i will fear no evil by robert a heinlein

Heinlein once noted (I believe in one of his letters in Grumbles from the Grave) that at this point in his career, his contracts specified that an editor couldn’t even remove a comma from the middle of a word in one of his books without his written approval. He felt the book was still too long when submitted, but his agent, Lurton Blassingame, found it intriguing and then found it a publisher. After completing the first draft, his Naval Academy class reunion and a hospitalization cut into his editing time. Heinlein wrote IWFNE between June and September, 1968. I just don’t need documentation above and beyond what the Kondos furnished me over the years.

And the other two stories are no doubt documented somewhere. That “Stranger” was hard for RAH to write is corroborated in the wonderful Gifford biography of Heinlein. Yoji Kondo, was a frequent Heinlein correspondent for the last 15 or so years of RAH’s life. Beatrice Kondo, who knew Heinlein, and whose father, Dr. My source for two of these pieces of information–the lack of outlines and the preference for cutting over re-writing–is not written. He preferred to write and write and write, and then cut out the chaff. He also did not like to rewrite–although he did substantial re-writing on his most problematic and best-known work, Stranger in a Strange Land.

That is to say, he wrote by the seat of his pants, without an outline. I’ve read it a half dozen times since high school (as I’ve read all of RAH’s later novels repeatedly) and will probably read it a half dozen more if I live long enough.īut, before I tell you why I love it, let me heap a little more evidence on the other side of the scales, because I love a challenge. IWFNE is widely regarded by science fiction fans (and there are no higher authorities on everything) as the worst thing he ever published. At this point, the Grandmaster was 62 years old that year, and had four Hugo Awards for best novel to his credit. Heinlein ‘s 26th novel, published in 1970.

I will fear no evil by robert a heinlein