The Heritage of Heinlein: A Critical Reading of the Fiction

by Thomas D. Clareson, Joe Sanders, Donald E. Palumbo (Editor)

Overview

Robert A. Heinlein is generally recognized as the most important American science fiction writer of the 20th century. This is the first detailed critical examination of his entire career. It is not a biography--that is being done in a two-volume work by William Patterson. Instead, this book looks at each piece of fiction (and a few pieces of sf-related nonfiction) that Heinlein wrote, chronologically by date of publication, in order to consider what each contributes to his overall accomplishment. The aim is to be fair, to look clearly at the strengths and weaknesses of the writings that have inspired generations of readers and writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786474981
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	01/27/2014
Series:	Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy , #42
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Thomas D. Clareson was a leading scholar in the fields of science fiction, 19th century American literature, and Victorian literature. A professor of English at the College of Wooster (Ohio) for 38 years and the author or editor of more than 20 books, Clareson died in July 1993. The late Joe Sanders, professor emeritus, Lakeland Community College, wrote extensively about Roger Zelazny, E.E. “Doc” Smith, and Neil Gaiman. He lived in Willoughby, Ohio.

Table of Contents

Foreword Frederik Pohl 1

Preface 11

A Note on Texts 15

1 A New Calling: For Us, the Living 17

2 Early Professional Writing 23

3 Transitions 53

4 The Juveniles for Scribner's 62

5 The "Classic" Period 108

6 Stranger in a Strange Land 132

7 The Final Period 140

Summing- Up 197

Appendix: Nonfiction 215

Works Cited 217

Index 219

Editorial Reviews

06/02/2014
Drafted partially by leading science fiction scholar Clareson (1926–1993) in the early 1990s and completed recently by the similarly credentialed Sanders, this perceptive and insightful monograph raises the bar for critical studies of Golden Age science fiction luminary Robert A. Heinlein. Proceeding in chronological order of publication, the writers explore the evolution of specific themes and approaches that unite virtually all of Heinlein's short stories and novels: the "struggle between entrenched power and the free individual" and the heroics of "highly competent men" in the tales that make up Heinlein's visionary Future History series; Heinlein's desire to shake the teenage readers of his 12 enormously influential juveniles "out of their simple trust of authority and their confidence that problems would work themselves out without serious changes in the readers' thinking"—an ambition that frequently set Heinlein at odds with his editor and that led to his withdrawal from the young adult market after controversy over his militaristic novel Starship Troopers; and the conflict between the individual and institutionalized authority in Stranger in a Strange Land and other works from Heinlein's classic period. The authors' analyses are cogent, and not uncritical, as they point out contradictions in some of Heinlein's tales and the decline of storytelling in his later novels. This informative book will please fans of Heinlein's fiction and steer those not as familiar with it to important primary texts. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

a thorough...probing investigation...enlightening...a fine and engaging read”—SFRA Review; “a clear, penetrating, accessible, and comprehensive study of Heinlein’s fiction...invaluable”—The New York Review of Science Fiction.

From the Publisher

a thorough...probing investigation...enlightening...a fine and engaging read

SFRA Review