Review
The interview with RAH is the crown jewel of the book. Worth reading, worth rereading, worth keeping to read again." -- Darryl Kenning, Reading For Pleasure
This is the longest interview Robert ever gave. Should be on the shelves of everyone interested in science fiction. -- Virginia Heinlein, editor, Grumbles from the Grave
Book Description
"The Robert Heinlein Interview" contains Heinlein you won't find anywhere else--even in Heinlein's own "Expanded Universe." If you wnat to know what Heinlein had to say about UFO's, life after death, epistemology, or libertarianism, this interview is the only source available.
Also included in this collection are articles, reviews, and letters that J. Neil Schulman wrote about Heinlein, including the original article written for The Daily News, about which the Heinleins wrote Schulman that it was, "The best article--in style, content, and accuracy--of the many, many written about him over the years."
This book is must-reading for any serious student of Heinlein, or any reader seeking to know him better.
From the Publisher
Foreword by Brad Linaweaver
"He is in our heads." So writes J. Neil Schulman about his hero, Robert A. Heinlein. My friend of thirty years, Bill Ritch, has used the same phrase as long as I’ve known him. But just who is the "our?" Do Neil and Bill mean the community of science fiction professionals? Do they mean the fans? I think not.
The "our" refers to an area where two special interests meet: science fiction and libertarianism. For science fiction enthusiasts who are not libertarians (the majority), Heinlein is an important figure in the field and an influence on many writers. For libertarians who are not science fiction readers (the majority), Heinlein is an interesting footnote in the literature of liberty. But for those of us who combine these two passions and have optimism in the future, Robert Anson Heinlein is God.
We have needed this book for a very long time. As Mrs. Heinlein says in her endorsement, this interview will appeal both to readers of science fiction and to libertarians. But for those of us who burn for technological marvels and want freedom to enjoy them instead of being slaves to a technocratic Big Brother, Heinlein created the blueprint that may get us to a better world. Not Utopia, because he taught us that
The Robert A. Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana such a dream truly is nowhere. A better world, on the other hand, is not impossible. It is simply hard to achieve.
When he died, the larger world paid attention to his impact on us; yes, on those of us who take The Moon is a Harsh Mistress seriously! As I wrote in New Libertarian, the Associated Press mentioned his libertarianism.
The science fiction press did its best to ignore the same thing. I was annoyed at the time. Now I see that the SF world was trying to do him a favor by ignoring his politics. They gave him a vacation from their usual slanders and libels.
Now with the Hollywood blockbuster of Starship Troopers, the SF community is back to normal; back to calling Heinlein a fascist. And what of his defenders? They know full well that the limited government model of liberty is every bit as objectionable to today’s totalitarians as is any anarchy. Those who call Heinlein a fascist know that they are lying. Those who deny Heinlein’s libertarianism from the other direction know they are lying, too.
In this, the best interview with Heinlein, Neil Schulman inspired the following comment from his hero: "I would say that my position is not too far from that of Ayn Rand; that I would like to see government reduced to no more than internal police and courts, external armed forces — with the other matters handled otherwise. I’m sick of the way the government sticks its nose into everything, now." Also: "The justification for free enterprise is that it’s free."
There is only one kind of mentality in this sorry world that describes such expressions of American individualism as fascist: the Marxist mind. That this discredited mode of thought dominates science fiction criticism is no surprise. It still holds sway in New York and Hollywood. It may be finished in Moscow but it’s doing fine at Harvard and Yale.
That is why we need this book. Robert A. Heinlein is our Dutch Uncle. Maybe the American family is falling apart for lack of decent father figures but at least we still have the voice of one sane man who tells us to be the best we can be and expects even more than an Army recruitment ad. (Besides, he’s Navy!)
The United States of America beat its greatest enemies of the century. Heinlein was there in the fight against fascism (and its virulent mutant form of Nazism) as well as in the 75-year-long struggle against Soviet Communism. We defeated these monsters and now our reward seems to be domestic tyranny at the hands of our worst elements, true parasites of the soul.
Naturally such people cannot stand the work of Robert A. Heinlein. Naturally they accuse the man of propagating what is actually their own evils.
The trouble for them is that Heinlein won’t go away. They can’t let him go away. The kind of totalitarian who gravitates to the arts needs to steal from somewhere— even from our Dutch Uncle, who was a superb entertainer. But they make sure to leave out his philosophy.
Buy multiple copies! Tell your friends! This one book will answer for all time what Heinlein’s positions really were.
The answers are not good for the enemies of freedom.
December 27, 1998
About the Author
His third and brand-new novel is Escape From Heaven.
His first nonfiction book was Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns, of which Charlton Heston said, "Mr. Schulman's book is the most cogent explanation of the gun issue I have yet read."
Schulman's next book, Self Control Not Gun Control, was his magnum opus on personal, political and spiritual power. He has been published in the Los Angeles Times and other national newspapers, as well as Reader's Digest, National Review, Reason, and other magazines. His books have been praised by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, Anthony Burgess, Robert A. Heinlein, Colin Wilson, Walter Williams, and many other prominent individuals.
Schulman is a popular speaker on a variety of topics, and a frequent radio-talk-show guest. In 1992 he hosted and produced his own weekly radio program, broadcast on KPRO AM, Riverside, California. He was on ABC's World News Tonight as an expert on defensive use of firearms during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and in 1999 was interviewed twice on the Fox News Network for the fifth anniversary of the Brown-Goldman murders, regarding his alternative theories about the crime.
J. Neil Schulman is a pioneer in electronic publishing, having founded in 1987 the first of two companies to distribute books by bestselling authors for download.
