Excursus - From The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
For the first time we come to a story by RAH that I’ve never read before. It was certainly not included in my original copy of The Past Through Tomorrow, I know that. From the notes I believe it was written for the Shasta publication of The Man Who Sold the Moon.
Actually, it’s only a few hundred words, tops. It functions as an intro to The Man Who Sold the Moon and sets the stage for that story. It’s a short love-letter-style description of what the moon is like, now that the cities are there and travel is routine. Then it segues back to the novella to come.
Still, the writing it good and evocative. It does paint that picture well. I enjoyed it.
The Man Who Sold the Moon - From The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
Look, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think this story is one of Heinlein’s best. Best in the Future History, best outside of the Future History. Just plain best.
The amazing thing about it is how it was written out of sequence and what that implies about Heinlein and the nature of writing.
By the time he got around to writing TMWSTM, the vast majority of the Future History had been written, including one that uses the major character, Delos David Harriman. Working something in this late in the process, and making it, essentially, the launching point for several stories, written earlier but existing later in the timeline, is quite an accomplishment.
It’s also one of the most developed of the Future History stories. That may be because of its length, true, but it shows a lot greater sense of character than some of his earlier works like Life-Line or Blowups Happen.
It tells the tale of an entrepreneur, already a successful businessman by any sense, who puts together the first trip to the moon. It’s a brilliant story and incorporates, to my experienced eye, many of the tactics I’ve used in creating companies and getting investors to believe in them. I wouldn’t be surprised if, subconsciously, I took this story as an example when I started having to do the ‘talk fast and don’t let them think too much’ routine.
This is a well-written story about an adventure, but it’s also a character study of how a certain type of person bends the world to his will. D.D. isn’t always shown as a hero, just as a man determined to achieve his goal. It’s a great piece of work.
A great story. By the way, a classic work on computer programming, The Mythical Man-Month (by Fred Brooks), excerpts a portion of “The Man Who Sold the Moon” to demonstrate the difference between being “chief designer” and “chief administrator”.
Keep in mind that MWSTM is essentially the last Future History story written, so besides having the arc and ideas in mind all through writing the others, it could be neatly dovetailed to fit among all the existing works.
(No, I don’t regard Time Enough for Love as the “capstone” of the Future History; it treats little from any prior story with more than a passing glance and is much more the first book of the Multiverse/World as Myth series.)
I never said that the world didn’t have any men like Harriman, only that we need more of them.
And was “Requiem” seriously written before “The Man who Sold the Moon”? That seems amazing to me. He must have had at least the broad outline of “TMwStM” in mind, in order to make “Requiem” possible.
Yep, according to the release dates on wiki and the notes, The Green Hills of Earth was published in 1950, ten years AFTER Requiem. It was written to provide extra material for a collection of Future History stories that were to be entitled The Outward Urge (God spare us from that title). The notes in my edition say that Heinlein started thinking about TMWSTM in 1946, six years after the character of DD Harriman first saw print. That’s really something, isn’t it?
Anyway, the story he submitted for the compilation was so strong that it was named for it, rather than any other story or title.
Delilah and the Space Rigger - from The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
I’m going to try to blow through some quickly, as I’ve gotten busy and fallen behind.
DatSR is one of the better stories in the future history. Like several of the next set, it shows Heinlein’s attempt at portraying life off Earth. Indeed, following the war he spent time working to make a American Moon trip possible, working to get believe to believe in a new round of manifest destiny right over our heads. While a trip in the 40s didn’t work out, God knows, in his writings Heinlein spent quite a bit of time trying to make clear just how day-to-day life would be for those who did.
This one shows something that will be a real problem once we move into space on a regular basis: men and women, interacting together. It details a construction crew, all male, and the impact it has when a woman is assigned to be a communications officer for the team. The solution, after much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth, is the obvious one: get more women on the crew. It’s a natural and a good idea.
The story is enjoyable and well-written, better than most of the earlier stuff. It shows that it was written and published in 1949, ten years after Heinlein started writing with his clunkier, early stuff.
Space Jockey - From The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
I simply canNOT read that title without thinking of Alien, at this point. It’s just not possible.
