Heinlein and Librarians

[HOOfan_1]

I also work in a library....a large library.

Here are just a few books

American Sportsman and the Origins of Conservation
Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smokies
A Sporting Family of the Old South
American Small Arms
Americans and Their Guns; the National Rifle Association Story Through Nearly a Century of Service to the Nation


and just a copy and paste of a few more in the collection

Gates, Elgin T. 1
The Gun digest book of metallic silhouette shooting / 1979 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

2 Petzal, David E. 2
The experts’ book of the shooting sports; 1972 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

3 Hinman, Bob. 3
The golden age of shotgunning. 1971 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

4 Wels, Byron G. 4
Fell’s guide to guns and how to use them safely, legally, responsibly, 1969 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

5 Roper, Walter Frederic. 5
Pistol and revolver shooting [by] Walter R. Roper. 1945 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

6 Hagie, Clarence Edwin, 6
The American rifle for hunting and target shooting, 1944 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

7 Hearn, Arthur. 7
Shooting and gunfitting, 1943 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

8 Betten, Henry Lewis, 8
Upland game shooting 1940 Book Special Collections( 1/ 0)

9 Sands, Ledyard, 9
The bird, the gun and the dog 1939 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

10 Smith, Lawrence Breese, 10
Modern shotgun shooting, 1935 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

11
11
[Instructions on awarding prizes for small-arms marksmanship to marines serving on shore] [micro 1908 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

12 Farrow, Edward S. 12
American small arms; 1904 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

13 Hutchinson, Horatio Gordon, 13
Shooting, 1903 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

14 Leffingwell, William Bruce. 14
The art of wing shooting, 1895 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

15 Schley, Frank. 15
Frank Schley’s American partridge and pheasant shooting, 1877 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

16 Herbert, Henry William, 16
The complete manual for young sportsmen: 1857 Book Special Collections( 1/ 0)

17 Herbert, Henry William, 17
Frank Forester’s sporting scenes and characters. 1857 Book Special Collections( 2/ 0)

18 Lewis, Elisha J. 18
The American sportsman : 1855 Book Special Collections( 1/ 0)

19 Beaufain, Charles Random de Bérenger, 19
Helps and hints how to protect life and property. 1835 Book Closed Stacks( 1/ 0)

20 Page, T. 20
The art of shooting flying : 1770 Book Special Collections( 1/ 0)

 

[Millwright]

MM,

Heinlein, aka "The Dean of American Science Fiction" was always a strong supporter of gun rights. Most of his plots were taken from historical events re-staged in a speculative future.

Another great SF writer with an even greater adherence to individual rights and self-defense was H. Beam Piper. Check out his Space Viking, and Future History series.... >MW

 

[TexasBill]

What's being overlooked is that Heinlein was being told by Alice Dalgliesh, his New-York-City-based editor at Scribners what the librarians would like. The librarians themselves don't seem to have been consulted.

 

[Devonai]

Beyond This Horizon is another classic from Heinlein. The main character carries a 1911 in a world of high technology. It was an inspiration for my own writing, where characters use Earth-based weapons alongside plasma rifles and such fanciful things.

Friday was also fun, and more light-hearted, if you can get over the idea if an old man writing for a young woman.

 

[mljdeckard]

I very much agree with Justin. Verhoeven's style is to mock people's sensitivities. (Particularly what he views as American Puritanism. Being Dutch, he thinks we're uptight and silly.)

There were a few hints in the movie about how being a citizen means giving a higher level of sacrifice, and it it is a right to be earned, but I really think that he was mocking this too.

 

[Big Mike]

To the OP:

I was in middle school/high school in the mid-late 80's. Both school libraries had copious amounts of RAH books, and I'll add that the county libraries also had lots of RAH books. I have no idea what the Leon County libraries have but now I may have to go back and re-read what they do have.

 

[merlinfire]

My local library doesn't have a lot of gun books, but through the interlibrary loan system i can get my hands on all sorts of smithing books. Not a lot of training/tactics style books though. Basically, if its Paladin Press, libraries aren't likely to have it.

 

[SwampWolf]

Not on point here, but I used to read a lot of science fiction books and my favorite one was titled "Childhoods End". I've always thought that Heinlein was the author. Anybody know for sure?

 

[bigfatdave]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood's_End

Childhood's End was Arthur C Clarke

 

[kilo729]

The whole you have to serve to get a vote deal is a MAJOR turn-off with Starship Troopers.

 

[Nushif]

It's kinda the point of the book though. Between some pretty kickass action sequences there's a *lot* of talk about what exactly constitutes a citizen.

 

[TexasBill]

Another good Heinlein about armed youth is Between Planets. Several very interesting themes.

H. Beam Piper was interesting; lots of good stories. He was also a gun collector and used a .38 caliber revolver to end his own life in 1964. The story is that he was despondent because he thought his writing career was over. Turns out his agent had neglected to tell him about a number of sales.

 

[MoscowMike]

Big Mike -

These days RAH isn't thought of as a children's author, which confuses the issue. I am mainly curious how current children's and juvenile section librarians are purchasing books with firearms references. If there was the prejudice he encountered sixty years ago, what's happening these days?

Are there books in the children's or juvenile sections of librarys that have positive portrayals of guns and gun owners, or are they generally demonized? I'm glad to hear from several posters that isn't always true. And of course

By the time they get to the adult section, a lot of their attitudes have been formed, which is why I think we need to be concerned about what children are reading.

