeo Christian religion quite young, and experimented with anything else that came his way. Leslyn, herself, was a practitioner of ritual magic, and used it to ward their home from bad spirits, especially one that like to "come up from the basement".
His life is a veritable Who's Who of science fiction authors and fandom. Asimov was a protege, Ackerman a persistent gadfly in his social circle. L. Ron Hubbard (of later Scientology fame) was a frequent guest in the Heinlein home. Willy Ley was a close friend until he started promoting Werner Von Braun (a Nazi and member of the SS) in the U.S. Every social gathering mentioned in the book was full of authors' names I recognized from the Golden Days of SF. I wonder why they call them the Golden Days, as there's a ton more SF on the market and far greater opportunities today for authors than ever?
Anyway, I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to Volume 2 or not. I'm sure it will contain a ton of great information about my favorite author, but it's gonna be a major time investment to winnow through the chaff. Serious R.A.H fanz, go for it!
One of the fun things about reading this book is getting little glimpses and hints of where Heinlein came up with the inspiration for his characters, plots and themes. One of the things that's perhaps not so fun is wading through the incredible amount of detail, including his personal and professional correspondence, unclassified work he did for the Department of the Navy during WWII, and the amount of rent he paid for each place he lived.
The book takes us from his birth in 1907 to his marriage to Virginia (Ticky) in 1948. I hadn't known a whole lot about his first wife...or second wife...before I read this. The second wife, Leslyn, comes off as a real cast-iron bitch, with serious psychological problems and an alcohol addiction. I have to wonder if this impression isn't colored by how Virginia felt about her.
I also hadn't realized that he'd been so active in the Democratic Party in the 30s, running campaigns for other candidates, and even running for office in California, himself. His political beliefs were an interesting smorgasbord, not exactly what I expected from having read all his novels, and they may indeed have evolved somewhat over time to something I'd recognize as distinctly Heinlein.
I was also somewhat surprised to see how bad his health was. I knew that he'd had a medical discharge from the Navy not too long after being commissioned as an officer, but hadn't realized that he continually suffered from a number of ailments, and writing was one of the few professions that was physically undemanding enough for him to pursue. We might never have known of his vast storytelling talents had he not been forced to retire from a more active career.
Heinlein seemed from this history to run with a very bohemian, bon vivant sort of crowd. Patterson describes him several times as being very spiritual, but he wasn't - in the religious sense. He'd pretty well rejected formal Judeo Christian religion quite young, and experimented with anything else that came his way. Leslyn, herself, was a practitioner of ritual magic, and used it to ward their home from bad spirits, especially one that like to "come up from the basement".
His life is a veritable Who's Who of science fiction authors and fandom. Asimov was a protege, Ackerman a persistent gadfly in his social circle. L. Ron Hubbard (of later Scientology fame) was a frequent guest in the Heinlein home. Willy Ley was a close friend until he started promoting Werner Von Braun (a Nazi and member of the SS) in the U.S. Every social gathering mentioned in the book was full of authors' names I recognized from the Golden Days of SF. I wonder why they call them the Golden Days, as there's a ton more SF on the market and far greater opportunities today for authors than ever?
Anyway, I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to Volume 2 or not. I'm sure it will contain a ton of great information about my favorite author, but it's gonna be a major time investment to winnow through the chaff. Serious R.A.H fanz, go for it!
December 22, 2017
Robert A. Heinlein es uno de mis autores favoritos, así que cuando su biografía estuvo a un precio razonable en Kindle, la compré al momento y empecé a devorarla con ganas. En este primer volumen, el autor nos ofrece un cuadro de las primeras cuatro décadas de vida de Heinlein, desde su infancia hasta su tercer matrimonio, pasando por sus años en la Marina, sus devaneos con la política y sus inicios como escritor de ciencia ficción, interrumpidos por la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Se trata de un recorrido fascinante por la vida increíble de un escritor que marcó a varias generaciones de lectores y lo he disfrutado como un enano. Totalmente recomendado si eres fan de Heinlein.
