Heinlein's Juvenile Novels: A Cultural Dictionary

The science fiction of Robert A. Heinlein (1907‐1988) has greatly shaped the laws of the genre from the mid‐twentieth century on, making speculative literature more closely related to the social and political questions of the era. Heinlein's 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land challenged religious beliefs and sexual mores, transforming the former US Navy lieutenant turned pulp fiction writer into an influential if controversial prophet and one of the “Big Three” science fiction masters along with the renowned Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. His writing career began with a series of a dozen juvenile novels published for Scribners's...