Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century

Home > Science > Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century > Page 67
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century Page 67

by Robert A. Heinlein


  RAH, interview in Xignals (the newsletter of the Otherworlds Club), 1986.

  RAH, letter to Harlan Ellison, 07/27/67.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 38.

  Martha King married Freddie Smith (West Point Class of 1929), and Heinlein stayed in touch with them for the next several decades—they were neighbors in Colorado Springs in the early 1950s, when Smith was at the Air Force Academy, and Smith entertained Heinlein several times when he was traveling overseas. Most notably, Smith was the officer who debriefed him and Ginny after the trip in 1960 to the U.S.S.R.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 35.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 34.

  See, for example, RAH’s letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 16 and passim.

  RAH, letter to Cal (“Barrett”) Laning, 08/01/30, quoted in part in Leon Stover’s unpublished manuscript of Before the Writing Began. The letter was part of the complete file of Laning-Heinlein correspondence which Cal Laning gave Leon Stover and now is in the possession of David Aronovitz.

  RAH, letter to Poul Anderson, 12/13/61. Heinlein uses this incident to illustrate his point about moral standards determining moral choices.

  R. Adm. Robert Wayne Denbo (1905–1987) reported to Lexington at the same time as Heinlein but almost immediately took flight training at Pensacola, returning to Lexington’s flight squadron. Denbo was also at the Naval Aircraft Factory as a test pilot in 1942 when Heinlein came on board there as a civilian engineer.

  RAH, Time Enough for Love, 90.

  In a letter to Virginia Heinlein after Robert Heinlein’s death (03/02/89), Cal Laning told her that Elinor named Laning as “co-respondent” (a technical term that has now disappeared from divorce proceedings, meaning the second party in an adulterous affair). But the actual court papers do not list him at all, and the grounds for the divorce were not adultery; no co-respondent was needed in this type of action—and in any case, Laning could only have been a co-respondent in an action brought by Robert against Elinor; Elinor would have been accusing herself of adultery.

  Property Settlement in Cause No. 337,884, Elinor Heinlein vs. Robert A. Heinlein, Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, at Kansas City.

  Minute Order of Jackson County Circuit Court dated “33rd day of the September Term, 1930. Wednesday, October 15th, 1930.” Document obtained from Jackson County Circuit Court and forwarded courtesy of L. N. Collier, Esq.

  Microfilm print of divorce decree of Mr. Heinlein and Ms. Curry, dated 10/15/30, received from the Clerk of the Jackson County (Missouri) Circuit Court and entered in official records November 5, 1930. Document kindly provided by L. N. Collier, Esq.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 20.

  “The Weekly Retrospect” (unsigned and uncredited) in The Observer of the U.S.S. Aircraft Carrier Lexington IV: 21 (08/08/31), 1.

  “Events of the Week,” The Observer of the U. S. S. Aircraft Carrier Lexington III: 44 (02/28/31), datelined Balboa, Panama, C.Z.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 3.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 4.

  RAH, letter to Poul Anderson, 09/06/61.

  RAH, letter to Poul Anderson, 09/06/61.

  RAH, afterword to “Searchlight,” Expanded Universe, 452–55.

  RAH, letter to Christopher B. Timmers, 01/31/72.

  RAH, letter to Christopher B. Timmers, 01/31/72.

  The incident is related in the Afterword to “Searchlight” in Expanded Universe, 517.

  “Case History—Urethritis R. A. Heinlein” (handwritten in 1933); this document is part of RAH’s Naval Jacket in the RAH Archive, UCSC.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 22.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 23; see also RAH, letter to John P. Conlan, undated but after May 25, 1973.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 33.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 17.

  RAH, interview by Frank Robinson, Oui (December 1972), 76.

  RAH, letter to Alfred Bester, 04/03/59.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 31.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 31.

  “Case History—Urethritis” (hand dated January 1933) in RAH’s naval jacket, RAH Archive, UCSC.

