21. Stalled

    1. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 01/23/67.

    2. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 01/23/67.

    3. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 01/23/67.

    4. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 04/18/67.

    5. Rita Bottoms, conversation with the author, May 2006, in discussion of her oral history.

    6. RAH, letter to Ned Brown, 07/06/67.

    7. “Westercon” is the Western Regional Science Fiction Conference/Convention, the largest regional SF convention in the Western United States, held over the Fourth of July weekend each year and alternating between northern and southern regions.

    8. Karen Anderson, postcard to the Heinleins, 06/28/66.

    9. RAH, letter to Dan Galouye, 10/02/67.

  10. RAH, letter to Harlan Ellison, 12/29/67. The dates of the stages in this matter were nowhere recorded in the correspondence, but may have been as late as October 1967.

  11. Poul Anderson, memorial in Requiem; Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with the author, Tape 9, Side A (March 1?, 2000).

  12. RAH, letter to Harlan Ellison, 05/24/75.

  13. Poul Anderson, letter to RAH, 10/27/67.

  14. RAH, letter to Judith Merril, 11/01/67.

  15. RAH, letter to A. E. Wilson, 11/19/67.

  16. RAH, unsent letter to Judith Merril, 11/01/67.

  17. RAH, unsent letter to Judith Merril, 11/01/67.

  18. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 12/06/67.

  19. RAH, letter to Robert Moore Williams, 04/06/68.

  20. RAH, letter to Barbara Herzberger, 12/21/67.

  21. RAH, letter to Temple and Nancy Fielding, 04/02/68.

  22. The invoice for the flagpole is dated 02/07/68.

  23. RAH, letter to John Conlan, 04/06/68.

  24. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/22/68.

  25. Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with the author, Tape 5, Side B (February 25? 2000).

  26. Mrs. Heinlein said Stranger had appeared briefly on the New York Times bestseller list in 1968, but there were not enough copies available to sustain it there. Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with the author, Tape 9, Side B (February 28? 2000).

This is not likely, as the New York Times bestseller lists for 1968 show only hardcover issues, and by that time Stranger was available only in paperback. It may be she is thinking of some other bestseller list, such as the B. Dalton List or the Waldenbooks list, which did show paperbacks (as a separate category), but there are too many such lists to check them one by one.

  27. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 11/21/68.

  28. Willis McNelly, letter to Alvin Wrobel, Circulation Mgr. at Berkeley, 11/04/68.

  29. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 12/24/99.

  30. RAH, letter to Pat Gallner, 10/14/68.

  31. RAH, letter to “Mrs. Hollingshead” (not otherwise identified), 12/29/68.

  32. RAH, letter to Rev. Paul Wilkinnson, Asbury Methodist Church, 12/29/68.

  33. RAH, letter to Marie Browne, 12/18/68.

  34. Shrive = hear confession, assign penance, grant absolution.

  35. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 12/20/99.

  36. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/22/68.

  37. RAH, letter to Cal Laning, 12/17/68.

  38. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 04/28/68.

  39. RAH, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 04/28/68.

  40. RAH, letter to David Gerrold, 05/28/68. The Stranger script project thereafter disappeared down a rabbit hole.

  41. FOBS = “Fractional Orbiting Bombardment System,” an orbiting missile base specifically forbidden by the Space Treaty of 1967. The Soviet Union launched FOBS 12 in April 1968.

  42. Harold Stassen (1907–2001), former governor of Minnesota (1939–1943) and a perennial candidate for president, losing the Republican nomination eight times between 1948 and 1992.

  43. Dick Gregory (1932–) Black comedian and social activist, one of the first to perform successfully before both black and white audiences.

  44. RAH, letter to John Conlon, 04/06/68.

  45. RAH, letter to “Buddy” Col. A. E. Wilson, 11/19/67.

  46. RAH, letter to Pat Carroll, 12/17/68.

  47. RAH, letter to Cal Laning, 12/17/68.

  48. RAH, letter to L. Sprague de Camp, 12/28/68.

  49. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 10/20/99.

  50. RAH, letter to Jane and Pete Sencenbaugh, 12/28/68.

  51. RAH, letter to L. Sprague de Camp, 12/28/68.