RobertHeinlein

Robert A. Heinlein was an author of ScienceFiction novels who lived from 1907 until 1988. He is ranked among the most influential authors of the ScienceFiction genre.

Heinlein spent his childhood in MissourI in the early years of the 20th century. This

was a time of great religious revival across America, especially socially marginalized

areas...such as Missouri. It was an environment of narrow-mindedness and parochialism,

where the rules of the tribe were assumed to be laws for all humanity. Heinlein

managed to break free from the mores of his childhood, to slough off the values in

which he had been raised, and to remake himself in the manner of his own choosing. This

personal triumph became a recurring theme in his stories.

This theme is taken to its furthest in the related books 'TimeEnoughForLove',

'TheNumberoftheBeast', and 'ToSailBeyondtheSunset'. We are left to wonder, what

would humanity be in the absence of all customs? How would our humanity be expressed if

we did not develop under the soul-squashing influence of culture? We would be

individuals. We would have self-made souls.

Other recurring themes uniting Heinlein's works include individual dignity and the supreme value of personal liberty, the virtue of independence, science as a liberating factor, the perniciousness of bureaucrats, the hypocrisy of organized religion and the silliness of mysticism.

• Novels

RocketShipGalileo

SpaceCadet

RedPlanet

FarmerInTheSky

BetweenPlanet

TheRollingStones

StarmanJones

TheStarBeast

TunnelintheSky

TimefortheStars

CitizenoftheGalaxy

HaveSpaceSuitWillTravel

PodkayneofMars

SixthColumn

ThePuppetMasters

DoubleStar

TheDoorIntoSummer

StarshipTroopers

StrangerinaStrangeLand

GloryRoad

FarnhamsFreehold

TheMoonisaHarshMistress

IWillFearNoEvil

TimeEnoughForLove

TheNumberoftheBeast

Friday

JobAComedyofJustice

TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls

ToSailBeyondtheSunset

• ShortStories

LifeLine

TheRoadsMustRoll

BlowupsHappen

TheManWhoSoldTheMoon

Delilah&TheSpaceRigger

SpaceJockey

Requiem

TheLoneWatch

GentlemenBeSeated

TheBlackPitsofLuna

ItsGreattoBeBack

WeAlsoWalkDogs

Searchlight

OrdealinSpace

TheGreenHillsofEarth

LogicofEmpire

TheMenaceFromEarth

IfThisGoesOn

Coventry

Misfit

Universe

MethuselahsChildren