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Robert A. and Virginia G. Heinlein Papers
MS 95
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Title: Robert A. and Virginia G. Heinlein
papers
Dates: 1907-2004
Collection number: MS 95
Creator:
Heinlein, Robert
A.
Creator:
Heinlein, Virginia
G.
Collection Size: 366 boxes
Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library.
Special Collections and Archives
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Abstract: The collection documents the professional and
personal lives of science fiction author Robert Heinlein and his wife, Virginia
Heinlein. Materials in the collection include manuscripts, short stories,
articles, book reviews, screen plays, television and radio programs, personal
and professional correspondence, legal and financial papers, illustrations,
photographs, slides, scrapbooks, yearbooks, memorabilia, and realia.
Physical location: Stored offsite: Advance notice is
required for access to the papers.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection open for research.
Property rights reside with the
University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the
records and their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the
material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Robert A. and Virginia G. Heinlein
papers. MS 95. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University
of California, Santa Cruz.
Gift of Robert and Virginia Heinlein
in 1967, 1972, 1985, 2004.
Alternative Form of Material Available
The digitized archive
of this collection can be found at the following website.
Robert Anson Heinlein was
born July 7, 1907, in Butler, Missouri and died May 8, 1988, in Carmel,
California. Son of Rex Ivar, an accountant and Bam Lyle Heinlein, he was the
third of seven children. He married Elinor Curry in 1929 but they divorced in
1931. His second marriage to Leslyn McDonald lasted from 1932 until their
divorce in 1947. He married his third wife, Virginia Doris Gerstenfeld, on
October 21, 1948 and stayed with her until his death in 1988. None of the
marriages produced any children.
Robert attended University of Missouri
in 1925 and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in 1929.
He completed his graduate studies in physics and mathematics at the University
of California, Los Angeles in 1934.
In 1929, Heinlein was commissioned
as an ensign by the U. S. Navy, became lieutenant, junior grade serving aboard
the aircraft carrier Lexington before becoming gunnery officer on the destroyer
Roper. He suffered from seasickness and eventually contracted tuberculosis,
which caused him to be retired from active duty in 1934 on a small pension.
After the Navy, Heinlein worked at a variety of jobs besides writing. He was
owner of Shively & Sophie Lodes silver mine, Silver Plume, Colorado from
1934-35, ran as a candidate for California State Assembly in 1938, and worked
as a real estate agent during the 1930s. He also worked as an aviation engineer
at Naval Air Experimental Station, Philadelphia, 1942-45, was a guest
commentator during Apollo 11 lunar landing for Columbia Broadcasting System in
1969, and delivered the James V. Forrestal Lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy,
in 1973.
His writing career spanned almost five decades, from 1939-1988.
After working as an engineer during World War II, Heinlein returned to writing
short stories and juvenile fiction in the late 1940s. It was during this time
that he moved from the genre magazines in which he had made his reputation to
more mainstream periodicals, particularly the
Saturday Evening Post. About his career with the pulp
magazines, Heinlein noted, "They didn't want it good. They wanted it
Wednesday." (Pace, 1980).
As Joseph Patrouch wrote, "Heinlein was the
first major science-fiction writer to break out of category and reach the
larger general-fiction market, and therefore he was the first to start breaking
down the walls that had isolated science fiction for so long." In a poll taken
by
Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1953, eighteen top
science fiction writers of the time cited Heinlein as the major influence on
their work. His fictional writings repeatedly anticipated scientific and
technological advances (Pace, 1988), from atomic power plants to
water-beds.
In 1959 Heinlein published the first of what became a string
of controversial novels.
Starship Troopers, 1959, speculated on future societal
changes, postulating a world run by military veterans. It spawned a deluge of
controversy among his fans, and yet
Starship Troopers is still one of Heinlein's most popular
novels. It won a Hugo Award and has remained in print for more than three
decades.
Heinlein followed
Starship Troopers with
Stranger in a Strange Land, which tells the story of
Valentine Michael Smith, a Martian with paranormal cognition, who establishes a
religious movement on Earth. Members of his 'Church of All Worlds' practice
group sex and live in small communes.
