RAH, letter addressed to “Ron, Jack, Betty & Co.,” 02/23/46.
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/16/46.
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/16/46.
Wells, The World of William Clissold, 358–59.
RAH’s Accession Notes dated 04/02/67 for Opus 42, Rocket Ship Galileo, RAH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, letter to Alice Dalgliesh, 02/17/59.
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/16/46.
Lurton Blassingame, letter to RAH, 03/04/46.
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/16/46.
All of these projects, and his intention to take one of the ideas to Lang, are discussed in RAH’s letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/16/46.
RAH, letter to William Holt, 01/15/47.
Henry Kuttner’s correspondence with Robert Heinlein covered the entire time of his experiment with the Bond-Charteris organization, and he summarized the conclusion of the arrangement in a letter to Heinlein dated September 23, 1946:
On Charteris. Here’s the deal, confidentially. You know I did that ghosted Saint 40,000 worder [in 1945]. He delayed and delayed. Finally he offered me $100 on account. I said no. He offered $250 on account. I said no, he could return the story if he wanted, I wouldn’t insist that he buy it. That did it. He sent a check for the full amount. It bounced. At that point I got mad—I had learned that some of Leslie’s previous ghost-writers had had unhappy experiences in collecting their dough—and threatened suit. And I got another check which was good this time. All of which you may find useful to remember in case Charteris wants you to do some more work for him. I definitely advise a written contract in advance! I’d feel more sympathetic toward him if I hadn’t learned that such tactics are, presumably, standard business practice with him.
Heinlein was later (10/26/46) able to tell Kuttner that Charteris had sold Kuttner’s ghostwritten serial to Red Book (a fiction pulp) under the Charteris name and for vastly more than he had paid Kuttner—while Kuttner still owned the rights to the story, which is why he had paid up. “Sorta like agenting in reverse, with 90% to the agent,” Heinlein wryly remarked. He offered to write Charteris up in the Authors League bulletin.
No reply to this matter from Kuttner is preserved in Heinlein’s correspondence.
The magazine had already gone out of business by the spring of 1946, when Heinlein recovered the story and sent it to his agent for submission to the other mystery pulps. See RAH’s letter to Lurton Blassingame, 05/20/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 03/14/46; see also RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 03/19/46,
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 03/19/46.
RAH, letter to John S. Arwine, 05/10/46.
RAH, notes for reply attached to L. Ron Hubbard’s letter to RAH, 12/04/46.
RAH, letter to John Arwine, 05/10/46.
Cal Laning, letter to Robert and Leslyn Heinlein, 03/20/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 05/23/46.
Cal Laning, letter to RAH, 03/20/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Cal Laning, 03/30/46.
RAH, letter to Jerry Voorhis, 05/28/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Cal Laning, 03/30/46.
Paul Rydeen, “Brother Jack Parsons: The Magickal Scientist and His Circle,” http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/glor_003/magickalscientist.htm.
This anecdote is recorded in “Whence Came the Stranger?” by “Adam Walks Between Worlds” (Adam Rostoker), originally in Green Egg magazine and republished on the Internet in several places, but see http://pturing.firehead.org/-occultgrok/thelema.htm.
RAH, letter to John Arwine, 05/10/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/26/46.
Brendan Byrne (editor), letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/25/46.
Owen J. Roberts, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 07/12/46.
Rejection letter from William Morrow to Lurton Blassingame, 06/05/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 05/23/46.
RAH, letter to Ted Carnell, 06/02/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 05/23/46.
RAH, letter to Ted Carnell, 06/02/46.
RAH, letter to Ted Carnell, 06/02/46.
Ted Carnell, letter to RAH, 05/25/46.
RAH, letter to John Arwine, 05/10/46.
Lurton Blassingame, letter to RAH, 07/02/46.
RAH, letter to John Arwine, 05/10/46.
RAH, letter to John Arwine, 05/10/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, supplemental note to RAH’s letter to Theodore Sturgeon, 05/19/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 05/23/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 05/23/46. Since this is the only letter dealing with these events, it is difficult to tell exactly what the mention of a “Sabbat” was intended to convey, combining speechifying with dance and, presumably, a quantity of liquor.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 05/23/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, untitled poem dated 06/09/46, in “Poems” file of Robert Heinlein’s personal files, RAH Archive, UCSC.
28. Writing Factory (pages 393–410)
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 06/11/46.
Virginia Gerstenfeld related the occasion of the breakup in a postscript to a letter to the Heinleins, 11/28/45.
