The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein

By Farah Mendlesohn

2019

First Published

3.98

Average Rating

467

Number of Pages

14H15M

Audio Length

Robert A. Heinlein began publishing in the 1940s at the dawn of the Golden Age of science fiction, and today he is considered one of the genre's 'big three' alongside Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. His short stories were instrumental in developing its structure and rhetoric, while novels such as Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers demonstrated that such writing could be a vehicle for political argument. Heinlein’s influence remains strong, but his legacy is fiercely contested. His vision of the future was sometimes radical, sometimes deeply conservative, and arguments have flared up recently about which faction has the most significant claim on his ideas. In this major critical study, Hugo Award-winner Farah Mendlesohn carries out a close reading of Heinlein’s work, including unpublished stories, essays, and speeches. It sets out not to interpret a single book, but to think through the arguments Heinlein made over a lifetime about the nature of science fiction, about American politics, and about himself.

Avg Rating

3.98

Number of Ratings

107

5 STARS

34%

4 STARS

37%

3 STARS

23%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Farah Mendlesohn

Author · 7 books

Farah Mendlesohn is a Hugo Award-winning British academic and writer on science fiction. In 2005 she won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book for The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, which she edited with Edward James. Mendlesohn is Professor of Literary History at Anglia Ruskin University, where she is also Head of English and Media. She writes on Science Fiction, Fantasy, Children's Literature and Historical Fiction. She received her D.Phil. in History from the University of York in 1997. Her book Rhetorics of Fantasy won the BSFA award for best non-fiction book in 2009; the book was also nominated for both Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. In 2010 she was twice nominated for Hugo Awards in the Best Related Books category. She was the editor of Foundation - The International Review of Science Fiction from 2002 to 2007. She formerly was Reviews Editor of Quaker Studies.