  Dorothy Martin Heinlein, “Relatively Speaking” (unpublished paper written ca. March 2006).

  On July 6, 2007, at the Heinlein Centennial in Kansas City, Dorothy Martin Heinlein told of running into “Bob’s ex” at a play she attended in Kansas City with her sister-in-law Mary Jean in 1939, but the intervening years have turned up no documentation.

  Virginia Heinlein recalled in a letter to Leon Stover dated 04/08/89 that Robert’s sister Mary Jean also met Elinor “with her new husband” on the same occasion. However, the phrasing is ambiguous and might mean that Mary Jean (rather than Elinor) was with her new husband—she had married Andrew Lermer in January 1939.

  Virginia Heinlein, taped interview by author, Miscellaneous Notes, Tape A Side A (September 4–8, 2001).

  12. Leslyn MacDonald (pages 144–157)

  Much of the available biographical information about Leslyn MacDonald was developed by Robert James, Ph.D., and published in “Regarding Leslyn,” The Heinlein Journal, No. 9 (July 2001), 17–36, and his supplemental follow-up “More Regarding Leslyn,” The Heinlein Journal, No. 11 (July 2002), 11–14. As more newspaper and other archives are placed online, new details continue to become available.

  See Bill Mullins, “Biographical Notes on Robert Heinlein and His Family and Associates,” The Heinlein Journal, No. 20 (January 2007), 11. The article also contains information about Leslyn’s experience at the Pasadena Playhouse.

  Leslyn MacDonald’s father, Colin MacDonald, a Canadian bookkeeper and hotelier, had died in Santa Barbara in 1929, of cirrhosis of the liver brought on by acute alcoholism. In RAH’s letter to William A. P. White, dated March 22, 1957, Colin MacDonald is described as a “bottle-a-day man.”

  World Theosophy Magazine (April 1931) quoted in Robert James, Ph.D., “Regarding Leslyn,” The Heinlein Journal, No. 9 (July 2001), 19.

  RAH, letter to Ted Carnell, 02/13/46.

  Robert James, Ph.D., “Regarding Leslyn,” The Heinlein Journal, No. 9 (July 2001), 19.

  Although it is unlikely Leslyn discussed her practice of “white witchcraft” at their initial meetings (her involvement is casually mentioned by others in later correspondence and will be documented as it arises in this narrative), Leslyn was clearly already versed to some degree in some mystical and occult matters (such as Theosophy) that bore on Laning and Heinlein’s Quest.

  This summary is synthesized from a number of letters Heinlein wrote to others over the period of his marriage to Leslyn MacDonald (a few are preserved in public archives), rather than deriving from a single or even a small number of sources.

  Leslyn (Heinlein) Mocabee, letter to Phyllis and William Anthony Parker White [Anthony Boucher, pseud.], 09/15/53, and Virginia Heinlein, e-mail inverview with Robert James, Ph.D., 05/31/2001.

  This sentiment imputed to Laning is drawn from Leon Stover’s unpublished biography, Before the Writing Began. There is no documentation to this effect in the fragments of correspondence in Heinlein’s archive (and Laning’s file of letters is not available for research); however, much of Stover’s work was based on extensive personal interviews with Laning, and much of the discussion there of Heinlein’s sexual life is not documented anywhere else.

  In his unpublished manuscript, Before the Writing Began, Leon Stover claimed that this aspect of The Quest had been brought to a close by the group’s discovery of a book titled Universe, self-published in 1921 by the retired naval officer Scudder Klyce. Klyce claimed the book “unifies or qualitatively solves science, religion and philosophy.” I have been able to find no documentation for Stover’s claim (it is entirely possible that the facts were outlined orally to him by Cal Laning and never committed to print—or else that they were in th
e file of letters Stover later sold).

  It is something of a mystery how even inveterate bookstore and library surfers like Laning and Heinlein might have come across such an obscure publication, but it is possible that Dewey’s Individualism: Old and New might have led them to Universe, as Dewey wrote an introduction for Klyce’s book, which is listed in his collected papers.