May 10, 2020
Because the two volumes of William Patterson's biography of Robert Heinlein make up a single work, and because most readers who finish the first volume will want to proceed to the second, this is a combined review of both volumes.
Patterson has poured as much time and research into this big biography of Heinlein as typically goes into a life of a major historical figure, and the result is engrossing, especially the first volume. Heinlein overcame a childhood of emotional neglect, a lack of financial resources, and a highly sensitive nature to enter the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he withstood harsh conditions and (especially in the first year) brutal hazing, and achieved what could have been expected to be a secure, lifetime career as a naval officer, only to be permanently retired in his 20s by ill health. Recovering, he entered politics as a socialist candidate for the California Assembly, knocking on every door in his district--no easy task for a man on the introverted side of the spectrum--only to be defeated by a few hundred votes. When the Japanese attacked in 1941, he applied immediately to be returned to active duty, but was denied due to his authorship of a bitter public letter protesting police brutality almost eight years previous. Undefeated, he relocated to Philadelphia to work in a civilian defense plant, where his coworkers included fellow writers Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp. As the war ended, his marriage of 15 years broke up as he fell in love with the woman with whom he would spend the rest of his life. The first volume ends there; the second details his life with Virginia (Ginny) Gerstenfeld Heinlein, and covers the period during which he was most famous and productive.
Patterson covers all this in great detail--no small feat after most of the major players have died and the traces of some, including his former wife Leslyn, have been largely obliterated. At times the detail is a bit more than necessary, but usually the picture is vivid and illuminating, and judiciously rendered. (The habit some 20th century people had of keeping carbon copies of their correspondence is a biographers' godsend.) The exception, and it's a big one, is in his treatment of Leslyn, an intelligent and vivacious woman who could hardly have been more important to the first half of Heinlein's life, but of whom few historical traces remain, since she had little public life, and the bulk of her letters were destroyed. Patterson's main source and patron for this biography wsa Ginny, Leslyn's successor wife, whose disdain for Leslyn appears to have been boundless. Carol McGuirk of SF Studies points out that "Leslyn’s index entries (“affairs,” “alcoholic deterioration,” “badmouthing of Heinlein,” “bouts of rage,” etc.) speak volumes about the biographer’s special pleading for Virginia Heinlein’s version of this part of Heinlein’s story....When Leslyn discovered that her brother-in-law had been shot and then burned alive in a Philippine prison after months of torture, her depression deepened further. Stress and grief surely had their part in wrecking the marriage, yet Leslyn bears all responsibility. Another index entry on Leslyn includes four references to “psychotic episodes”; yet going back to the pages, one finds passages that fail to document any such thing: “she just locked herself in an enraged frame of mind” (221), “the psychotic episodes went away” (350), “Leslyn was confined to bed in a state of mind that could only be called psychotic” (415), and she was showing “flashes of temper” (537 n24). Only in a grudging footnote does Patterson concede that in 1950 Leslyn joined Alcoholics Anonymous and that she remarried twice, dying in 1981."
Otherwise, where gaps need to be filled in and conjecture must be resorted to, Patterson is for the most part reasonable and open about how he reached his conclusions. His adulation of his subject goes over the top mostly in the endnotes, where he can't resist explaining what makes a particular story so ahead of its time, and advocates for Heinlein's views of religion or politics too defensively. Patterson really gets up on a soapbox as he repeatedly lectures the reader about classical versus modern liberalism, by way of arguing that Heinlein's essential politics never changed. It's not a convincing argument, given that the one-time socialist candidate became an intense supporter of presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, and dropped friends with more nuanced views of the Communist threat to America.
Patterson was not the first writer authorized to write Heinlein's biography. Dr. Leon Stover, an anthropologist, first worked on it before his access to Heinlein's papers and archives was revoked by Ginny. Patterson says that this was due to her "concern at the amount of rumor Stover was soliciting and not fact-checking with her"--in other words, at his widening his sources and attempting to paint a balanced portrait. Her action apparently succeeded, in that getting any sense of Heinlein's flaws as a writer, husband, or friend requires an extremely careful reading between the lines combined with considerable informed speculation.
