Robert Heinlein (Creative Commons photo)
I was recently reminded of Robert Anton Wilson's interest in Robert Anson Heinlein (see for example, this interview, where RAW says, "Heinlein has been an idol to me for more than 20 years") when I recently read "In the Strange Land Of Robert Heinlein," an article by Curt Suplee that appeared in the Washington Post in 1984 (hat tip, Hugh, recently in the comments.) The article is full of vintage Heinlein comments such as this one about U.S. culture: "You can go to a cocktail party on the campus of a major university and be asked three times what sign were you born under. And we've got citizens in this culture who honest to God believe that professional athletes and actors are important people with opinions worth paying attention to!" See this internet article for photos of the house mentioned in the Post article.
But what I wanted to ask was: What are the chances that Robert Anton and Robert Anson would both spend the remaining years of their lives in Santa Cruz, California? Curiously, the article says Heinlein keeps himself informed on "the state of the Mendocino Gold marijuana crop." I'll bet Wilson, who lived in the Mendocino, California, area at one point, could have filled him in.
The two writers had an editor in common; they shared an editor, David Hartwell. As I wrote in the recent Gene Wolfe blog posting, Hartwell edited and published five of RAW's books. He also was Robert Heinlein's editor for some of Heinlein's later books, at least in a sense; although RAW disliked dealing with editors, later in life Heinlein had the clout to insist that his books would not really be edited. Hartwell also edited the two volume Heinlein biography by William Patterson.
Does anyone know if RAW and RAH ever met, or corresponded?
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