  RAH, letter to Poul and Karen Anderson, 07/19/62.

  Bulletin of the American Interplanetary Society, No. 5, dated November-December 1930 [1931] and received with Heinlein’s welcoming letter from the Secretary of the AIS, C. F. Mason, dated 01/27/32. Esnault-Pelterie was actually not able to be at this event, which was attended by an astonishing 2,500 people. His paper was read by G. Edward Pendray—who looked so “European” with his van Dyke beard that many of the attendees remained convinced Esnault-Pelterie had delivered the talk in person. Eric Leif Davin, Pioneers of Wonder: Conversations with the Founders of Science Fiction (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1999), 33, 91 (n. 17).

  Los Angeles Voter Registration records for 1932.

  RAH, letter to Laura Haywood, undated except “ca. Dec. 73” penciled on his file copy in RAH’s hand.

  RAH, letter to Laura Haywood, undated except “ca. Dec. 73” penciled on his file copy in RAH’s hand.

  In his 10/03/74 letter to T. B. Buell, Heinlein misremembers the date as March 15, 1932, and the groups as Red and Blue.

  Thomas Fleming, “February 7, 1932—A Date That Would Live in … Amnesia,” American Heritage (July/August 2002).

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 46.

  In Heinlein’s long letter about King to Commander T. B. Buell (10/03/74, pp. 57–58), he indicates King was in fact passed over in the next round of promotions and that gossip at the time attributed it to this incident; however, due to the reshuffling of assignments following Admiral Moffett’s death and to President Roosevelt’s personal intervention in the selection process, King did become an admiral only two years after leaving Lexington.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 57.

  Quoted in Fleming.

  Fleming, “A Date That Would Live in …”

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 50.

  Leslyn (Heinlein) Mocabee, letter to Fred Pohl, 09/06/53 and quoted in Robert James, Ph.D., “Regarding Leslyn,” The Heinlein Journal, No. 9 (July 2001), 20.

  Leslyn (Heinlein) Mocabee, letter to Fred Pohl, 05/08/53.

  Leslyn (Heinlein) Mocabee, letter to Fred Pohl, 06/09/53.

  Dr. J. E. Pournelle, e-mail to author, 05/20/2009. Dr. Pournelle notes that Clark told him directly that he had been best man at Heinlein’s wedding, but did not mention which wedding it was. The 1932 wedding to Leslyn MacDonald seems the most likely, as they were not well acquainted at the time of the 1929 wedding to Elinor Curry.

  This refrain can be found at various points in the documentation, both by Laning himself and by other people who quoted him. But see especially Laning’s offer to help with the biography, in a letter to Virginia Heinlein dated 09/13/88 It is also quoted in an e-mail from Virginia Heinlein to Robert James, 05/31/2001.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 8.

  Quoted words and incident from RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 14.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 14.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 14.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 15; the ellipses were in Heinlein’s original language.

  This and the next quoted words come from RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 15.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 15.

  Both Virginia and Robert Heinlein mentioned this, but no such document was found with his naval jacket; it is possible that the request was submitted to BuNav as part of ship’s papers, rather than with Heinlein’s papers.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 46.

  Virginia Heinlein, taped interview by author, Tape 2, Side A (February 27, 2000).

  The nature of the order was not specified in Heinlein’s recounting. The incident of written orders is related in RAH’s letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, pp. 41–42.

  RAH, letter to Robert Bloch, 10/11/71.

  RAH, letter to T. B. Buell, 10/03/74, p. 21.

  13. Swallowing the Anchor (pages 158–172)

  Virginia Heinlein, IM with author, 12/06/2001.

  RAH, letter to Doña and George Smith, 02/03/51.

