New Heinlein Novel

book_reader writes "It's hard to believe but the grand master of sci-fi is back - 15 years or so after his death. His first novel that he wrote in the mid 30's and long since thought lost was rediscovered and will be coming out in November! The thought of a novel he wrote so early in his writing career boggles my mind but who will be able to resist - not I!"

just in case of ./ ing

[redcaboodle]

The finding and publishing of "For Us, the Living" by Deb Houdek Rule As of this writing, August 31, 2003, there are only about half a dozen people in the entire known universe who can accurately claim that they have read every novel Heinlein has written. For those of us who thought there would never again be another new Heinlein novel, the impossible has become reality . "For Us, the Living," is a brand new, never before published novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is going into print now for the first time and will be in bookstores by the end of November, 2003. "For Us, the Living" was written by Heinlein about 1938-9, before he wrote his first sf short, "Lifeline." The novel, "For Us, the Living," was deemed unpublishable, mainly for the racy content. So racy is/was the content that in the 1930s the book could not even have been legally shipped through the US mail! For this reason, after a few publisher rejections, the novel was tabled by Heinlein, but the content was mined for his later stories and novels. A fellow named Nehemiah Scudder even appears in "For Us, the Living." It's important to point out that according to those favored few who have thus far read this long lost Heinlein novel, it did not go unpublished because it was bad--they say it's quite good, though clearly a first novel by the author (it has a two and a half page footnote!). It was unpublished because the mores and culture of the time would not allow it. "For Us, the Living," was put aside, and eventually lost. The Heinleins apparently destroyed all copies they had. And because at the time it was written Heinlein was not a member of the science fiction community, no other sf writers knew about it. He had let one or two friends read it, and it is by a long trail through one of them that this rarest of treasures was located. Robert James, Ph.D., Heinlein Society member and Heinlein scholar, had been researching Heinlein and his life, focusing on Heinlein's second wife Leslyn, when he came across a vague mention of an early novel, a copy of which one-time Heinlein biographer Leon Stover was supposed to have. Robert James went searching, and after serious hunting, finally located a forgotten copy in a box in a garage that had changed hands at least once since Heinlein himself had given it to a friend to be read. This copy had annotations written in the margin by Heinlein himself, with some in a second hand that was probably then-wife Leslyn's. Robert James presented the manuscript to the Heinlein Society's secretary, David Silver, who promptly contacted Arthur Dula, the representative of the Heinlein literary estate. As they told the tale, they only informed Art that they had a "surprise" for him. When they picked him up, and the three of them were alone in the car, they handed Art the manuscript of this never before seen "new" Heinlein novel. "...when I regained consciousness," Art Dula said, describing the moment, he knew at once this treasure needed to be published for the benefit of us, Heinlein's readers. Through Eleanor Wood, agent for the Heinlein estate, they arranged publication of "For Us, the Living," the first truly new Heinlein novel since "To Sail Beyond the Sunset," published shortly before his death. Heinlein's last novel is now his first. Virtually no changes have been made to the manuscript from Heinlein's original draft. The book, Robert James said, was not a first draft but a polished final draft. Only a very few minor edits and spelling corrections were made. There will be a foreword by Spider Robinson and an afterword by Robert James. There are two bonuses to this landmark event that bear mentioning. As most novels have dedications at the beginning, the dedication of "For Us, the Living" will be to us... to Heinlein's Children. The other bonus is another gift to us. The money earned by this novel will be going to directly and substantially support Heinlein's dream, and the dream we, Heinlein's Children, share. Earnings will be going to the advancement of human exploration of space. When you purchase "For Us, the Living" you are also contributing, in a real and meaningful way, the furtherment of this dream. Yet again, Heinlein 'pays it forward.'

A few years ago

[Richy_T]

after achieving fame and recognition, Terry Pratchett released one of his early stories. It was somewhat naff and an obvious ripoff of "The Hobbit". Hopefully this will fare a little better.

Rich

Re:My thoughts on this

[tsetem]

While going through the Heinlein Society homepage, I found this review [heinleinsociety.org] of The Number of the Beast. I've never read the book (but will now), but it seems to imply that Heinlein intentionally wrote the book bad to show how a SciFi book should not be written.

The review is pretty interesting, and I think I'd like to read it just to see what they are talking about. Morbid curiosity maybe?

Re:So is it Public Domain?

[gowen]

IIIRC, the standard term is presently 70 years after the author's death, so more than 50 years to go. And thats assuming that the US govt (proudly sponsored by Disney) haven't pushed for further extensions to prevent Mickey Mouse entering the public domain.

Re:So is it Public Domain?

[Rogerborg]

Work it out yourself [unc.edu].

way behind hubbard, toklein and asimov

[peter303]

Heinlein only has three posthumous novels- the original length "Stranger in a Strange Land", an autobiography, and this one. Ron Hubbard published at least 13- including the ten volume Mission Earth series. Toklein published at least 15, including the Allakabeth, Simarillian, a book of poetry, and the 12 volume History of Middle Earth series. Asimov had a have dozen in press that came out after his death. Gene Roddenberry had Final Conflict and Anromedea TV series, plus two more rumored in production. Frank Herbert partially completed 7th Dune volume, and an early edition of his origional Dune are supposed to be published in due course by his son.
The above list doesn't include continuations of earlier novels authorized by these authors estates. There have been a dozen of those. Herbert is the most prolific with the 5th New Dune novel due out next week and eight more planned.

