Robert A. Heinlein Biography

He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first SF writer to break into mainstream, general magazines such as "The Saturday Evening Post", in the late 1940s. He was also among the first authors of bestselling, novel-length science fiction in the modern, mass-market era.

Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974. He won Hugo Awards for four of his novels; in addition, fifty years after publication, three of his works were awarded "Retro Hugos"—awards given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence. In his fiction, Heinlein coined terms that have become part of the English language, including "grok", "waldo", and "speculative fiction", as well as popularizing existing terms like "TANSTAAFL", "pay it forward", and "space marine". He also anticipated mechanical Computer Aided Design with "Drafting Dan" and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel "The Door into Summer", though he never patented or built one. In the first chapter of the novel "Space Cadet" he anticipated the cell-phone, 35 years before Motorola invented the technology. Several of Heinlein's works have been adapted for film and television.

Selected wors

• Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947
• Space Cadet, 1948
• Red Planet, 1949
• Farmer in the Sky, 1950 (initially serialized in a condensed version in Boys' Life magazine as "Satellite Scout")
• (Retro Hugo Award, 1951)
• The Puppet Masters, 1951 (re-published posthumously with excisions restored, 1990)
The Rolling Stones, 1952 (aka: Space Family Stone)
• Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957
• Have Space Suit—Will Travel, 1958—Hugo Award nominee, 1959
• Methuselah's Children, 1958 (originally a serialized novella in 1941)
• Starship Troopers, 1959—Hugo Award, 1960
• Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961 -- Hugo Award, 1962,[5] (republished at the original greater length in 1991)
• Orphans of the Sky, 1963 (fix-up novel comprising the novellas "Universe" and "Common Sense", both originally published in 1941)
• Glory Road, 1963—Hugo Award nominee, 1964
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966 -- Hugo Award, 1967
• Time Enough for Love, 1973—Nebula Award nominated, 1973;[8] Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominated, 1974
• The Number of the Beast, 1980
• Friday, 1982—Hugo, Nebula, and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1983
• Job: A Comedy of Justice, 1984 - Nebula Award nominee, 1984; Locus Fantasy Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, 1985
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, 1985
• To Sail Beyond the Sunset, 1987