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Heinlein Archives Put Online
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Fri Sep 21, 2007 04:09 AM
from the plenty-to-read dept.
from the plenty-to-read dept.
RaymondRuptime writes "Good news for fans of the late SF master Robert Heinlein, 2 months after his 100th birthday celebration. Per the San Jose Mercury News, 'The entire contents of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archive — housed in the UC-Santa Cruz Library's Special Collections since 1968 — have been scanned in an effort to preserve the contents digitally while making the collection easily available to both academics and the general public... The first collection released includes 106,000 pages, consisting of Heinlein's complete manuscripts — including files of all his published works, notes, research, early drafts and edits of manuscripts.' You can skip the brief article and go straight to the archives."
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Science: Robert A. Heinlein's 100th Birthday 202 comments
sasdrtx writes "Today is Robert A. Heinlein's 100th birthday. Regarded as one of the most influential hard Sci-Fi authors of the 20th century, it's definitely worth looking back at his influence on not only science fiction, but the space program, the english language, counter-culture, and political discourse. The Space Review has a piece entitled Ride the Lightning, which discusses Heinlein's history with the space program and (sometimes incorrect) assertions about the future of space flight. For a look at the official celebration, the Heinlein Centennial website has numerous resources available. The program for the event (pdf) makes it sound like they're having a great time in Kansas City."
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For real? (Score:2, Funny)
(Last Journal: Thursday November 08, @07:22PM)
Re:For real? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.sigsegv.cx/)
Just read the Lazarus rant in "Time Enough for Love" when he understands for the first time that his pearls of wisdom are being recorded.
So I think he is more likely laughing than grumbling. After all he said (though Lazarus): "Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil."
Re:For real? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.networkboy.net/)
He also put in his bequeathing to UCSC that there was one work not to be published... Ever. I haven't the time to search the archive to see if it's there, and at the moment the title escapes me, so I'll have to dig in my annual collection and look up the title (My most prized copy of ?compton's SF? some rag that was carrying RAH's first serials.)
Anyway, I hope they honor his wishes about this. He declared it his single worst story ever, never to be re-printed. He's fairly spot on in his assessment.
-nB
Re:For real? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.networkboy.net/)
-nB
*Yes I'm a geek, but old ragstock is known for decay, thus a Lucite box, purged with argon.
Re:For real? (Score:4, Informative)
The so-called "stinkeroos" (Heinlein's own term for them) are three short stories, all dating from the first phase of his writing career, prior to World War II. With one exception, they have never been reprinted since their original pulp appearances. Heinlein refused reprint requests and never included them in any of his own collections, and his literary executors continue this policy. It is unlikely that any of them will ever be reprinted.
The stinkeroos are:
"Beyond Doubt" (Astonishing Stories, Apr 1941)
"'My Object All Sublime'" (Future, Feb 1942)
"Pied Piper" (Astonishing, Mar 1942)
Re:For real? (Score:5, Informative)
"Beyond Doubt" (Astonishing Stories, Apr 1941)
http://www.heinleinarchives.net/upload/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=13 [heinleinarchives.net]
"'My Object All Sublime'" (Future, Feb 1942)
http://www.heinleinarchives.net/upload/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=8 [heinleinarchives.net]
"Pied Piper" (Astonishing, Mar 1942)
http://www.heinleinarchives.net/upload/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=9 [heinleinarchives.net]
Re:Who Robert Heinlein is... (Score:5, Funny)
A practice that could save us from rereleases. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.christopherculver.com/)
Re:A practice that could save us from rereleases. (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://conceptjunkie.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Monday August 25 2003, @10:22PM)
I can: Terry Pratchett.
While the Discworld books have evolved significantly from essentially a ripoff of Douglas Adams to the best fantasy humor ever written to painstaking social commentary and satire, even a spinoff into children's stories that are largely as good as the "main" series, after something close to 30 books, I think he's still doing a great job. Of course, they're not coming out twice a year, each thicker (and better) than the last like they were in the 90's, but I think man is still on a roll.
TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TANSTAAFL (Score:4, Informative)
I saw your acronym, and (once again, clueless me) I had to look it up in Wikipedia. [wikipedia.org] And it's a Heinlein reference!
I take it they are charging for access?Re:TANSTAAFL (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact is, most of the wonders of modern science were predicted in the writings of people like Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Wells, and Clarke.
This links to a *STORE*, people... (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Monday April 03 2006, @07:23PM)
Hey, if I link to the "complete" works of another great author on Amazon, can I make FP too? Or does it have to belong to some "special" collection selling out?
Re:This links to a *STORE*, people... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.deadpixelnews.com/)
This whole 'everything should be free' movement is weird.
D
Re:This links to a *STORE*, people... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This links to a *STORE*, people... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://members.gaponline.de/pedxing | Last Journal: Monday July 09, @10:44AM)
Such weak BS.
If an artist wants to take care of their heirs, they need to do like the rest of us and take care of their heirs with the money they earn while they are still alive.
Untimely accident? TFB, death sucks for all of us.
I just don't see what gives artists the right to continue to profit from their works after they die. No one else has that "right".
Re:This links to a *STORE*, people... (Score:4, Insightful)
My grandfather is dead, but I am his heir. He did some good work 70 years ago but I am quite poor. Everyone must send me $10.
it would be nice to think that one's work could benefit one's children for some time
I would like that too. But my employer has told me that my pay will be stopped when I die. Evidently I am in the wrong industry.
No Free Lunch (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://www.pacbus.org/)
Grumble, mumble mumble.
Shoulda known.