P.S. It’s happened. Dammit, Dammit Damn it. George is back. And of course our meeting would be dramatic—right in front of everyone. I was doing a back change of edges, when he tore up with great enthusiasm and said ‘Hello Gin.’ And wanted to know how long I would be around, and let loose with much gossip, etc. I was very proud of myself, because I took it all very calmly, and when he got hold of a card and handed it to me mostly filled in, and told me that that was my program, I advised him that I wasn’t dancing. I am not free skating with much vim, landing Axels in beautiful 3-point landings (two feet and a place not intended for landing jumps on). He asked me to be his partner in group free-skating numbers and I refused. Boy, am I ever doing swell! Expect to take my gold dance test with his pet enemy too. In words of one syllable, I’m through and enjoying it thoroughly.
Virginia Gerstenfeld, letter to Robert and Leslyn Heinein, 03/22/46.
Virginia Gerstenfeld, letter to Robert and Leslyn Heinlein, 04/22/46.
Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein, letter to Leon Stover, 03/29/89.
Probably Dick Skidmore, one of her protégés in Philadelphia who had come to the West Coast. The Heinleins had known the Skidmores since at least 1937, when an outing on the Skidmores’ yacht was reported in the Los Angeles Times (July 20, 1937, “Merry Party Takes a Cruise”).
Virginia Heinlein, e-mail to Robert James, Ph.D., 06/16/2001.
RAH, letter to Mary Collin, 07/08/62.
Heinlein’s copy of “Dance Session,” dated “June 1946,” is in the “Verse” file of his personal files. Ginny’s copy is in her naval jacket. RAH Archive, UCSC.
Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein, e-mail to Robert James, Ph.D., 06/16/2001.
Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein, taped interview by author, Second Series, Tape C, Side B (September [9?,] 2000).
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 11/05/46.
RAH, letter to Virginia Gerstenfeld, 06/26/46.
Virginia Gerstenfeld, letter addressed “Dear folks,” 06/27/46.
RAH, letter to Judith Klein, 12/01/79.
Robert and Leslyn Heinlein both wrote descriptions of their experience. Robert’s, from which this and the following quotations are taken, was titled “Journey of Death” but never published; Leslyn’s was published in their local newspaper, The Canyon Crier (July 19, 1946). Both articles will be republished in the Virginia Edition volumes of Heinlein’s nonfiction.
Manuscript for Opus 45, “Journey of Death,” in the RAH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, “Journey of Death.”
“Altitude Record Set in V-2 Test,” The El Paso Times front page, Saturday, June 29, 1946, preserved in the Opus 45 manuscript file for “Journey of Death” in the R
AH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, “Journey of Death.”
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 08/09/46.
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 08/09/46.
Harvey Rivkins, Lt. Col. Ord Dept. (on War Department Office of the Chief of Ordnance stationery), to Robert Heinlein, 08/15/46, in the Opus 45 manuscript file for “Journey of Death,” RAH Archive, UCSC.
Both selections are from the manuscript for, Opus 45, “Journey of Death” in the RAH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 08/09/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 11/29/46.
RAH, letter to Ted and Irene Carnell, 02/13/46.
In the correspondence, the boy’s name is given variously as “Michael” and “Micheal.”
The project failed to raise sufficient money to bring Carnell to the United States in 1947, but was successful two years later, when Carnell was brought for the 1949 World Science Fiction Convention in Cincinnati. The Big Pond Fund was thereafter dropped, but a campaign to bring Irish fan writer Walter Willis to the United States in 1952 resulted in the founding of the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF), which continues to date.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 10/13/46.
Virginia Heinlein, e-mail to Robert James, Ph.D., 06/01/2001.
The quotation is taken from RAH’s letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/16/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Catherine and Sprague de Camp, 08/07/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 08/09/46.
RAH, letter to Cal Laning, 03/30/46.
Unpublished draft of a Heinlein biography by Virginia Heinlein, written about 1989, page xv; and Virginia Heinlein, letter to author, 06/04/99.
Willy Ley, letter to Robert and Leslyn Heinlein, 08/28/46.
The various translations are found with the other manuscript materials in the Opus 48 manuscript file of the RAH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 10/26/46.
RAH’s notes in the Opus 48, “The Green Hills of Earth” file, RAH Archive, UCSC.
Lurton Blassingame, letter to RAH, 09/30/46.
RAH, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 10/26/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 01/12/47.
RAH, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 10/26/46.
Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 489.
Robert S. Richardson, letter to RAH, 12/31/46.
RAH, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 10/26/46.
Henry Kuttner, letter to RAH, 10/21/46.
According to RAH’s Accession Notes dated 04/02/67 for the RAH Archive, UCSC “Space Jockey” was sold to the Post on October 17, 1946.
RAH, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 10/26/46.
Virginia Gerstenfeld, letter to RAH, 11/04/46.
The indented points are quoted from Heinlein’s letter; the nonindented text summarizes his arguments to Susie Clifton.
RAH, letter to Susie Clifton, 11/06/46.
Helen Gahagan Douglas, letter to RAH, 12/17/46.
This verse is quoted in several letters, but a fair copy is also in the “Verse” file of RAH’s personal files, in the RAH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 11/09/46.
