Profile
Robert Heinlein — (1907-1988)
Science Fiction Author
Robert Anson Heinlein was born on 7 July 1907, in Butler, Missouri. His consuming interest, from the 1910 apparition of Halley's Comet, was for astronomy. By the time he entered Kansas City's Central High School in 1920, Heinlein had already read every book on astronomy in the Kansas City Public Library.
Heinlein entered the Naval Academy in June 1925. Heinlein graduated in 1929, 20th in a class of 243, and was commissioned with the rank of Ensign. He actually stood fifth in academics in his class, but discipline considerations lowered his class standing to 20th.
Heinlein attended classes at U.C.L.A. for several weeks, and then left college to take up politics. In 1938, he ran as an EPIC-endorsed candidate for the 59th Assembly District seat (Hollywood). The failed campaign was a pivotal event of Heinlein's adult life. In the fall of 1938, he was broke, with a new mortgage to support, and he had been crushingly and humiliatingly rejected in his second choice of career. Casting around for some way to support himself, he hit on what would become his third - and final – career as a writer.
On May 8, 1988, he died peacefully in his morning nap. His body was cremated, his ashes strewn in the Pacific from the deck of a warship. He has returned to the elements from which we all came: If we want to take his body to the stars, it will have to be in a jar of seawater. Heinlein would probably find that appropriate.
Source: Heinlein Society
Topics with quotes by Robert Heinlein