MoscowMike
Member
I've seen a fair number of Heinlein references on the gun boards, so when I ran into this information in "Grumbles From the Grave", Virginia Heinlein's compilation of letters RAH wrote and received, I thought others might be interested.
When RAH was writing his juveniles for Scribners, he had a problem. In "Red Planet", as originally written, guns were just part of the furniture.
His editor at Scribner's, Alice Dalgliesh, wouldn't accept it. She said that the library association would not like the book that way and as one of their major markets, she couldn't publish it. There were several other issues, but the gun issue was a big one. To get the book published he had to re-write several scenes.
Here's a brief quote from a letter he wrote to Alice Dalgliesh about Red Planet on 19 April 1949.
"I have one of my characters say that the right to bear arms is the basis of all human freedom. I strongly believe that, but you required me to blue-pencil it. The second point concerns licensing guns. I had such licensing in the story but I had one character strongly object to it as a piece of buttinsky bureaucracy, subversive of liberty - and I had no one defending it. You required me to remove the protest ..."
GFTG 1989 Chapter III p 55
He goes on in great detail to discuss how silly her viewpoint is. If you are a Heinlein fan, the book is worth a read.
A point I found interesting was the date. If the library association and major juvenile publishers in 1949 were insisting on censoring RAH on gun rights, it's not too surprising that we have had lots of problems since then.
Laws are a reflection of how society perceives rights and responsibilities. If we want to preserve the rights of free men, we are in for a long haul to make sure that our children maintain those rights.
Public perception of guns and public participation in shooting sports are critical. Some friends of mine are librarians, one enjoyed shooting an AK with us last summer, another just got her NRA Life Member belt buckle repaired, and the husband of the third is an adviser to the local Pink Pistols group. However, I think Idaho is a bit saner than the rest of the country.
Does your local library have any gun rags on the shelves? How about kids books that portray hunting and shooting as fun and sensible? We need to think fifty years ahead if we want our grandchildren to have a country we can be proud of.
When RAH was writing his juveniles for Scribners, he had a problem. In "Red Planet", as originally written, guns were just part of the furniture.
His editor at Scribner's, Alice Dalgliesh, wouldn't accept it. She said that the library association would not like the book that way and as one of their major markets, she couldn't publish it. There were several other issues, but the gun issue was a big one. To get the book published he had to re-write several scenes.
Here's a brief quote from a letter he wrote to Alice Dalgliesh about Red Planet on 19 April 1949.
"I have one of my characters say that the right to bear arms is the basis of all human freedom. I strongly believe that, but you required me to blue-pencil it. The second point concerns licensing guns. I had such licensing in the story but I had one character strongly object to it as a piece of buttinsky bureaucracy, subversive of liberty - and I had no one defending it. You required me to remove the protest ..."
GFTG 1989 Chapter III p 55
He goes on in great detail to discuss how silly her viewpoint is. If you are a Heinlein fan, the book is worth a read.
A point I found interesting was the date. If the library association and major juvenile publishers in 1949 were insisting on censoring RAH on gun rights, it's not too surprising that we have had lots of problems since then.
Laws are a reflection of how society perceives rights and responsibilities. If we want to preserve the rights of free men, we are in for a long haul to make sure that our children maintain those rights.
Public perception of guns and public participation in shooting sports are critical. Some friends of mine are librarians, one enjoyed shooting an AK with us last summer, another just got her NRA Life Member belt buckle repaired, and the husband of the third is an adviser to the local Pink Pistols group. However, I think Idaho is a bit saner than the rest of the country.
Does your local library have any gun rags on the shelves? How about kids books that portray hunting and shooting as fun and sensible? We need to think fifty years ahead if we want our grandchildren to have a country we can be proud of.