Grumbles from the Grave Read Free Page A

have been a better story. In spite of this, it has sold more than a million copies in U.S. paperback alone, and has been translated into more than half-a-dozen languages, and is still in print in all of those, including English.
    At one time, Robert wrote to his agent about the possibility of writing a memoir-autobiography: Grumbles From The Grave by Robert A. Heinlein (deceased).
    This is that book. It covers many years, many subjects, and some personal comments—taken mostly from letters between Robert and his agent, Lurton Blassingame.
    Virginia Heinlein
Carmel, California 1988

A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT A. HEINLEIN BY VIRGINIA HEINLEIN
    Robert Anson Heinlein was born July 7, 1907, the third of seven children of Bam Lyle Heinlein and Rex Ivar Heinlein, in Butler, Missouri. The growing family moved to Kansas City during his childhood.

    (xvii)
    Heinlein's birthplace in Butler, Missouri.

    (xvii)
    Robert A. Heinlein (lower right) with his sister Louise (lower left) and his brothers Lawrence Lyle (upper left) and Rex Ivar (upper right).
     
    When Robert learned to read, he read everything he could lay his hands on. He did, in fact, read on his way to school, going along the street, up and down curbs, up to the schoolhouse. He attended junior high school, Central High School in Kansas City, and spent one year at a local junior college. His next older brother had gone before him to the United States Naval Academy, and Robert set his sights on going there. He collected many letters of recommendation from people and gained the appointment from Senator James Reed to enter the Naval Academy in 1925.

    (xiii)
    Heinlein at the time of his high school graduation.

    (xiii)
    Robert A. Heinlein, 1929.
     
    Following his graduation and commissioning in 1929, he served aboard the Lexington under Captain E. J. King, who later became Commander in chief of the U. S. Navy during World War II. When his tour of duty on the Lexington was about to end, Captain King asked that he be retained as a gunnery specialist. However, Robert was given duty as gunnery officer on the Roper , a destroyer. Destroyer duty was difficult because of the rolling of the ship, and seasickness was a way of life for him. He lost weight and came down with tuberculosis. After he was cured, the Navy retired him from active duty.
    At twenty-seven years of age, he found himself permanently ashore, with a small pension. It was necessary for him to find some way to augment that money. He tried silver mining, politics, selling real estate, and further study in engineering. One day, he found an ad in a science fiction magazine for a contest. So he sat down and wrote a story ("Life-Line"). He felt it was too good for the magazine he had written it for, so he sent it to the top magazine in the field— Astounding Science Fiction. John W. Campbell, Jr. bought the story.

    (xiv)
    Heinlein gets the ball rolling, 1934.
     
    The next several stories he wrote were less salable, and it was only on his fifth or sixth try that Campbell again purchased one. The second and following stories eventually sold, but Robert was hooked for life on writing. Originally, his purpose in writing was to pay off a mortgage on a house which he and his wife of a few years had purchased. After that mortgage was paid off, he found that when he tried to give up writing, he felt vaguely uncomfortable, and it was only when he returned to his typewriter that he felt fulfilled.
    * * *
    During World War II, Robert left his writing to do engineering work for the U.S. Navy. For three years he did such work in Philadelphia. The war over, he returned to his writing. By this time, he was looking for wider horizons. He was persuaded to begin the juvenile line, and he sold stories to the Saturday Evening Post. His second juvenile was picked up by television, in a series that ran for five years. He also wrote the classic film, Destination Moon, and he began to think about writing serious adult novels to open up that