Published in 1947 by The Saturday Evening Post it was a sign that Heinlein had truly arrived. 1947 saw a whole spate of Heinlein publications as he committed to writing again, full time.
This is another one of his ‘regular life in space’ set of stories that, to me at least, make The Future History so special. It’s not about grand schemes and adventures, it’s about showing how people will adapt to living in space. More importantly, it’s about how people won’t change much when they do. Sure, the location’s are exotic, the moon, after all, ain’t Charleston, SC. But what people are and how they behave? Not so different.
This one is about a pilot working in space and the stresses his job puts on his marriage. Nothing else. Again, the background is different, and there are some side notes, including one very annoying blowhard of a father and son combination, but this could have been written about a pilot or truck driver forced to spend time away from his wife for too many weeks. It strikes a chord in me.
This also has a mention of Harriman in it, in that the blowhard character has a letter from Harriman asking the pilot to provide the blowhard ‘every courtesy’.
Requiem - From The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
The oddball among what I’m reading right now as it was published in 1940, before the war.
The story is the fifth Heinlein story to be placed and the first that takes us offworld in any sense. It’s the tale of an old man, DD Harriman, who brought man to the moon but couldn’t go himself. It’s basically a character study of Harriman in his elderly days. A story of regret and accomplishment set on a final attempt to get to the moon.
The amazing thing is that Heinlein conceived it before he conceived The Man Who Sold the Moon. The two fit together so well, Requiem as a coda to TMWSTM, that it’s incredible that they were written on different sides of the war and in the reverse of the expected order.
Still, he did it. And it works.
But not for everyone. The notes say that, when he received it, John W. Campbell didn’t like the story. He ran it anyway, but he didn’t like it.
The Long Watch - From The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
The story that ties Space Cadet into The Future History!
This one came about in the late 40s as Heinlein suffered another bout of writer’s block. Ginny suggested that he go back to where he was when he was last badly blocked, Space Cadet. She suggested he write a story about one of the men mentioned as ‘heroes of the Patrol’ in that book.
So he did. It’s again a character study. What sort of character does it take to stand up for what you believe, even if it kills you. Well, even if it MIGHT kill you. John Dahlquist doesn’t know he’s killing himself with his actions, just that it’s dangerous. By the time he does know the price, the decision point is past.
The story took eight months to sell, as it was a bit of a downer and didn’t fit in a lot of editorial styles. Eventually, American Legion Magazine picked it up and it ran in 1949.
Again, though, we see that this is a story not so much about space travel and such, but about how people will interact with each other, and their environment, while off Earth. It’s a fair dinkum piece of writing and I’m glad to revisit it here.
The Long Watch was the first of RAH’s stories to really get to me as a kid. It was part of the group of stories and authors that taught me about honor, duty and doing the right thing because it is the right thing.
I’m actually tearing up a bit just thinking about “The Long Watch”. Part of what makes it hit so hard is the fact that Dahlquist isn’t a Big Damn Hero: He’s just the guy who was there, and did what needed to be done.
I like “The Long Watch” very much. It’s a beautiful story about duty, honor and self-sacrifice for a cause greater than self. Did you know it was cited in a 1988 Israeli court-martial?: http://www.thefullwiki.org/Adam_Keller_court_martial
“The Long Watch” is one of my favorite Heinlein stories. I could have sworn it was in “Lazarus Long’s Notebooks” but cannot find the quote yet. Something about “[Big Damn] Heroes are often made on the spot and often from whatever material is handy.” Anyone recognize the quote? I’m sure I’ve messed up the wording which is probably why I can’t find it, whomever it’s from. Dahlquist was not a hero to himself, certainly not at the start of the story. But he put himself between evil and his wife and child and by extension, everyone else. That’s a hero.
I’m surprised to hear that “Requiem” was done before “TMWSTM”. I remember the first time I read both and just assumed that Requiem" was Heinlein re-visiting the character years later and giving him a happy ending. Many thanks to Jonathan for passing along all this great information. I’m following this thread with great anticipation.
To quote Heinlein via Jubal Harshaw, he liked it better after he peed in it. (The magazine version had two lines added to the ending that made Heinlein apopleptic.)
