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In 1959 Heinlein's career took a new direction with the explicitly militaristic Starship Troopers. This was followed in 1961 by Stranger in a Strange Land, which achieved tremendous popularity on college campuses for its apparent advocacy of sexual liberation; it was, however, later tainted by being one of the books that inspired Charles Manson and his followers. Heinlein's subsequent work, while reaching a much larger audience than most SF, was marked by greater and greater emphasis on complex political and religious polemics, generally of a conservative nature. Further novels include Glory Road (1963), Farnham's Freehold (1964), The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), and I Will Fear No Evil (1970). In 1973 Heinlein capped his long-neglected "Future History" series with Time Enough for Love, the "memoirs" of Lazarus Long, protagonist of Methuselah's Children (serialized 1941; book publication 1958). |
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Following an extended illness, Heinlein in 1980 published The Number of the Beast, a complex science-fantasy involving many characters from his own and other writers' previous works. His final four novels were Friday (1982), Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984), The Cat Who Walks through Walls (1985), and To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987). |
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Heinlein was the recipient of the prestigious Hugo Award four times. He was married twice, first to Leslyn McDonald, then (from 1948) to Virginia Gerstenfeld. Robert A. Heinlein died on May 8, 1988. Since his death, several of his novelsincluding Stranger in a Strange Land and The Puppet Mastershave been issued in unabridged form. |
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We here (at the World Science Fiction Convention), the science fiction fans, are the lunatic fringe! We are the crazy fools who read that kind of stuffwho read those magazines with the outlandish machines and animals on the cover. You leave one around loose in your home and a friend will pick it up. Those who are not fans ask you if you really read that stuff, and from then on they look at you with suspicion. |
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Why do we do it? I think I know. This is an opinion, but it is probably why we like science fiction. It is not just for the adventure of the story |
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