Stranger in a Strange Land is perhaps Heinlein's
best-known work. It has sold over three million copies, won a Hugo Award,
created an intense cult following, and even inspired a real-life Church of All
Worlds, founded by some devoted readers of the book.
In subsequent novels
Heinlein continued to speculate on social changes of the future, dealing with
such controversial subjects as group marriage and incest. In
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, lunar colonists practice a
variety of marriage forms because of the shortage of women on the moon. In,
I Will Fear No Evil, an elderly, dying businessman has his
brain transplanted into the body of a young woman. He then impregnates himself
with his own sperm, previously stored in a sperm bank.
Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long explores
varieties of future incest through the immortal character Lazarus
Long.
In the novel
Friday, published in 1982, and later in Job:
A Comedy of Justice and
The Cat Who Walks through Walls: A Comedy of Manners,
Heinlein tempered his social speculations by combining serious subject matter
with rollicking interplanetary adventure.
In the 1950s, Heinlein entered
the field of television and motion pictures. His novel
Space Cadet was adapted as the television program,
Tom Corbett: Space Cadet. He wrote the screenplay and
served as technical advisor for the film
Destination Moon, described by Peter R. Weston of
Speculation magazine as "the first serious and
commercially successful space flight film" which "helped to pave the way" for
the Apollo space program of the 1960s. Heinlein also wrote an original
television pilot, "Ring around the Moon," which was expanded without his
approval by Jack Seaman into the screenplay for the film
Project Moonbase. The 1956 movie
The Brain Eaters, was based on Heinlein's
The Puppet Masters, also without his knowledge or
approval, and in an out-of-court settlement, Heinlein received compensation and
the right to demand that certain material be removed from the film.
In
1994,
Red Planet was made into a mini TV series, and
The Puppet Masters was released starring Donald
Sutherland.
Starship Troopers, released in 1997, became his most
notable film adaptation.
Memberships:
- American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Authors Guild of America
- U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association
- Retired Officers Association
- Navy League
- Association of the U.S. Army
- Air Force Association
- World Future Society
- U.S. Naval Institute
- Minutemen of U.S.S. Lexington
- California Arts Society
- National Rare Blood (donors) Club
- American Association of Blood Banks
Awards:
- Guest of Honor, World Science Fiction Convention, 1941, 1961, and 1976
- Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1956, for Double Star
- Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1960, for Starship Troopers
- Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1962, for Stranger in a Strange Land
- Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1967, for The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- Boys' Clubs of America Book Award, 1959
- Sequoyah Children's Book Award of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Library Association, 1961, for Have Space Suit--Will Travel
- Locus, magazine readers' poll, Best All-time Author, 1973 and 1975
- National Rare Blood Club Humanitarian Award, 1974
- Nebula Award, Grand Master, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1975
- Council of Community Blood Centers Award, 1977
- American Association of Blood Banks Award, 1977
- Inkpot Award, 1977
- Doctor of Human Letters (L.H.D.), Eastern Michigan University, 1977
- Distinguished Public Service Medal, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1988 (posthumously awarded), "in recognition of his meritorious service to the nation and mankind in advocating and promoting the exploration of space"
- The Rhysling Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association is named after the character in Heinlein's story, The Green Hills of Earth
- Tomorrow Starts Here Award, Delta Vee Society
References
- Olander, Joseph D., and Martin Harry Greenberg, eds. "Robert A. Heinlein." New York: Taplinger, 1978.
- Pace, Eric. "Robert A. Heinlein is Dead at 80; Renowned Science Fiction Writer." New York Times. May 10, 1988 p.D26.
- "Robert A. Heinlein." Contemporary Authors Online. Literature Resource Center. Gale, 2004.
- Robert A. Heinlein. Internet Movie Database. 2007.
- Samuelson, David N. "Stranger in the Sixties: Model or Mirror?" Critical Encounters: Writers and Themes in Science Fiction, edited by Dick Riley. New York: Ungar, 1978.