And - small town North Idaho isn't representative of the rest of the country. What will kids in a Cleveland Jr. High library find on the shelves?

>>>>>>>>


To the OP:

I was in middle school/high school in the mid-late 80's. Both school libraries had copious amounts of RAH books, and I'll add that the county libraries also had lots of RAH books. I have no idea what the Leon County libraries have but now I may have to go back and re-read what they do have.

 

[bigfatdave]

Are there books in the children's or juvenile sections of librarys that have positive portrayals of guns and gun owners, or are they generally demonized?

You could always walk into your local library and LOOK, you know.

 

[SwampWolf]

Childhood's End was Arthur C Clarke

Thanks, bigfatdave-I guess I'm even more "off point" than I originally thought!

 

[GEM]

Stranger in a Strange Land vs. Starship Troopers - which is Heinlein's preferred life style? Or is it when Lazarus Long went back in time to 'ahem' with his own mother? Or his cloned twin sisters?

Starship Trooper is the worst movie adaptation of a serious book ever!

Our current armed ground forces could take that MI apart. But the book's MI would toast us.

In Beyond This Horizon - the 1911 carrier - Hamilton Felix was actually considering giving up his gun to be a declared pacificistic second class citizen. His society was a genetically determined tyranny and very classist.

Heinlein explored lots of idea. So taking ST as his favorite is not a good idea.

 

[bigfatdave]

which is Heinlein's preferred life style?

Why would anyone assume either was a handbook for utopia?

 

[Travis McGee]

RAH was my wife's great uncle. So he's almost a relative, sort of.

 

[theotherwaldo]

In my twelve years as a children's librarian I made sure that I had an extensive and well-balanced collection. That meant that I purchased books on hunting, target shooting, military weapons, wars and warfare, technological advances, general history, classic and modern fiction, biographies of the folks that actually did things, and whatever seemed appropriate.

I was replaced by some degree-less twit who seems to be concentrating the collection on sparkly vampires, homosexuality, nihilism, and the wonders of socialism. No guns allowed.

 

[Nushif]

In my twelve years as a children's librarian I made sure that I had an extensive and well-balanced collection. That meant that I purchased books on hunting, target shooting, military weapons, wars and warfare, technological advances, general history, classic and modern fiction, biographies of the folks that actually did things, and whatever seemed appropriate.

I was replaced by some degree-less twit who seems to be concentrating the collection on sparkly vampires, homosexuality, nihilism, and the wonders of socialism. No guns allowed.

Now, ideally a good library has topics ranging from nihilism, homosexuality, the wonders of socialism, guns, technology, fiction of any stripe *and* history, no matter who wrote it. And frankly a good librarian should embrace all of it.

 

[Joe Demko]

Quite so.

 

[blindhari]

45 years ago on a Sunday afternoon I was in a USO library at Ft Lee with my first stripe. I stumbled across Hienlien's Starship Troopers and thought it would be a boys science fiction book. 4 hours later I had read it twice. I have library copies now of everything he wrote and under all of his pen names. He was not without flaws in his philosophy, but, he is the reason I have a Ranger badge tatooed on my lower backside. He is also the reason that I visit the Wall in Arlington every other year. If you find the time look up "The Pragmatics of Patriotisim" from the US Naval Academy address by Robert Heinlien and read it throught to the end. This is an essay on how a man lives and how a man dies. He was never asked to publicly speak again by the Naval Academy.

blindhari
Sgt, Ranger

 

[Farnham]

I'm also a huge RAH fan, "Farnham's Freehold" was his TEOTWAKI book (and the source of my nom de guerre) and pretty good. I read Starship Troopers in about 6th grade (and 7th, and 8th, and college, and a half a hundred times since) because A. it has kickass space launched nuke launching powered armor, B. the training methods are awesome, and C. it's a fascinating look at society.

I googled H. Beam Piper as I hadn't heard of him, and you can get free downloads of Space Viking (and everything else) here: http://www.manybooks.net/authors/piperh.html

Just thought I'd throw that link out for anyone interested.

 

[nalioth]

I googled H. Beam Piper as I hadn't heard of him, and you can get free downloads of Space Viking (and everything else) here: http://www.manybooks.net/authors/piperh.html

Before anyone has a cow, they're not "free" as in "beer", but free because they've passed out of copyright.

Manybooks.net has thousands of free books, with a surprising number of modern ones (these carry Creative Commons or similar licensing).

 

[Joe Demko]

I just read "The Pragmatics of Patriotism." Heinlein's dismissal of Samuel Johnson as

the man who made that sneering remark was a fat, gluttonous slob who was pursued all his life by a pathological fear of death

does not incline me to include him on my short list of Great Minds of the Twentieth Century. Heinlein (or perhaps his wife) was a writer of popular entertainment. Samuel Johnson was one of the greatest men of letters in English history. Maybe he was trying to be shocking, but he comes off as an arrogant jackass.
I've read much of Heinlein's body of work. I don't get a woody off of Starship Troopers. It took me three tries to read Stranger in a Strange Land and I still want those hours back. Off the top of my head, Gene Wolfe and Harlan Ellison are both vastly superior authors on whom I would rather spend my time.