Copyright concerns (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.geocities.com/evil_rhinobird)
Increase the income... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://home.comcast.net/~rickrich1/)
I'm a fanboy but... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.you-suck.com/mutant)
I was hoping to get downloadable versions of all his books that I read as a kid, especially some of the more obscure titles, and as I read them.
Don't get me wrong - this is very cool, but we're not talking the finished product here, but all drafts leading up to the galley that was submitted to the publisher.
So this would be very good to see how the plot, characters & books were developed. But you're not gonna curl up with one of these. I suspect they'll be dense reads.
And expensive! The complete, seven parts of Starship Troopers [heinleinarchives.net] will set you back $21!!
hrmph. (Score:4, Insightful)
I have all his books, even the one finished by Spider Robinson.
But when I can buy an copy off the 'net for less then a scanned, no doubt DRM'd, electronic copy - I have to wonder who the target of this website is.
Bottom line - If you want to impress people donate the collected works to the Gutenberg archive.
But of course that is not a money spinner. Hardcore fans only indeed - though I am not knocking this as a source for historical research for the academics.
Playboy.com makes mens magazine available online! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://192.168.2.1/)
smokin something (Score:2)
(http://www.gargoyleslanding.com/)
Job: A comedy of Justice, used on Amazon... $0.01
Job: A comedy of Justice, digitized... $33.00?!?
Re:smokin something (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll stick my two cents in here. Heinlein's juveniles and many other works (up until the period when the transition in quality coming from his cerebral artery problem deeply hurt his work) all celebrated the human condition, and the ability of man to rise to noble heights. They also were cracking good stories, too. Heinlein does not deserve the denigration coming these days from academic hacks and people unable to understand what he was really getting at. He wrote of man's responsibility to society, over and over again, and I find it offensive when some dimwitted, unimaginative 'publish or perish' academic arrogantly demeans him.
In his time - a span of decades overlapping WWII - Heinlein was a giant and an inspiration to many engineers and scientists; any current critic dismissing him as a totalitarian Nazi is getting it completely wrong. His goal was to make money entertaining, true, but he aimed to inspire, he aimed at noble mores. He was not a literary cheat or a fraud and tried to give good value for the money. He was human and he made some mistakes in later years. But overall he saluted the best in man, championed the competent man in his stories. He was in favor of can-do, and held whiny slackers in disdain. If someone finds fault in that, the problem is with them, not him. His Starship Troopers was about genuine duty to man, unlike many of today's shallow military porn 'Sci-Fi" novels. (The movie adaptation was not his fault.) His Door Into Summer inspired me as a budding engineer. Today's lightweight bookstore rack-space fillers, by contrast, are shallow and disposable. I don't see many of them lighting the right sparks in growing minds like Heinlein did.
Heinlein A Master (Score:1)
(http://freejavalectures.googlepages.com/)
Vector: Santa Cruz (Score:2, Funny)
TANSTAFL (Score:1)
always the last to find out (Score:1)
WTF? (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 06, @02:25PM)
Store charging for downloads of the discussed material? Check.
Prices for downloads higher than the price of the books? Check.
How did this get approved as a FP post? I dunno...
Don't tell the SFWA (Score:2)
(http://steve.poling.info/ | Last Journal: Saturday March 13 2004, @02:55AM)
Three bucks a pop (Score:1)
(http://grikdog.blogspot.com/)
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:2)
(http://www.christopherculver.com/)
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:4, Informative)
Heinlein is one of the biggest, most influential names in science fiction. He won 4 Hugos, the very first Grand Master Award from the SFWA, and I'm sure a lot more awards that I don't know about. Fuck, at one time he was referred to as one of the "Big Three" names in sci fi (along with Asimov and Clarke).
Read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Friday, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Citizen of the Galaxy. If you can't appreciate the genius that this man had after that, you're beyond hope.
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.thetao.info/tao/whitecloud1.htm)
Heinlein knew he was writing in the style of Kipling - and Twain - the two best writers in the English language since Shakespeare and Milton. Heinlein knew their work intimately. Since Heinlein was describing outward-looking people and societies, people of the frontiers such as Kipling and Twain had written of, they were perfect models for him. Joyce, by contrast, is an example of European culture turned inward, during a period of great failures and retreat. And that's the problem with most of what passes for "literature" today - it deals in neurosis and failure rather than hope and success. Our scope should be wide enough to encompass both. And of the latter, Heinlein was the greatest author of the 20th Century. His sentences are deliciously-well crafted, too. His care in the details was as fine as Joyce's. It's just a different style. But he was perfect at it, especially in his first couple of decades.
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:2)
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:2)
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Umm??? I thought Heinlein... (Score:2)
(http://www.pandora.be/jurgen.defurne/ | Last Journal: Wednesday September 08 2004, @11:52AM)
Why does everybody always think that Heinlein was a fascist ?
I think **whoosh** applies here.
Heinlein was very good at playing devil's advocate, and while some of his stories seem very authoritarian, they always question something basic.
Having read most of his early stories up until his last, you can definitely see a shift in his backgrounds and ideas moving from so-called right to so-called left. But the main thing is that I always have the impression that what he writes, he continually questions (except for Glory Road and The Number of Beast, maybe. Fantastic adventure novels).
Yeah, but... (Score:2)
(http://retiredmidn.blogspot.com/)
Re:Hmm.. (Score:2)
That's a big part of it: in the 50s and 60s they were pretty radical ideas.
But there's no getting around the fact that, for all his intelligence, he was a pedantic windbag, a quality that got worse with his success and the inability of editors to rein in his prose. I didn't even get a quarter of the way into The Lives Of Lazerus Long.
Re:Cool! A Minnie Driver/Anne Hathaway love scene. (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Friday January 05 2007, @12:57PM)
Apparently the reader hasn't actually read some of Heinlein's final works.