So Robert refused her request to make the change.
Yesterday, over in Santa Cruz, I ran across a note Robert had made about the new book. Sorry I can't quote it in full, but he said, "This may be my last novel. I am not going to let some editor cut it when he doesn't understand it completely." He's always said that this story couldn't be cut because of its complexity...although I thought it should be. It is possible that he's right. In any case, this is something that will have to be done cautiously rather than trying to fit it into a Procrustean bed. He did do some cutting before the final typing and Xeroxing. I read it and proofed and made changes, where the typist had made mistakes. And the cut version is a lot faster than the first one was!
March 7, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
I know that [Robert] has definite ideas about what he wants in the new book contract, bul*he just says, "You and Lurton handle it," so we'll have to stall a while longer.
March 31, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Robert is pleased with the serial sale [of / Will Fear No Evil to If]. He had every intention of having serial publication on it, if possible.
The doctors are very pleased with Bob's progress, but he still spends most of the time in bed, and is really not up to doing any work at all. Besides, sometimes his mind isn't as sharp as it usually is, and we hope that by the time this copy-editing is completed, he'll be up to looking at it...And having had the close brush with eternity he recently had, he's going to make some changes in his way of living. Just what those changes will be remains to be seen. It will probably include such things as no speeches (he finds them quite disturbing), no interviews, etc.
April 8, 1970: Lurton Blassingame to Virginia Heinlein
Rush me Xerox of your power of attorney. We need to attach it to the new Putnam contract.
November 20, 1970: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
The reviewers seem to be complaining about the lack of explicit sex in / Will Fear No Evil. One said, "The Victorian Mr. Heinlein -- " Does any book ever please reviewers?
January 14, 1971: Virginia Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Thank you very much for the article from the New York Times. I will salaam to the Boss every morning from now on. How does one person get to be the hero of the New Right, Women's lib, and the hippie culture all in the same breath? We must all be schizophrenic!
CHAPTER XII
TRAVEL
August 6, 1952: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Back home to a bushel of mail and a constantly ringing phone-I wonder why we came back! But it was a fine trip-Jackson's Hole, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone Park, Craters of the Moon National Monument, Sun Valley, the "Days of '47" at Salt Lake City, Zion Park, North Rim of the Grand Canyon-where we rode mules down to the floor of the Canyon-then Bryce Canyon, thence through the main range to Aspen, and finally home.
AROUND THE WORLD I
August 17,1953: Lurton Blassingame to Robert A. Heinlein...very excited to hear plans for the round-the-world trip.
September 25, 1953: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
We sail from New Orleans on 12 November and will leave here about 7 November. I am sorry to say that I will not be on the East Coast either coming or going, as we leave from the Gulf and return via San Francisco...
We have our trip about lined up, having each received permission from the Navy Department, having received passports, having booked passage for the two principal legs of the trip. We've been vaccinated, shot for cholera, typhoid and paratyphoid, tetanus; will be stuck for yellow fever on Wednesday. Ginny is down seeing about visas right now, but all the main hurdles are passed. I will supply exact times and places later but here is how it shapes up now: By freighter S.S. Gulf Shipper (U.S. registry) New Orleans, Panama Canal, half a dozen west S.A. ports to Valparaiso, fly over Andes to Buenos Aires, embark cargo-liner (swimming pool and such) M.S. Ruys (Dutch), then Montevideo, Santos, and Rio de Janeiro, across South Atlantic to Cape Town, after which the ship hits half a dozen East African ports and Zanzibar, ending in Kenya before starting across Indian
Ocean for Mauritius and Singapore. I want to leave the ship for a week at Cape Town to visit Kruger National Park, but Ginny insists that lions can open automobile doors-nevertheless, I want to make that motor trip and see lions, elephants, etc., in native habitat.
We leave the ship in Singapore and have booked no farther, I plan to visit Java and Bali at least and wind up at Darwin, Australia-we are trying to arrange booking for an island freighter now; if that doesn't work, we will visit the islands by airline and end up at Darwin anyway. Then we fly to Sydney, stay as long as we like in Australia, go to New Zealand, where we intend to visit both North and South Islands (there is an N.Z. airline that has a circle route), and eventually back home via the Fiji and Hawaiian Islands and San Francisco.
October 24, 1953: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
As you can see, this is my "strike-out" letter-even though I may write again. You will see, too, that I have (with fantastic ingenuity and smug planning) placed all the real dope on page two, which you can now stick up on your bulletin board, or something. We'll send you postcards of calabozos and hippos and things. If I don't return on time, just forward my personal effects to Tahiti, fourth beachcomber from the left.
Wups! I forgot something-money. Don't send me any checks after about 7 November; just hold for me whatever comes in. It is possible that, after I am cleaned out by a gang of international gamblers headed by a beautiful blonde in sable, that I may ask you to cable me some dough-but it seems most unlikely, as I am taking plenty.
April 3, 1954: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
We got home late Wednesday and spent Thursday and
F;riday unpacking and reading mail. I have answered none
<l the latter as yet and still can't find the top of my desknd about two dozen bread-and-butter notes to write consequent to the trip as well. We are both okay save for head colds picked up in New Zealand and still with us. The trip back was okay until we were within ten minutes of Colorado Springs, whereupon the damned plane caught fire in its heating system, filled the cabin with smoke, and caused the skipper to turn back and make an emergency landing. This when I had about softened up Ginny to the notion of traveling by air in the future --
TRAVEL BOOK
EDITOR 's NOTE: In 1953 and 1954, Robert and I took a six-month trip around the world. When we returned, I suggested that Robert write a book about the trip. He wrote half of the book and sent it off to Lurton, to see whether there was or was not a market for it.
It turned out that there was no market for it.
Everyone who read this book loved it, but no one wanted to publish it. Robert spent some months working on this book. It is too late to publish it now-it's considerably outdated.
August 30, 1954: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
I think you had better send the travel book manuscript back and let me finish it. I have spent the whole summer expecting it back in the next mail, frustrated by its half-finished condition, and unable to get to work on anything else. I'll never send out an incomplete ms. again-it is, for me, like having someone read over my shoulder; it keeps me from concentrating on the work in the machine.
A long string of houseguests helped to wash out the summer, too. The last of them are out of the house now and I should be able to finish the travel book quickly. I want to start on my next novel in a couple of weeks. I plan to do the next boys' book first, then an adult serial novel.