Heinlein, Robert A(nson) (1907–1988)

US science fiction writer. Associated with the pulp magazines of the 1940s, he wrote the militaristic novel Starship Troopers (1959) and the utopian cult novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). His work is noted for its technical knowledge and detailed settings, and helped to increase the legitimacy of science fiction as a literary genre. In 1969 he was the announcer for the first Apollo lunar landing.

Heinlein was born in Butler, Missouri. He studied at the University of Missouri in 1925, graduated from Annapolis in 1929, and did graduate work in physics at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1934. He began writing science fiction in 1947, using the pen-names Anson MacDonald, Lyle Monroe, John Riverside, Caleb Saunders, and Simon York. In addition to his writing, he also worked as an engineer and owned a silver mine.