Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein (1907 to 1988) was an American science fiction writer, born in Butler, Missouri, whose novels Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land made him one of the most influential figures in the genre.

A 1929 graduate of the US Naval Academy, he served on naval vessels until pulmonary tuberculosis forced his retirement in 1934. His first story, "Life-Line", appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction in August 1939, and in 1947 he became one of the first science fiction writers to sell to The Saturday Evening Post. That same year Scribner's published Rocket Ship Galileo, the first of a run of roughly annual juvenile novels for the firm that lasted until 1959 and included Farmer in the Sky and Have Space Suit, Will Travel. He wrote the story for the 1950 film Destination Moon. When Scribner's turned down Starship Troopers, it went to G. P. Putnam's Sons, who issued it on 5 November 1959 after a magazine serialisation as "Starship Soldier". Putnam's also published Stranger in a Strange Land on 1 June 1961, the first science fiction novel to reach The New York Times fiction bestseller list, and he followed it with The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966). Four of his novels won the Hugo Award: Double Star, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. He was the first writer named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, and he died in Carmel, California, on 8 May 1988.

For collectors

The Scribner's juveniles of 1947 to 1959 and the Putnam's first editions of Starship Troopers (1959) and Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) form the core of a Heinlein collection. The longer uncut text of Stranger, published by his widow Virginia in 1991, is a separate edition and should not be confused with the 1961 first.