Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 to May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the “dean of science fiction writers,” he helped define hard science fiction by placing unusual weight on scientific accuracy. His fiction and non-fiction often praise competence, self-reliance, and critical thinking, while putting characters into social and political situations that tested ordinary assumptions about duty, sex, religion, government, and personal freedom.

Heinlein was born in Butler, Missouri, the third of seven children, to Rex Ivar Heinlein, an accountant, and Bam Lyle Heinlein. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, in what he later called “The Bible Belt,” a setting whose outlook and values shaped parts of his later fiction, including Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. The 1910 return of Halley’s Comet gave him a life-long interest in astronomy. At sixteen he lied about his age to join the Missouri National Guard, then worked his way toward the United States Naval Academy after his family could not afford college.

In 1929, Heinlein graduated from the Naval Academy with the equivalent of a bachelor of arts in engineering, ranking fifth in his class academically. The U.S. Navy commissioned him as an ensign soon after. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, working in radio communications when that technology was still young, and later served as gunnery officer aboard the destroyer USS Roper in 1933 and 1934. He reached the rank of lieutenant. His Navy years had a strong effect on his character and writing, giving him first-hand knowledge of discipline, hierarchy, engineering, and the obligations people owe to groups larger than themselves.

By the late 1940s, Heinlein became one of the first American science fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. For many decades he was among the best-selling science fiction novelists, and he, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were often grouped as the “Big Three” of English-language science fiction. His major works include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Starship Troopers helped mold the space marine and mecha archetypes, while his books also drew notice for controversial subjects such as militarism, plural marriage, and technologically competent women characters who were formidable yet often stereotypically feminine.

Heinlein’s ideas changed over time, but he consistently used fiction to test social and political beliefs. William H. Patterson Jr. wrote that by 1930 Heinlein was a progressive liberal who had spent time in the open sexuality climate of New York’s Jazz Age Greenwich Village. He absorbed ideas from writers such as H. G. Wells and Upton Sinclair, believed some level of socialism was inevitable and already occurring in the United States, and later moved toward more moderate views. In later years, he came to believe that a strong world government was the only way to avoid mutual nuclear annihilation.

Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974. Four of his novels won Hugo Awards, and seven of his works later received Retro Hugos for works published before the Hugo Awards existed. His language also entered common use: he coined or popularized terms such as “grok,” “waldo,” “speculative fiction,” “TANSTAAFL,” “pay it forward,” and “space marine.” His words still carry because they are practical, argumentative, and alert to the future, asking readers to think harder about freedom, responsibility, and what human beings may become when science changes the rules.