Robert Anson Heinlein was born on 7 July 1907, in Butler, Missouri, the third son of Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein. At the time of Robert’s birth, the family had been living with his maternal grandfather, Alva Lyle, M.D. A few months after Heinlein was born, his family moved from Butler to Kansas City, where he was to grow up.
His consuming interest, from the 1910 apparition of Halley’s Comet, was for astronomy. 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.
Heinlein has said that he read all the science fiction he could lay hands on from the age of 16. The cosmic romances of Olaf Stapledon affected him particularly. He read the first series of Tom Swift books, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells.
Heinlein entered the Naval Academy in June 1925. Heinlein graduated in 1929, 20th in a class of 243, and was commissioned with the rank of Ensign. He actually stood fifth in academics in his class, but discipline considerations lowered his class standing to 20th.
Following his tour on the Lexington, in mid-1932 Heinlein was assigned to the destroyer U.S.S. Roper. The Roper was a smaller vessel than the Lexington, and, consequently less stable. 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.
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.
Heinlein attended classes at U.C.L.A. for several weeks, and then left college to take up politics. In 1938, he ran as an EPIC-endorsed candidate for the 59th Assembly District seat (Hollywood). The failed campaign was a pivotal event of Heinlein’s adult life. In the Fall of 1938, he was broke, with a new mortgage to support, and he had been crushingly and humiliatingly rejected in his second choice of career. Casting around for some way to support himself, he hit on what would become his third – and final – career.
In October 1938, Thrilling Wonder Stories announced a policy encouraging submissions from new and unpublished writers. This notice attracted Heinlein’s attention.
Over a four-day period in early April 1939, Heinlein wrote the story “Life-Line.” It was, by the standards of a later day, somewhat stiff, but Heinlein recognized that it was head-and-shoulders above the usual offerings of Thrilling Wonder Stories, so he sent it instead to John W. Campbell, Jr., at Astounding Science-Fiction.
