Robert A. Heinlein In Dialogue with His Century

23. Trouble, With a Capital “P”

1. “History of Robert’s illnesses,” Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 09/20/00.

2. Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with Leon Stover, Tape 2, Side A (October 1988?).

3. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Leon Stover, 03/17/89.

4. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 01/16/70.

5. Frank M. Robinson, e-mail to the author, 09/12/05.

6. Virginia Heinlein, letter to George Coleman, 03/17/71.

7. “History of Robert’s illnesses,” Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 09/20/00.

8. Time magazine, unbylined, “A Martian Model,” (January 19, 1970): 44–45.

9. “In an interview almost twenty years later, he [Bugliosi] said that he had seriously considered the allegations, investigated them, and then dismissed them,” Leon Stover, “The Heinlein-Manson Hoax,” The Heinlein Journal, no. 2 (January 1998): 2.

10. Steven Kay, Ed Sanders, The Family, 27.

11. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Violet Markham, 02/27/71.

12. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 09/20/00; Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with Leon Stover, Tape 2, Side A (October 1988?).

13. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 09/20/00.

14. This incident was retold several times in Virginia Heinlein’s correspondence and in interviews; in some of the tellings, Dr. Calciano suggested Stanford Medical Center; in others it was a doctor at Dominican Hospital. At one point in the Stover interview of October 1988, and also in the “History of Robert’s Illnesses” written for the author, she implies she made the decision on her own.

15. Virginia Heinlein, letter to George Coleman, 03/17/71. Mrs. Heinlein never specifically identified which “Dr. Calciano” she meant, but she might have meant Dr. Anthony J. Calciano, a cardiology and internal medicine specialist who began practicing in 1965 and is still in 2012 practicing at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz. It has not proved possible to trace Dr. Calciano’s malpractice history—not unusual, as nondisclosure agreements are typically part of settlement negotiations.

16. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lucy and Bill Corson, 08/20/71; Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lucy and Bill Corson, 08/30/71.

17. Virginia Heinlein, IM with the author, 01/20/00.

18. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 09/20/00.

19. Virginia Heinlein, letter to George Coleman, 03/17/71.

20. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Violet Markham, 02/27/71; Virginia Heinlein, letter to Leon Stover, 03/28/69.

21. RAH, letter to Mrs. Thomas V. (Rita) Bottoms, 09/10/73.

22. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Dr. (Lloyd) Biggle, 03/12/77.

23. Dr. Harry Oberhelman, e-mail to Francesco Spreafico, 04/05/01.

24. Virginia Heinlein, letter to George Coleman, 03/17/71.

25. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Dr. (Lloyd) Biggle, 03/12/77.

26. RAH, letter to Robert Bloch, 10/11/71. Heinlein probably meant “durable power of attorney,” as an ordinary general power of attorney ceases to be effective if the grantor ceases to be able to handle his own affairs, whereas the language which creates a durable power of attorney survives the grantor’s incapacity.

27. RAH, letter to Mary Collin, 07/08/62.

28. Virginia Heinlein, IM with the author, 09/26/01.

29. Karen Serassio anecdote, undated, but after 1977.

30. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 02/12/70; Grumbles from the Grave, 180.

31. Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with Leon Stover, Tape 2, Side A (October 21, 1988).

32. RAH, letter to Robert Bloch, 10/11/71.

33. The time of Dr. Nourse’s trip was not fixed in the correspondence, but must have been in February or early March 1970. Heinlein memorialized it in a letter to L. Sprague and Catherine de Camp, 06/04/70:

Alan Nourse did the most wonderful thing for us in taking the trouble to make a trip just to look me over, talk to my doctors, read my chart, then talk to Ginny and explain it all to her. It gave her morale a great boost when she needed it badly—which in turn gave my morale a shot in the arm.

34. Virginia Heinlein, IM with the author, 01/20/00.

35. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 09/20/00.

36. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 12/14/99.

37. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Violet Markham, 02/27/71.

38. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Jan Lister, 05/21/70.

39. RAH, letter to Nancy and Temple Fielding, 06/05/70.

40. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 03/31/70.

41. Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with Leon Stover, Tape 2, Side A (October 1988?).

42. RAH, letter to Miss Hewey, 12/13/71.

43. Walter Minton, letter to RAH, 04/07/70.

44. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Walter Minton, 04/13/70.

45. RAH, letter to Robert Bloch, 06/04/70.

46. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Walter Minton, 08/13/70.

47. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 07/05/00.

48. Per Timothy J. Hamilton, Share Water Bed, letter to RAH, 08/22/70.

49. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lurton Blassingame, 11/20/70. Perhaps she is referring to the review by James Gunn in the Kansas City Times (the morning edition of the KC Star) on that date, “Heinlein Rocket Veers Off Course,” in which Gunn remarks of Stranger (rather than I Will Fear No Evil): “His treatment of sex, though liberated and nonpornographic, reads like a youngster trying to demonstrate his freedom from a Victorian upbringing.”

50. Virginia Heinlein, letter to the author, 12/14/99.

51. RAH, letter to Mary Jean and Andy Lermer, 02/26/71.

52. This bedside table, together with the high bed, came into the possession of the Heinlein Society after Mrs. Heinlein’s death and was sold at auction in 2013.

53. Don Ellis (1934–78) was a jazz trumpeter, band leader, composer, and drummer best remembered for his film scores for The French Connection (1971) and The Seven Ups (1973).

54. Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with Leon Stover, Tape 1, Side B (October 1988?).

55. Virginia Heinlein, letter to Lucy and Bill Corson, 08/30/71; in Virginia Heinlein, taped interview with Leon Stover, Tape 1, Side B, she says she suggested “The Green Hills of Earth.”

56. RAH, letter to Pete Sencenbaugh, 10/01/71.