RAH, letter to John W. Campbell, Jr., 11/15/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 12/06/46.
RAH, Accession Notes dated April 2, 1967, for Opus 48, “The Green Hills of Earth,” 11–12, RAH Archive, UCSC.
RAH, letter to William Holt, 01/15/47.
L. Ron Hubbard, letter to RAH, 12/04/46.
RAH, handwritten notes on three-by-five-inch cards attached to a letter from L. Ron Hubbard to RAH dated 12/06/46; there is no indication that Heinlein’s letter was ever written or sent—yet Hubbard’s letter indicates he knew he was in bad odor with the Heinleins, and Heinlein’s note indicates he feels it necessary to explain why.
RAH, handwritten notecards attached to L. Ron Hubbard’s letter to RAH, 12/06/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Catherine and Sprague de Camp, 08/07/46.
L. Sprague de Camp, letter to Robert and Leslyn Heinlein (with handwritten P.S. by Catherine de Camp), 08/13/46.
Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Catherine and Sprague de Camp, 08/07/46.
29. Separation. Anxiety. (pages 411–432)
RAH, Accession Notes dated 04/02/67 for Opus 48, “The Green Hills of Earth,” RAH Archive, UCSC.
Robert and Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Virginia Gerstenfeld, 02/28/47.
Robert and Leslyn Heinlein, letter to Virginia Gerstenfeld, 03/09/47. Such a sentiment is as close to a direct admission of an extramarital affair as exists in Heinlein’s usually discreet correspondence. Such extramarital affairs have been casually alluded to in a number of sources—including particularly Virginia Heinlein’s taped interviews for this biography project—but without details. Finding such language in letters written from both Heinleins to Ginny (as well as from Ginny, if we may read between the lines of her earlier note to Robert) speaks to Leslyn’s acceptance of such arrangement, if not her active complicity (as to which there is no direct testimony). Later assertions from Leslyn’s poison-pen letters to Frederik Pohl and William A. P. White, portraying herself as some kind of unwilling victim, must be read with the proverbial grain of salt. In a letter dated only “April 1947,” Ginny Gerstenfeld refers to the situation as a “threesome”—which might mean only a social and personal relationship among three people in stable equilibrium, or it might imply a sexual triangle. The discussion in this letter can, admittedly, be read very much like the tactical dilemmas of a junior wife in a three-way marriage.
RAH, letter to Jay Stanton, 05/21/47.
Cal Laning, letter to RAH, 04/25/47.
Virginia Heinlein, taped interview by author, Third Series Tape A, Side B (March 27, 2001).
Virginia Heinlein, letter to author, 02/07/00.
RAH, letter to Doña and George Smith, 02/03/51.
Virginia Heinlein, letter to author, 02/07/2000.
The terms of this anecdote are taken directly from Virginia Heinlein’s recounting of the incident, in a letter to the author, 02/07/2000, and in an IM, 06/27/2000.
Virginia Heinlein, IM with author, 06/27/2000. It is fairly telling that Robert did not conclude that the affair with Ginny Gerstenfeld was even marginally involved in the crisis—additional testimony, if testimony of a negative kind, that such extramarital affairs were not a special or exceptional occurrence in the Heinlein marriage—and neither was Leslyn’s meltdown.
Possibly corroborating this interpretation is Heinlein’s characterization, in much the same terms, of the alcoholic Grace Farnham in Farnham’s Freehold (1965).
Virginia Gerstenfeld, letter to RAH, undated except “Sunday Night” in Virginia Gerstenfeld’s hand—but “circa Apr. 46” in RAH’s hand. The context seems to refer, rather, to April 1947, as there were no particular emotional crises going on in Robert Heinlein’s life in April 1946, and in any case Gerstenfeld was still in New York in April 1946.
The discussion of Virginia Gerstenfeld’s social life at UCLA is taken from a taped interview of Virginia Heinlein by the author, Tape 2, Side B (February 27, 2000).
RAH, letter to Bill and Lucy Corson, 11/10/48.
RAH, letter to Henry and Catherine Kuttner, 04/21/47.
RAH, letter to Jay Stanton, 05/21/47.
RAH, letter to Robert Moore Williams, 05/21/47.
RAH, letter to John Arwine, 03/15/47.
Lurton Blassingame, letter to RAH, 05/02/47.
RAH, letter to Stuart Rose, 05/30/47.
From Horatio Winslow, about whom I have not been able to discover any information. Presumably he was one of the magazine editors to whom a Heinlein story was submitted. Lurton Blassingame, letter to RAH, 05/12/47.
Winslow’s recommendation that Heinlein consult Uzzell was a direct observation that Heinlein’s stories were not structured like commercial American magazine stories—true en
ough. Heinlein’s stories, from his earliest to his last, showed a wide range of formal experimentation and have more in common with European “art” stories than with American magazine fiction.
RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 05/14/47.
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century Page 75