Overall, however, the picture is of a talented and admirable man who would not have succeeded were it not for many times the usual measure of self-discipline, resilience, and the confidence that comes as a result of both. Heinlein was in many ways more interesting than one might have guessed from reading his novels and stories. I'm grateful to William Patterson for preserving this rich record, however incomplete, of an unusual and fascinating human being.
Patterson has poured as much time and research into this big biography of Heinlein as typically goes into a life of a major historical figure, and the result is engrossing, especially the first volume. Heinlein overcame a childhood of emotional neglect, a lack of financial resources, and a highly sensitive nature to enter the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he withstood harsh conditions and (especially in the first year) brutal hazing, and achieved what could have been expected to be a secure, lifetime career as a naval officer, only to be permanently retired in his 20s by ill health. Recovering, he entered politics as a socialist candidate for the California Assembly, knocking on every door in his district--no easy task for a man on the introverted side of the spectrum--only to be defeated by a few hundred votes. When the Japanese attacked in 1941, he applied immediately to be returned to active duty, but was denied due to his authorship of a bitter public letter protesting police brutality almost eight years previous. Undefeated, he relocated to Philadelphia to work in a civilian defense plant, where his coworkers included fellow writers Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp. As the war ended, his marriage of 15 years broke up as he fell in love with the woman with whom he would spend the rest of his life. The first volume ends there; the second details his life with Virginia (Ginny) Gerstenfeld Heinlein, and covers the period during which he was most famous and productive.
Patterson covers all this in great detail--no small feat after most of the major players have died and the traces of some, including his former wife Leslyn, have been largely obliterated. At times the detail is a bit more than necessary, but usually the picture is vivid and illuminating, and judiciously rendered. (The habit some 20th century people had of keeping carbon copies of their correspondence is a biographers' godsend.) The exception, and it's a big one, is in his treatment of Leslyn, an intelligent and vivacious woman who could hardly have been more important to the first half of Heinlein's life, but of whom few historical traces remain, since she had little public life, and the bulk of her letters were destroyed. Patterson's main source and patron for this biography wsa Ginny, Leslyn's successor wife, whose disdain for Leslyn appears to have been boundless. Carol McGuirk of SF Studies points out that "Leslyn’s index entries (“affairs,” “alcoholic deterioration,” “badmouthing of Heinlein,” “bouts of rage,” etc.) speak volumes about the biographer’s special pleading for Virginia Heinlein’s version of this part of Heinlein’s story....When Leslyn discovered that her brother-in-law had been shot and then burned alive in a Philippine prison after months of torture, her depression deepened further. Stress and grief surely had their part in wrecking the marriage, yet Leslyn bears all responsibility. Another index entry on Leslyn includes four references to “psychotic episodes”; yet going back to the pages, one finds passages that fail to document any such thing: “she just locked herself in an enraged frame of mind” (221), “the psychotic episodes went away” (350), “Leslyn was confined to bed in a state of mind that could only be called psychotic” (415), and she was showing “flashes of temper” (537 n24). Only in a grudging footnote does Patterson concede that in 1950 Leslyn joined Alcoholics Anonymous and that she remarried twice, dying in 1981."
Otherwise, where gaps need to be filled in and conjecture must be resorted to, Patterson is for the most part reasonable and open about how he reached his conclusions. His adulation of his subject goes over the top mostly in the endnotes, where he can't resist explaining what makes a particular story so ahead of its time, and advocates for Heinlein's views of religion or politics too defensively. Patterson really gets up on a soapbox as he repeatedly lectures the reader about classical versus modern liberalism, by way of arguing that Heinlein's essential politics never changed. It's not a convincing argument, given that the one-time socialist candidate became an intense supporter of presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, and dropped friends with more nuanced views of the Communist threat to America.
Patterson was not the first writer authorized to write Heinlein's biography. Dr. Leon Stover, an anthropologist, first worked on it before his access to Heinlein's papers and archives was revoked by Ginny. Patterson says that this was due to her "concern at the amount of rumor Stover was soliciting and not fact-checking with her"--in other words, at his widening his sources and attempting to paint a balanced portrait. Her action apparently succeeded, in that getting any sense of Heinlein's flaws as a writer, husband, or friend requires an extremely careful reading between the lines combined with considerable informed speculation.
