Grumbles from the Grave (30 page)

Eventually, using semen deposited earlier by Johann Smith in a sperm bank, Johann/Joan Eunice bears a child. It is his own child on both sides.

August 21, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Robert says that the new novel is as long as the Bible, but considering the number of authors of that, I doubt it. It is still in the process of completion. We'll send up a few rockets when it's done, and maybe you'll see one of them!

August 28, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

[Robert] left me a note saying, "Please tell him that I am anxious to learn what the new book is all about, too—especially the ending. I seem to be translating
Giles Goat Boy
into late Martian."

September 2, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Robert's up to what he says is the last chapter. Then he added thoughtfully, "I hope it isn't like the short story." But I think this time he means it. He spent last night killing off someone; must have been a sort of Rasputin, from the length of time it's taken.

October 1, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

What word do you want about the novel? It's in the cutting stages—I thought that it dragged in spots. Don't you want to be surprised? All I can tell you is that it is quite different from anything I've ever read before, by Heinlein or anyone else. It will go to the typist before we leave here for the class reunion . . .

October 7, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Re: the new book, Robert has his doubts about Mac [Truman MacDonald Talley of NAL] liking it, pointing out that he turned down
Stranger,
but says he's been publishing some far-out stuff lately. My comment was that he can't sell the public Elsie Dinsmore anymore.

October 13, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

The cutting goes along slowly . . .

November 12, 1969: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

While I was writing
I Will Fear No Evil
and you and Ginny and Margo were handling everything else, a lot of nonfrantic items accumulated in your box on my desk. It appears from the file that I have not acknowledged checks in writing since 22 June. I intend to acknowledge checks and books, so that you will have a written record.

December 4, 1969: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

I'm just afraid that I shall have to type
I Will Fear No
Evil, which will completely spoil my winter! I think the first draft was 689 pages.

January 19, 1970: Lurton Blassingame to Robert A. Heinlein

I spent more time reading
I Will Fear No Evil
than I've spent on a manuscript in years. This is only partly because of the book's length—I've gone through longer ones faster—but the novel has so many good lines in it that I gave myself time enough to enjoy and chuckle over them.

January 31, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Today Bob will probably sign his "X" on two powers of attorney. One for you, one for me. Yours will be for conducting business affairs, mine a general one . . . and I suggest that we both keep them, not limited in time, for emergency use.

* * *

Robert is in good spirits, but quite weak, with nurses around the clock. The incision looks huge to my inexperienced eyes, and it had a drain in it until yesterday . . .

February 12, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

This new novel is probably closer to mainstream than science fiction than any Robert has done . . . he wants to have some sort of mass distribution on it, either by early paperback or serial, or perhaps both. The paperback business doesn't seem to cut much into the trade edition sales, whereas the Doubleday Book Club does. If we can't get serial or early paperback publication, we'll reluctantly let it go into a book club edition. The sales on
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
proved my point on that.

February 26, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Just returned from the hospital, and Bob was trying to eat lunch . . . he ate his whole egg for breakfast, and I don't know how much more, but he's still getting IV feeding, and is very unsteady on his feet. But at least we're away from the wheelchair, and he goes out into the corridors to walk. He'd refused to leave his room for about a month, and this is [a] considerable breakthrough. Also, I gave him
The Insult Dictionary,
and he started reading it, which is better than the detergent dramas and quiz shows, etc., he's been watching on TV.

* * *

I am also sending a letter from Lady Gollancz. Robert read this letter, and said firmly, "No bowdlerization." So will you please tell [her] politely to go to hell? The passage referred to is the one in which the hero feels sorry for the victim rather than the criminal. She wanted to take it out.

Editor's Note: By this time, publishers in many countries were putting out Robert's work, especially his juveniles.

Several British publishers had contracts for books, among them Gollancz. The chief of that firm had been knighted by the crown—Sir Victor Gollancz. When Sir Victor died, his wife took over the firm.

When they were about to publish one of the juveniles (and I am not sure now just which one it was), Lady Gollancz asked whether she might omit several sentences dealing with punishment of a character for a crime he had committed. The law on this point is firm, both here and in the UK: no publisher of a reprint edition may make changes in copy once the sale is made, without the written consent of the author.

So Robert refused her request to make the change.

Yesterday, over in Santa Cruz, I ran across a note Robert had made about the new book. Sorry I can't quote it in full, but he said, "This may be my last novel. I am not going to let some editor cut it when he doesn't understand it completely." He's always said that this story couldn't be cut because of its complexity . . . although I thought it should be. It is possible that he's right. In any case, this is something that will have to be done cautiously rather than trying to fit it into a Procrustean bed. He did do some cutting before the final typing and Xeroxing. I read it and proofed and made changes, where the typist had made mistakes. And the cut version is a lot faster than the first one was!

March 7, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

I know that [Robert] has definite ideas about what he wants in the new book contract, but he just says, "You and Lurton handle it," so we'll have to stall a while longer.

