L. Ron Hubbard: Letters to and From Robert A. Heinlein
The exchange of letters between L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Heinlein regarding Battlefield Earth offers a rare glimpse into their personal and professional worlds in their later years. The correspondence, filled with insights, humor, and mutual respect, underscores a friendship that withstood the test of time and the rigors of literary fame.
The letters are included here for your enlightenment and enjoyment.
To Bob from Ron, 26 October 1980
26 October 80
Dear Bob;
Congratulations on your new book, “The Number of the Beast” published by Fawcett Columbine. I read it with considerable pleasure. The old master has lost none of his touch. Indeed, he has added to it!
It do look like us old codgers sitting around the stove at the general store, still have more git up and go than them young fellers.
I have just finished a novel myself. It hasn’t been shipped out yet but it’s all done! I had a couple of months idle and so I rolled up my cuffs and wrote “Man: The Endangered Species.” That, at least, was the working title. It is 428,750 words long plus intro and is pure SF genre but in a modernized style and very fast-paced.
I said some nice things about you in the dedication and intro. I hope you do not mind and hope also that you can still blush! If such fills your modesty with horror, write back.
Anyway, it’s a good thing for the field and fans we’re still around. From other things on the stands, if tweren’t for us, they wouldn’t be readin’ anything at all!
It is amusing that us should still be outliving and out-producing the young fellers. Do you suppose it’s the fallout? Or maybe the water? Or is it because we’re just too cussed to move over and let somebody else on the bridge?
More power to you, dear Bob.
Your friend,
Ron
To Ron from Bob, 15 December 1980
15 Dec 80
Dear Ron,
Thanks for the very nice note and for three (!) Xmas cards. I want to be on the lookout for your new SF novel. Will you please let me know the published title, date of publication, and publisher as soon as you know it yourself?
It has been a bit over forty years since you published FINAL BLACKOUT—but the warnings in it are more timely than ever.
I hope this finds you and yours well and happy and no longer hassled by the busies.
All the best!
Bob
To Bob from Ron, 24 December 1980
Robert A. Heinlein
6000 Bonny Doon Rd.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
24 December 1980
Dear Bob,
Very glad to hear from you. I hope you are getting yourself well “holiday’d” ’round about now.
You surely will be informed of the published title and all the details, as soon as I have them. I’ll send along a copy, too, as soon as I have one to send.
Yes, over forty years since FINAL BLACKOUT. Now they’re accusing us old-timers of being society’s fortune tellers. I’m glad they’ve come to that, actually.
This year I celebrated 50 years at the old mill and so this is my commemoration piece to the occupation and my friends in it.
I hope you enjoy it and thanks for all your good wishes.
All the best to you too, Bob. I hope 1981 brings wonderful things to you and yours.
Love,
Ron
To Ron from Bob, 16 December 1982
Robert A. Heinlein
6000 Bonny Doon Road
Santa Cruz County
California 95060
16 Dec 1982
Dear Ron,
BATTLEFIELD EARTH is a terrific story!
It puts me in mind of FINAL BLACKOUT in its flavor, but with this difference: It is a much more complex story with more characters drawn in full, a much longer story and one that, by being longer, has room enough for you to treat far more subjects in depth—serious subjects worthy of thorough treatment.
It was a good story from page one, then it got better when we reached Scotland, then still better in Africa, then again when ships from other cultures showed up, then (for my taste) reached its high point, and stayed there, when you revealed that the little gray men were intergalactic bankers.
The carefully underplayed comedy you made of this development I found delicious.
It’s a great story, Ron. I hope it sells a million copies in hardback. It tickles me enormously to see you turn out such a masterpiece in your seventieth year—it makes these “new wave” writers who can’t write English and don’t know science (or much of anything else) look silly.
Again let me say how much I enjoyed BATTLEFIELD EARTH.
Always your friend,
Bob
Such enjoyable letters between friends. The humorous banter is delightful around honest appreciation for the craft. Fun stuff!
I had never read SF. It was through reading Battlefield Earth (which I read three times btw and intend to listen again to the audiobook) that I got introduced to the genre and as a consequence also discovered Heinlein and others. Battlefield Earth, written about 40 years ago, took up quite a few subjects which are hot topics today (implanting chips in the brain as one example). I consider Hubbard’s book as one of the greatest SF work of all time. Andy K
Thank you, Andreas! This book has influenced many of today’s top authors as well.
It’s so entertaining to read Ron using a London dialect, “Old codger”. He was clearly extremely linguistically modern for his day! And for Bob to follow-on with “busies”, rather than ‘coppers’ or ‘old Bill’. Both gents such iconic writers and speaking in a slang tongue of yesteryear…how wonderful!
I love that book I have it on everything iPod CD books