OMG OMG OMG

[2TecTom]

Yes, yes, yes ... I don't care if it's good, bad or ugly. He's a god and I look forward to reading anything he's written.

IMHO, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" is the ultimate Sci-Fi novel and he singlehandedly raised the bar so that Science Fiction wasn't simply regarded as pulp. Many people were inspired by his words and foresight. He contributed many revolutionary concepts and provided so many hours of entertainment that even the thought of anything new is interesting in the extreme.

No

[Raul654]

The copyright clock starts ticking down from the the initial publication date. This work has never yet been published, therefore the clock has not yet started ticking.

Re:My thoughts on this

[Pxtl]

Whoa, it took you that long to decide that Anthony is filthy? Nearly every series of his has some point where he tries to justifiy his lusting after young flesh. When ever he tries to discuss social issues (like prostitution, a frequent subject) he sounds like Kathy Lee or Connie Chung - someone with lots of opinions and no knowledge or brains.

Hemingway and Dickinson

[nightsweat]

In the non-sci-fi world check out Hemingway's posthumous output.

And Emily Dickinson's complete works weren't published until after she'd snuffed it.

Re:No

[gowen]

Wrong. See US copyright law Sections 302 and 303 [copyright.gov]

302. Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 1978: (a) In General. Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death.

303: Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302

70 years after death. Like I said.

According to Jerry Pournelle...

[GeorgeVW]

This came up at last night's LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) meeting, and Dr. Pournelle said that Heinlein most emphatically did not want this to see the light of day and thought that he had destroyed all the copies. If Ginny were still alive, I'm sure that we wouldn't be seeing this, and I think that it's telling that this didn't appear until shortly after she passed away.

Re:Who?

[mitheral]

The notebooks are illustrated. All the text is in Time enough for love.

Spent hours lookig for it before I found the story.

Re:ST theme became clear the other day

[crawling_chaos]

Vice Pres Chaney: Sec of Defense

Oh please. He got his soon-to-be-wife pregnant so he could claim a sole-provider exemption from the draft during Vietnam. When you look up chickenhawk, Cheney is the example picture. He's quite willing to send someone else's son into battle, but when his ass was on the line he chickened out. Not to mention that we know how the SecDef puts his life on the line all of the time (cf Robert McNamara).

A partial list of Vietnam-eligible Bush advisers who were granted deferments:

• Dick Cheney, Vice President
• John Ashcroft, Attorney General
• Karl Rove, Chief Campaign Strategist
• Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Sec. Defense
• Elliot Abrams, National Security Council
• Richard Perle, Chairman, Defense Policy Board

In all fairness, I will point out that William Jefferson Clinton was also a draft dodger. Of course, it was a bad thing when he did it, but only understandable when a Republican did it.

Public domain?

[ortholattice]

If it wasn't registered with the copyright office before the end of last year, the manuscript is public domain - see Unpublished Works May Lose Copyright Protection Unless Published by December 31, 2002 [loeb.com] (pdf file, sorry). I suppose the edited version can be copyrighted, but apparently not the actual manuscript (if it was not registered).

Now I would guess that they probably did register it, unless they were unaware of this little-known quirk in the copyright law. But I find it interesting this quirk exists, and probably a huge number of unpublished works became public domain at the beginning of this year.

Re:I'd buy that for a quarter!

[mbourgon]

Actually, the originator of the phrase is C.M. Kornbluth, in "Those Marching Morons". The premise is that in the far future, the average IQ is about room temperature, but everyone's happy with their "futuristic" speeders (which are cars that do 30 mph), their television is vapid, and there's a small elite running the world - they're the only ones with a real IQ.

Check the short story out... well worth it.

Heinlein books to start out with.

[Thag]

His big-name books are:

• Starship Troopers - An homage to the poor, bloody infantryman that has been called a variety of unpleasant names by critics and other degenerates. Thankfully, it's nothing like the movie. A must-read if you like military sci-fi.
  
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - The citizens of the moon revolt against the government of earth in order to gain their independence.
  
• Stranger in a Strange Land - The life and times of Valentine Michael Smith, messiah. This is the Heinlein novel the literary crowd likes the best, but I find it to be one of his worst: it just never really comes together.
  

Most of his books are quite good, particularly the "Heinlein juveniles." The science is dated now in many cases, but they're great reads. Personal favorites include The Door into Summer, Citizen of the Galaxy, Starman Jones and The Past Through Tomorrow.

Many feel that Heinlein's later books, after 1966, aren't nearly as good. They certainly get more self-indulgent and cheezy. To start out with, I would avoid the following books, because they're not really indicative of most of his work: I Will Fear No Evil, Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast, Friday, Job: A Comedy of Justice, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and To Sail Beyond the Sunset.

Jon Acheson

Re:they're back!

[rde]

I wouldn't say he'd started to ramble; I'd say he turned into a blathering nutcase.

My broad rule for Heinlein: If it's bigger than - or written after - I Will Fear No Evil - it's unreadable in ways only someone struggling through Hubbard's dekalogy would understand. If it's written before that, then if it's a kids' book it's good, if it's a short story it's probably great, and if it's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, it's one of the finest science fiction novels around.

Must do up a flowchart.

Re:According to Jerry Pournelle...

[Mordant]

Here's the relevant link [jerrypournelle.com].