Overall, however, the picture is of a talented and admirable man who would not have succeeded were it not for many times the usual measure of self-discipline, resilience, and the confidence that comes as a result of both. Heinlein was in many ways more interesting than one might have guessed from reading his novels and stories. I'm grateful to William Patterson for preserving this rich record, however incomplete, of an unusual and fascinating human being.
August 20, 2020
Three and a half stars.
This would have been a better book with a better editor; the pacing was off, and there was a lot that could have been shaved down or cut out. The author wasn't always precise with his details; either- I caught a few minor errors here and there.
Still, a readable biography that does a good job of humanizing Heinlein through his early life, the start of his writing career, and his early struggles. And I'll definitely give volume 2 a whirl, especially since it focuses on the second half of Heinlein's life, which should prove more interesting.
This would have been a better book with a better editor; the pacing was off, and there was a lot that could have been shaved down or cut out. The author wasn't always precise with his details; either- I caught a few minor errors here and there.
Still, a readable biography that does a good job of humanizing Heinlein through his early life, the start of his writing career, and his early struggles. And I'll definitely give volume 2 a whirl, especially since it focuses on the second half of Heinlein's life, which should prove more interesting.
September 18, 2019
Life of a Master Storyteller
Robert A. Heinlein was among the first “serious” science fiction writers I discovered when I was about 10 years old and over the following years I devoured everything of his I could find in my school and local public library. I have thoroughly enjoyed this look into the first half of the life of a master storyteller, and look forward with anticipation to the second volume.
Robert A. Heinlein was among the first “serious” science fiction writers I discovered when I was about 10 years old and over the following years I devoured everything of his I could find in my school and local public library. I have thoroughly enjoyed this look into the first half of the life of a master storyteller, and look forward with anticipation to the second volume.
March 22, 2022
Really compelled look at Robert Heinlein's early life, time in the Navy, and the 1st half of his writing career. And while it is problematic that we only see it from point of view there is a compelling look at his first marriage. I found this book invaluable as I am working through a fun re-read of Heinlein's work in published order and having this deep look at his life during the writing of this works has opened up a deeper understanding of both him and his art.
January 31, 2025
Library hardback. . . It held my interest reasonably well but was too dense with personal information and minutiae even for someone like me who grew up on Heinlein's stories and novels, so I skimmed a bit. Insofar as the author of the biography captured the extent of Heinlein's naivete with respect to politics, international relations, and the raw economic and military power/potential of the US vis a vis The Soviet Union in the late 1940, that surprised me.
November 28, 2018
A very interesting bio of the first half of Heinlein’s life. The year-by-year approach to his Navy career had me worried at first, but when it gets into his writing career, I found the rest of the book fascinating and inspiring.
April 8, 2019
3.5 Stars
An interesting account of the first half of the renowned Science-fiction author's life. It takes one from the author's pre-WWII Naval career, his ill-starred first marriage, and teases out the genesis of his political and social development.
An interesting account of the first half of the renowned Science-fiction author's life. It takes one from the author's pre-WWII Naval career, his ill-starred first marriage, and teases out the genesis of his political and social development.
July 12, 2021
The first of a two-volume analysis of key aspects of Robert A Heinlein's work and much of his life.
Engaging and authoritative. Recommended warmly for those reading Heinlein's works. I am now looking forward to volume two!
Engaging and authoritative. Recommended warmly for those reading Heinlein's works. I am now looking forward to volume two!
February 21, 2022
DNF. I was hoping for a book that would explain Heinlein's craziness but this is not it.
Better review than one I could write:
https://sanseverything.wordpress.com/...
Better review than one I could write:
https://sanseverything.wordpress.com/...
February 17, 2023
A fascinating look at one the great pioneers of science fiction. Patterson did painstaking research for this biography. The research is well documented. We learn how Heinlein was influenced by his times. The next volume cannot come soon enough.
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