Robert A. Heinlein: Grok With the Grandmaster

Robert Anson Heinlein was born on July 7, 1907 in Butler, Missouri. While still a child, he moved with his family to Kansas City where he spent the rest of his youth. After a year of college, he decided to follow the example of an older brother and attended the United States Naval Academy. After graduation, he served as a gunnery specialist, first on the Lexington and then on the Roper. He lost a great deal of weight due to constant seasickness, and eventually came down with tuberculosis. At 27 years of age, after being cured of TB, he retired from the Navy.

Heinlein tried a number of occupations with little success. Then, while reading a science-fiction magazine, he saw an ad for a contest to find new writing talent. He decided to write a story for the contest. But, the story turned out to be better than he had expected, so he offered it to the top magazine in the field, John Campbell's ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION. Campbell accepted the story and Heinlein's course was set. Except for one more stint in the Navy during World War II, Heinlein stayed with writing as a career for the rest of his life.

Heinlein wrote adult science fiction as well as a juvenile line. His work appeared in the SATURDAY EVENING POST, on television and in films. His classic stories are too numerous to mention, but his best-known work is STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. His influence in the field of science-fiction has been inestimable, a fact for which his peers presented him with the first Grandmaster Of Science-Fiction award. Heinlein also won four Hugo awards for best novel of the year.

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