  Virginia Heinlein, e-mail to Robert James, 06/03/2001. Leslyn might not have been the culinary technician that Virginia Heinlein was, but in September 2009, as this book was being prepared for press, Bill Mullins found a reference in an online search to a recipe Leslyn submitted for publication in Sunset Magazine, for a Watercress Spread she had served “[a]t a housewarming party for 60 guests,” along with the last half of a poem bylined Leslyn M. Heinlein:

  I think I’ll make a little sign

  To hang each day at four:

  Tea Served Within. Admission Free

  And Room for Just One More

  The search organization has not permitted locating the specific issue in which this material appeared—though a mention of St. Patrick’s Day suggests March 1935 (or possibly 1936). A further fragment of text concludes:

  Last year her husband retired from the Navy and they bought a house in Hollywood, and this year she’s going to pick some flowers. For 3 years, every time she planted sweet peas the Navy heard about it, and sent the Heinleins somewhere else.

  As new archival material is put online, new facts become available.

  RAH’s Request for Assignment to Duty addressed to BuNav on 12/13/41.

  RAH’s Request for Assignment to Duty addressed to the BuNav on 12/13/41.

  Lawrence Lyle Heinlein must have been divorced from Alice Lewis Heinlein sometime between 1926 and 1932, but the event does not show up in Heinlein’s surviving correspondence from the period. Family members queried about it through the good offices of Heinlein’s nephew Bill Bacchus in 2006 and 2007 could not develop any definite information. It was not talked about within the family.

  Francis Pottenger, M.D., letter to RAH, 08/15/33.

  Heinlein discusses his treatment in a letter to Rex Ivar on 03/10/33; his thoughts were interrupted by the Long Beach earthquake, which he describes from his home in Arcadia, about sixty miles east-northeast of the epicenter of the quake, in Huntington Beach.

  The daily schedule, written out in Leslyn’s hand, is in Heinlein’s naval jacket in the RAH Archive UCSC.

  The letter is dated March 10, but the earthquake that interrupted the writing is reported as taking place at 5:54 P.M. on March 11, 1933. The discrepancy can be attributed to the official designation in Greenwich Mean Time (U.T.C.), across the International Date Line (and therefore on the following date). March 10 at 1:54 P.M. was the correct local date.

  RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 07/30/47.

  Order of Commandant, 11th Naval District, 04/15/33. In RAH’s naval jacket, RAH Archive, UCSC.

  RAH, letter to Rex Ivar Heinlein, 03/10/33.

  RAH, letter to Colonel Fehrenbach, 10/07/78.

  RAH, letter to Colonel Fehrenbach, 10/07/78.

  Leslyn (Heinlein) Mocabee, letter to Fred Pohl, 05/08/53. We know of a few of Leslyn’s extramarital affairs in the 1940s, and she recorded her quirky sexual behavior following her divorce from Robert Heinlein, so it is quite likely that she had her own adventures. But Leslyn was more reticent about her own adventures at this period, and Robert never spoke of them at all, so no information has survived.

  RAH, letter to Rex Ivar Heinlein, 09/29/64.

  Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1940: How Americans Lived Through the “Roaring Twenties” and the Great Depression, rev. ed., 236.

  RAH, letter to Rex Ivar Heinlein, 09/29/64.

  In one form or another, this joke has had a very long life and is widely quoted on the Internet to illustrate the difference between socialism and communism. In its
original context, the joke is cited in “The Extent of Recovery and Success of the New Deal to 1941,” in The Home Front, 1914–1918 by Malcolm Chandler (Oxford: Heinemann, 2002).

  RAH, letter to Tom Eaton, 11/06/73.

  F. M. Pottenger, M.D., letter to RAH, 08/15/33. RAH’s naval jacket, RAH Archive, UCSC.

  Heinlein told this anecdote, including its provenance, many times over the years, and wrote it as a story eventually included in Expanded Universe under the title “No Bands Playing, No Flags Flying,” but see, for example, RAH’s letter to Judith and Dan Merril, 08/28/61.

 

‹ Prev