Grumbles from the Grave

My original copy of this was lost in moving, along with several other books. This copy was received in excellent condition and within the estimated time frame. A compilation of Robert Heinlein's letters to editors and his agent, among others, this book provides an interesting inside view of his writing career. His widow, Virginia, did a wonderful job getting this ready for and into print. If you are a Heinlein fan and you haven't read this, you should find a copy.

Beginning writers are advised to 'write what you know'. But if you're a writer of science fiction, where the environment is necessarily something different from the everyday world of now, how can you do this? For those who have read Heinlein's fiction, this book will provide some insights into just how this feat is accomplished. Within these pages you will find the genesis of:The detailed space-suits of Have Spacesuit, Will Travel from his period of engineering research work on high altitude pressure suits during WWII.How to build plumbing, bomb shelters, and move boulders from his work on his Colorado Springs house (Farnham's Freehold).The marvelous characters of the cats that appeared in Door into Summer and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls from the cats that at various times in his life were co-owners of his habitats.The knowledge of fencing so evident in Glory Road from his time on the fencing team at Annapolis, and the entire cadet experience that became part of the 'Lazy Man' episode of Time Enough for Love.These are just a few of the examples of where incidents in Heinlein's life became part of his fiction, giving it that 'true to life' feel so common in his works and so rarely found in other SF writers of his generation. But this book is not a well laid out autobiography, but rather a collection of his letters to various people, mainly his literary agent, and often the items described above are included as an aside to the main subject of the letters. Most of the material concerns itself with the details of how each of his stories was generated, the arguments he had with various editors (especially a certain one at Scribners), his working habits and the problems that prevented him from working at various times. For the Heinlein scholar or fan, this is a gold mine, providing much insight into almost all of his work. And Heinlein's own character shines through these letters, a proud, patriotic, self-disciplined, stubborn, highly opinionated, occasionally abrasive man who knew the worth of his labor and his effect on literally millions of his readers.The letters are organized by theme (Beginnings, Juvenile Novels, Adult Novels, Travel, Fan Mail, Building, etc) and this easily allows the reader to see the progression of ideas and events within each of these subjects. But it has a downside in that items referenced in, say, the Building section have direct impacts on his writing schedule for a book covered in the Juvenile Novels section. Sometimes these relationships, while important, are not obvious to the reader due to this structure. After reading this book twice, and seeing just how much this type of thing occurs, I think I would have preferred having the letters organized in pure chronological order. This is not a book for someone who has not read at least a few of Heinlein's fiction works, as the material will hold little interest other than some points on how the publishing industry works and just how this particular writer worked (which i

I am confused by some of the other reviews of this book. Not just by the low scores, but also with the comments therein. The majority of the complaints about the book seem to be directed at Heinlien's political views and his adamantness derived therefrom. Now this is all well and good, everybody is entitled to their opinion, but the weird this is... THERE ARE ALMOST NO POLITICS IN THIS BOOK! Okay, so what is the book about then? Well, it's exactly what you'd expect, it focuses mainly on Robert's writing career. Sure, there are a few political meanderings here and there, but they are extremely few and far between. Such off-target reviews are almost enough to make one wonder whether or not these people actually read the book. Instead, this book consists of a large body of letters that were written before and (usually) after the publication of a Heinlein opus. From his first published stories, to his juveniles, to his controversial adult novels, they're all covered here. The letters show a lot about what went into the making of his works, and also shows some other interesting things, such as the trouble that RAH seemingly always had with editors and getting his words out like he wanted to. There is also a picture and sypnosis of the original version of most of the stories and novels that RAH put out. There are also letters on various other topics (such as travel, house-building, domestic life, etc.), plus a short biography of Robert (written by his wife), and a highly convenient bibliography. My only complaint about the book is that there is almost no mention made of his books written after I Will Fear No Evil. True, this isn't his best work, but they are important, and do indeed contain some fine novels (JOB, Friday). Perhaps, due to the author's deteoriating health at this time, there weren't really any letters written. However, one wishes whatever there was was included so as to make this book complete. Thus, it's not perfect, but certainly not as bad as some other have apparently made it out to be.

Robert Heinlein remains the twentieth century's most important science fiction writer, and the one most capable of provoking arguments. This collection of letters, edited by Virginia Heinlein from the surviving correspondence of over 100,000 letters now locked away in the archives in UC Santa Cruz until fifty years after her death, is the closest we're going to see in this lifetime to Heinlein's private opinions on a variety of subjects. Publisher Lester Del Rey insisted on the letters being cut up into various topics, rather than the more standard chronological presentation; many of these letters contain the backgrounds to a number of Heinlein's fictional and personal projects. Most of the letters are to John Campbell and Heinlein's agent from the late forties until the mid-seventies, Lurton Blassingame; most of them also deal with something Heinlein wasn't happy about, so the title of the book is indeed descriptive: many of them do grumble pretty seriously. There are only three books that really give a picture of Heinlein the man, rather than Heinlein the writer: besides this one, there is "Expanded Universe," with its prefaces and afterwords that often reveal private insights, and there is "Tramp Royale," a travelogue which is the closest thing we'll ever see to an autobiography. None of these books is going to interest a casual reader, but all three are pure gold to a Heinlein fan. Until we finally see a full biography (which may not be for another fifty years, since the correspondence is locked up), this is the best we've got.

Not only should it have been published, but much sooner! Along with the notes in Expanded Universe, those of us not fortunate enough to have met R.A.H. are given an opportunity to learn about the man, not his characters. See also: "Tramp Royale".