- Slusser, George Edgar. "The Classic Years of Robert A. Heinlein." San Bernadino, CA.: Borgo Press, 1977.
Virginia G. Heinlein, 1916-2003
Virginia G. Heinlein was
born on April 22, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, to George (a dentist) and Jeanne
Gerstenfeld and had one younger brother, Leon. She died in Florida on January
18, 2003. Virginia attended New York University, majoring in chemistry where
she lettered in swimming, diving, basketball, and field hockey. She also
reached national competitive levels in figure skating, the sport that became
her lifelong passion. In time, she came to speak over seven languages,
including French, Latin, Italian, and Russian.
After graduating in 1937,
Ginny worked for Quality Bakers as a chemist until 1943 when she enlisted in
the Navy during World War II. She advanced to lieutenant in the Women Accepted
for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES). She served first at the Bureau of
Aeronautics, where she met Robert Heinlein in 1944 while both were working at
the Naval Air Experimental Station in Philadelphia. She then served as his
assistant on several classified development projects as chemist and aviation
test engineer. After World War II, she came to Los Angeles to study for an
unfinished doctorate in biochemistry at UCLA.
Virginia married Robert
Heinlein in Raton, New Mexico in October 1948. Ginny, as she preferred to be
called, became his closest companion, critic, editor, and staunch supporter.
She was also his muse and model for many of the savvy, brainy, redheaded female
protagonists in Heinlein's oeuvre.
Robert and Ginny were a formidable
team. She fielded and co-coordinated much of his correspondence, and graciously
received guests and fans in public appearances and in their home. She worked
tirelessly with him on blood drives held at science fiction conventions around
the country. Ginny was strong-willed and generous, and totally devoted to
Robert. She nursed Robert through two life-threatening illnesses, spending
years involved in every facet of his business and social life. Robert credited
Ginny for the conception of
Stranger in a Strange Land. When their health was robust,
the Heinleins traveled extensively; their adventures around the world resulted
in the travel memoir,
Tramp Royale which Ginny published after his death. There
is also evidence to suggest that Ginny also functioned as a political catalyst
for the socially liberal Heinlein. Very shortly after their marriage, Robert's
change in ideology from liberal to libertarian becomes apparent in his
correspondence and his stories.
After Robert Heinlein's death in 1988
Ginny moved to Florida where she continued her interests in gardening, cooking,
reading, and politics. She gathered a selection of her husband's letters in
Grumbles from the Grave, printed for the first time his
travel memoir
Tramp Royale and political handbook
Take Back Your Government (originally titled
How to Be a Politician), and oversaw the restoration of
several texts she felt had been badly edited, including
Red Planet,
Puppet Masters, and
Stranger in a Strange Land. In her later years she was
active in an online listserv where she communicated with fans about her
husband's work.
To futher her husband's legacy, she endowed the Robert
Anson Heinlein Chair in Aerospace Engineering, at Annapolis, with a gift of
over $2.6 million and helped found 'The Heinlein Society', an educational
charity dedicated to the Heinlein legacy. She also endowed the public library
in Robert Heinlein's birthplace of Butler, Missouri.
Elaine Woo wrote in
her 2003
Los Angeles Times obituary that Greg Bear, a science
fiction writer who knew the Heinleins, said he had met women who were inspired
to become scientists by Robert's stories. "And Robert," Bear said, "was
inspired by Ginny. Ginny was their original."
References
- Drum, Kevin. "Virginia Heinlein." Washington Monthly v.35:1 Jan/Feb 2003
- James, Robert. "Virginia Heinlein, a Biography." The Heinlein Society (1999)
- Woo, Elaine. "Virginia Heinlein, 86; Wife, Muse and Literary Guardian of Celebrated Science Fiction Writer" Los Angeles Times Jan. 26, 2003. p. B14
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection documents
the professional and personal lives of science fiction author Robert A.