March 31, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Robert is pleased with the serial sale [of
I Will Fear No Evil
to
If
.] He had every intention of having serial publication on it, if possible.

* * *

The doctors are very pleased with Bob's progress, but he still spends most of the time in bed, and is really not up to doing any work at all. Besides, sometimes his mind isn't as sharp as it usually is, and we hope that by the time this copy-editing is completed, he'll be up to looking at it . . . And having had the close brush with eternity he recently had, he's going to make some changes in his way of living. Just what those changes will be remains to be seen. It will probably include such things as no speeches (he finds them quite disturbing), no interviews, etc.

April 8, 1970: Lurton Blassingame to Virginia Heinlein

Rush me Xerox of your power of attorney. We need to attach it to the new Putnam contract.

November 20, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

The reviewers seem to be complaining about the lack of explicit sex in
I Will Fear No Evil.
One said, "The Victorian Mr. Heinlein—" Does any book
ever
please reviewers?

January 14, 1971: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Thank you very much for the article from the
New York Times.
I will salaam to the Boss every morning from now on. How does one person get to be the hero of the New Right, Women's lib, and the hippie culture all in the same breath? We must all be schizophrenic!

CHAPTER XII
TRAVEL

August 6, 1952: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

Back home to a bushel of mail and a constantly ringing phone—I wonder why we came back! But it was a fine trip—Jackson's Hole, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone Park, Craters of the Moon National Monument, Sun Valley, the "Days of '47" at Salt Lake City, Zion Park, North Rim of the Grand Canyon—where we rode mules down to the floor of the Canyon—then Bryce Canyon, thence through the main range to Aspen, and finally home.

(184)

Robert and Virginia in Sun Valley, during the 1952 tour of National Parks.

AROUND THE WORLD I

August 17, 1953: Lurton Blassingame to Robert A. Heinlein

. . . very excited to hear plans for the round-the-world trip.

September 25, 1953: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

We sail from New Orleans on 12 November and will leave here about 7 November. I am sorry to say that I will not be on the East Coast either coming or going, as we leave from the Gulf and return via San Francisco . . .

We have our trip about lined up, having each received permission from the Navy Department, having received passports, having booked passage for the two principal legs of the trip. We've been vaccinated, shot for cholera, typhoid and paratyphoid, tetanus; will be stuck for yellow fever on Wednesday. Ginny is down seeing about visas right now, but all the main hurdles are passed. I will supply exact times and places later but here is how it shapes up now: By freighter S.S.
Gulf Shipper
(U.S. registry) New Orleans, Panama Canal, half a dozen west S.A. ports to Valparaiso, fly over Andes to Buenos Aires, embark cargo-liner (swimming pool and such) M.S.
Ruys
(Dutch), then Montevideo, Santos, and Rio de Janeiro, across South Atlantic to Cape Town, after which the ship hits half a dozen East African ports and Zanzibar, ending in Kenya before starting across Indian Ocean for Mauritius and Singapore. I want to leave the ship for a week at Cape Town to visit Kruger National Park, but Ginny insists that lions can open automobile doors—nevertheless, I want to make that motor trip and see lions, elephants, etc., in native habitat.

(185)

The Heinleins in Buenos Aires, a stop on their world tour of 1953.

We leave the ship in Singapore and have booked no farther. I plan to visit Java and Bali at least and wind up at Darwin, Australia—we are trying to arrange booking for an island freighter now; if that doesn't work, we will visit the islands by airline and end up at Darwin anyway. Then we fly to Sydney, stay as long as we like in Australia, go to New Zealand, where we intend to visit both North and South Islands (there is an N.Z. airline that has a circle route), and eventually back home via the Fiji and Hawaiian Islands and San Francisco.

October 24, 1953: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

As you can see, this is my "strike-out" letter—even though I may write again. You will see, too, that I have (with fantastic ingenuity and smug planning) placed all the real dope on page two, which you can now stick up on your bulletin board, or something. We'll send you postcards of calabozos and hippos and things. If I don't return on time, just forward my personal effects to Tahiti, fourth beachcomber from the left.

Wups! I forgot something—money. Don't send me any checks after about 7 November; just hold for me whatever comes in. It is possible that, after I am cleaned out by a gang of international gamblers headed by a beautiful blonde in sable, that I may ask you to cable me some dough—but it seems most unlikely, as I am taking plenty.

April 3, 1954: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

We got home late Wednesday and spent Thursday and Friday unpacking and reading mail. I have answered none of the latter as yet and still can't find the top of my desk—and about two dozen bread-and-butter notes to write consequent to the trip as well. We are both okay save for head colds picked up in New Zealand and still with us. The trip back was okay until we were within ten minutes of Colorado Springs, whereupon the damned plane caught fire in its heating system, filled the cabin with smoke, and caused the skipper to turn back and make an emergency landing. This when I had about softened up Ginny to the notion of traveling by air in the future—