Heinlein and "Dr.Renshaw"

[zen101]

For those of you RAH junkies the name "Renshaw" might ring a bell or two. If you read Robert Heinleins' works this name keeps popping up all over the place (Citizen of the Galaxy, Friday, just off the top of my head). In all the books when he is mentioned he is described as a professor from California or who taught in California (UCLA I think) who founded a method of speed teaching that taught people how have instant retention and memorization. His method is described as "The Renshaw Technique" (catchy name).

Anyhow I have been searching archives and on the Web for this person or someone who might be him. I had written Roberta (Robert's widow) through Baen Books (Heinlein's publisher) and got no reply. So I was wondering if anyone here knew about this possible ficticious charachter or if it was based on a real life person?

Thanx,

[a35362]

Ahem.

I thought his wife's name was Virginia ("Ginny").

As you were!

[zen101]

Originally posted by a35362
Ahem.

I thought his wife's name was Virginia ("Ginny").

As you were!

Your right of course,

I had to look it up at the time and copied the address from the back of "Grumbles". I remember just calling her Mrs.Heinlen in the letter. I am pretty sure I used her correct name in the original letter as I said it was copied from Grumbles From The Grave. I alays think her name is "Roberta" for some reason, was his first wife named Roberta? Or a daughter? I can't honestly think of why I always mix her name up.

[Irishman]

A google search on "Renshaw speed reading" turned up the following that is the direct response to your question.

http://www.enter.net/~torve/critics/renshaw.htm

At the moment, I can think of only one bit of material of which Heinlein has explicitly named the source--in fact, he has done it three times. In the short novel "Gulf," in Citizen of the Galaxy, and in Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein makes reference to the work of a psychologist named Samuel Renshaw.

This struck me as an interesting thing to look into: what could I find out about Renshaw? (Here, by the way, you can see Panshin's Law of Repetition at work: if Heinlein had mentioned Renshaw in only one story, it would have seemed quite possible that Renshaw was someone made up for convenient use in a story; used three times, in separate, unconnected stories, it seemed most probable that he really existed.)
I was interested to know Renshaw's stature in the field of psychology: what sort of work he has done, and what other psychologists think of it. I was also interested in finding out how faithful Heinlein's representation of all this was.
I found immediately that there actually is a Dr. Samuel Renshaw of Ohio State University, and that, as Heinlein said, he did attract attention around the World War II years for his work on thresholds of perception. Renshaw has done work in increasing the limits and subtlety of perception of smell and taste; in increasing acuity and field of sight (of which his work in reading speed and comprehension is just a small part); and in increasing the power and strength of memory.

Lots more there.

[zen101]

Irishman

Yeah I read that earlier today and should have noted what little I did find. Overall I was unable to find any real details about his technique or published works on it (unless I overlooked something in that article).

I figure RAH must have met him (Renshaw) during his involvement in training Naval officers while Heinlein was involved in Naval Operations during WWII (Special warfare department wasn't it?).

I was somewhat glad to find that much but dissapointed to note that only 2% of his students were capable of gaining an editic memory. Interesting note about Asimov. I never knew he hat total recall.

The good and bad of the web, one days there is nothing on a given subject to be found. Next month 50 pages to sort through. heh.

[Sir Rhosis]

zen101,

I'm almost 100% sure his first wife was named Leslyn (divorced in 1947 or thereabouts, married Virginia Gerstenfeld soon thereafter). I'm also pretty sure Heinlein never had any children by either of his wives.

Sir

[Tristan]

Nope, Heinlein has no children... officially.

Of course, there are those of us that proudly claim his as part of the family, right up there with Grandpa and Niven and Uncle Joe and Bester.....

I'm a freak, but I don't care...


Some other thread will have to deal with my pilgrimage to his house, and the awe inspiring heinlein relic that I touched.....

[Czarcasm]

I always thought that Dr. Renshaw was another alias of ol' L.L. :)

[Wendell Wagner]

Is there anything other than that website that's been given which says that Isaac Asimov had an eidetic memory? I don't recall Asimov ever mentioning it, and I've read his autobiography. He had a very good memory, no doubt, but that's not the same thing as having an eidetic memory. Does anyone have a better source for this fact?

[Guy Propski]

Asimov joked that he had a "near photographic" memory; in other words, he could remember things that were near photographs.

Seriously, he never claimed to have an eiditic memory, just a very good one.