Heinlein and his wife, Virginia G. Heinlein. Series I-II in the collection
include Heinlein's manuscripts, short stories, articles, book reviews, screen
plays, television and radio programs, personal and professional correspondence,
publishers' papers, illustrations, photographs, slides, scrapbooks,
memorabilia, and realia.
In the published manuscripts, short stories and
reviews, Robert Heinlein's work centers on space adventure and future human
endeavor, especially the challenge of the individual against the
institution.
Galvanized by war and United States political policy,
Heinlein drew on World War II, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, science and
technology, and the social revolutions of the 1960's and 1970's. His passions
are documented in his professional and personal correspondence: research into
rare blood groups, bomb shelter construction, human freedom, the right to bear
arms, libertarian politics, and the exploration of space.
Of special
interest in the manuscript series, besides the manuscripts themselves, are the
research notes and articles, mathematical calculations, formulas, diagrams, and
drawings that Heinlein used to shape his stories. This material reveals
Heinlein's skill as a researcher and scholar, and provides a fascinating
insight to his creative process.
Robert and Virginia's letters to
publishers and agents document the challenges of copyright, contracts, and
editorial review. In Heinlein's personal correspondence with his family, and
friends: authors, film directors, military comrades, scientists, and scholars,
he discusses the changing ideals and morals of his time.
Of special
interest in the correspondence series are the letters from the following
individuals who represent the progenitors of early science fiction in print,
television and film.
- Isaac Asimov, science fiction author
- Marion Zimmerman Bradley, fantasy author
- John Campbell, editor of Astounding Magazine, science fiction author, scientology aficionado
- E.J (Ted) Carnell, British science fiction editor. Ted Carnell's letters from 1942-1945 describe life in London, England during the war. Political and cultural references about the war effort, labor shortages, strikes, and military action may be interesting to the researcher of WWII history
- Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author
- L. Sprague de Camp, science fiction author
- L. Ron Hubbard, pulp and science fiction author, founder of scientology
- Fritz Lang, German film director and writer
- Captain Caleb Laning, Annapolis classmate, submarine and communications expert
- Willy Ley, author, science editor, public lecturer, technical advisor, professor
- Irving Pichel, actor, film director
- Spider Robinson, science fiction author
- Rip Von Ronkel, film writer and producer
- William Parker White (A.P. Boucher), author, critic, editor
Manuscripts and related material, correspondence, and publisher
material, represent the largest portion of the collection. Additional
descriptive details are included within each series.
Memorabilia,
ephemera and photographs in the collection span Heinlein's earliest years with
his family, enlisted naval life, his marriages and travels with Virginia, and
Virginia's life until her death in 2003.
Series II: Virginia G. Heinlein.
For more than 40 years, Virginia served as Heinlein's muse, secretary, and
companion, and her unflagging dedication to Heinlein's oeuvre was paramount.
The Virginia G. Heinlein series includes biographical material, correspondence,
and memoirs. The correspondence includes letters exchanged with Robert before
their marriage, correspondence with personal friends, and communications with
agents and publishers.
The digitized archive of this collection can be
found at the following website.
The collection is organized into two
series:
Series I. Robert A. Heinlein
- Subseries 1. Biographical
- Subseries 2. Correspondence
- Subseries 3. Manuscripts
- Subseries 4. Business
- Subseries 5. Printed Materials
- Subseries 6. Artwork
- Subseries 7. Scrapbooks
- Subseries 8. Photographs
- Subseries 9. Media
- Subseries 10. Realia
Series II. Virgina G. Heinlein
- Subseries 1. Biographical
- Subseries 2. Correspondence
- Subseries 3. Manuscripts
- Subseries 4. Business
- Subseries 5. Artwork
- Subseries 6. Photographs
- Subseries 7. Media
- Subseries 8. Realia
The following terms have been used to index
the description of this collection in the library's online public access
catalog.
Heinlein, Robert
A.(Robert Anson), 1907-1988--Archives
Heinlein, Virgina
G.
Utopias--Fiction
Time travel--Fiction
Imaginary wars and battles--Fiction
Science fiction, American
The books from the collection have been
cataloged separately.