Robert A. Heinlein, In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 2

April 7, 2014
The final volume of Patterson’s exhaustive biography of golden age science fiction’s leading luminary opens in 1948 with Heinlein lifting the genre out of the pulp ghetto and ushering SF into mainstream respectability. Heinlein’s work was winding down on the film Destination Moon, his juvenile novels (published the year before) were taking the young adult market by storm, and his stories were appearing in prestigious periodicals like the Saturday Evening Post. Heinlein had also begun brainstorming ideas for a “Martian Mowgli” novel—a science fiction variation on the theme of Kipling’s The Jungle Book that he would publish as his 1961 blockbuster Stranger in a Strange Land. These professional milestones punctuate a fast-paced chronicle of the author’s life, rich with references to Heinlein’s liberal politics, active engagement with the space race, the severe illnesses that dominated his twilight years, and intimate involvement with friends and family—notably Ginny, his third wife and soul-mate. Patterson tells Heinlein’s story in a breathless gush of details that blurs key events into the minutiae of daily life. However, his unprecedented access to Heinlein’s personal papers makes this adulatory portrait an important foundation for future appreciations of the author’s work. Agent: Eleanor Wood, Spectrum Literary Agency.

May 15, 2014
Second and concluding volume of Patterson's wide-ranging biography of the renowned science-fiction author.As Patterson (Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907-1948): Learning Curve, 2010) notes, Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) did not limit himself to what was then a small, if growing, genre of popular fiction. By the early 1950s, "he was in boys' and girls' markets, books, pulp, and film, all at the same time"-part of a concerted, thoroughly thought-through effort to free himself from the pulps while making a living as a writer. Patterson is well-versed in the Heinlein oeuvre, and a significant contribution of his biography is to place Heinlein's works in the context of his life and the evolution of his politics. As Heinlein was writing his best-known books, among them Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) and Starship Troopers (1959), he was making a political arc from beyond-New Deal Democrat to right-of-Goldwater Republican, a transformation helped by a second marriage to an activist conservative. Though he was friendly with L. Ron Hubbard, he resisted taking the path into invented religion and instead used his fiction to explore philosophical questions of meaning (one reason that Stranger became such a hit in the '60s counterculture). The '50s, Patterson reveals, were lucrative and satisfying for Heinlein in some respects, though the ground was always shifting; his Hollywood period closed with a thud when the production company he worked with closed its doors. He was on firmer footing in the '60s, and though reviewers were often antagonistic (Patterson quotes a few, including some from this publication, that were friendly but more that were not), his books did well-encouraging fan mail that, as Patterson recounts, was full of detailed questions "about everything from economics to where Robert parted his hair."Patterson covers all the bases-an essential book for studious fans of Heinlein, with valuable lessons for anyone hoping to make a living with the pen.

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May 1, 2014

The second volume of this dense, two-part biography of the venerated sf godfather Robert A. Heinlein (1907-88) is a mixed blessing. The work offers the first authoritative study of Heinlein, who--his desire for privacy having grown in proportion to his fame--granted few interviews in his later decades and died without leaving a true biography. Enter fan's fan Patterson (editor, publisher, The Heinlein Journal; cofounder, the Heinlein Society), who has clearly dived deep into his subject's sealed archives, accessed with special permission from Heinlein's widow and muse, Virginia, who also authorized this biography. While Patterson avoids hagiography, the result is often a chronicle that suffers from the descriptions of day-to-day minutiae and lacks an engaging narrative, as each chapter follows the next in an order that seems shaped by the record of correspondence. However, provided the trade edition of this book includes an index as detailed as the one that accompanied the first volume, Patterson will have honored his subject with his scholarship, if not with his storytelling. VERDICT Fans and scholars of Heinlein will find this an invaluable resource, though there is little here to appeal to other readers. With this book, the author has added to his already significant contributions to Heinlein scholarship; one hopes this text will inspire a future biographer to create a more engaging portrait.--Chris Wieman, Univ. of the Sciences Libs., Philadelphia

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Starred review from May 15, 2014
This second volume of the authorized biography of arguably the most notable American science-fiction writer covers the second half of his life. In these years, Heinlein was continually exploring new approaches to old sf themes and then pushing the boundaries of the entire field steadily outward with new themes. This phase of his career began with Stranger in a Strange Land (more than 10 years in gestation) and continued to the end of his life. During that period, he battled censorship by stuffy editors, Hollywood directors of questionable ethics, and overly zealous or downright incompetent critics. He also battled a series of health problems that make harrowing reading, and that would probably have had most of us bedridden at an age when Heinlein was taking a cruise through the Arctic's Northwest Passage. In all his enterprises, he was indispensably partnered with the remarkable Virginia Heinlein, wife, helpmate, organizer, business manager, corresponding secretary, and altogether worthy of a biography in her own right. As is inevitable in an authorized biography, some controversial subjects (such as Heinlein's politics and his classic Starship Troopers) are presented in the most favorable light, but author Patterson also presents strong, fact-based cases for those interpretations. The research for this biography was clearly both a labor of love and a labor of Hercules, and the result is what must be considered the standard for biographies of a man who in turn must finally be considered a major American writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)