In 1938, he ran as an EPIC-endorsed candidate for the 59th Assembly District seat (Hollywood). for several weeks, and then left college to take up politics. When he finally recovered, he was retired (August 1934) with the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, medically unfit for service – “totally and permanently disabled.” His first choice of careers was a washout. The constant rolling of the destroyer caused Heinlein to be seasick much of the time, and late in 1933, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis as a result of his weakened condition. The Roper was a smaller vessel than the Lexington, and, consequently less stable. He actually stood fifth in academics in his class, but discipline considerations lowered his class standing to 20th.įollowing his tour on the Lexington, in mid-1932 Heinlein was assigned to the destroyer U.S.S. Heinlein graduated in 1929, 20th in a class of 243, and was commissioned with the rank of Ensign. Heinlein entered the Naval Academy in June 1925. He read the first series of Tom Swift books, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and H.G. The cosmic romances of Olaf Stapledon affected him particularly. Heinlein has said that he read all the science fiction he could lay hands on from the age of 16. By the time he entered Kansas City’s Central High School in 1920, Heinlein had already read every book on astronomy in the Kansas City Public Library. His consuming interest, from the 1910 apparition of Halley’s Comet, was for astronomy.

A few months after Heinlein was born, his family moved from Butler to Kansas City, where he was to grow up. At the time of Robert’s birth, the family had been living with his maternal grandfather, Alva Lyle, M.D.

Robert Anson Heinlein was born on 7 July 1907, in Butler, Missouri, the third son of Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein.

Full List of Heinlein Society Items to Shop.

Donate and Receive The Ensign’s Prize Books.

Robert a heinlein red planet