Heinlein Story & Novel Collections

  

Guide by
Robert Wilfred Franson
   March 2006

  
I'm sure there are plenty of other fans of Robert A. Heinlein who've kept an eye out for reasonably solid editions to replace worn and disintegrating copies of his books. One mark of appreciation by the reading public is that most of his work has stayed in print since it began appearing in book form, or collected in book form, around 1950. But well-loved paperbacks tend to come apart, and even some of the older hardcovers were printed with unconscionably poor paper.

Collections often have rather generic titles, the bigger and newer collections often less descriptive than the earlier ones. The following simple list may serve as a guide for readers who want more complete or more substantial editions. These collections are bargains, and even more so if you are seeking some of the included novels.
  


  
All listed in the group below are big hardcover collections, most were also (or only) printed by Doubleday's old Science Fiction Book Club, and a few are also in paperback with these contents. There is very little overlap among these.

Even if you have copies of many of the individual novels, the first three collections below, as unique volumes, should be in the library of every Heinlein fan:

The Past Through Tomorrow
    20 stories & 1 novel, 667 pages
    the major Future History compilation,
    science fiction's touchstone series of stories;
    the culminating novel is
    Methuselah's Children

Off the Main Sequence
    1 novella & 26 stories, 738 pages
    science fiction, mostly non- Future History;
    many fascinating stories, across an immense range.

The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein
    3 novellas & 5 stories, 352 pages.
    excellent mind-stretching, unsettling stuff.

A Heinlein Trio
    3 novels, 502 pages
    The Puppet Masters (abridged version)
    Double Star
    The Door into Summer

(no overall title)
    3 novels, 605 pages
    Starship Troopers
    The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
    Time Enough for Love
  


  
There are several omnibus collections of the wonderful "juvenile" novels, unfortunately without the fine Clifford Geary illustrations in most of the original Scribner editions, and with a notable increase in spell-checked typographical errors. They are grouped in order of publication:

Four Frontiers
    4 novels, 709 pages
    early and simpler juveniles, yet much better than Heinlein's imitators; Red Planet is a classic.
    Rocket Ship Galileo
    Space Cadet
    Red Planet
    Farmer in the Sky

To the Stars
    4 novels, 722 pages
    three excellent; and one an interesting mixture.
    Between Planets
    The Rolling Stones
    Starman Jones
    The Star Beast

Infinite Possibilities
    3 novels, 568 pages
    one good; one excellent; and a masterpiece.
    Tunnel in the Sky
    Time for the Stars
    Citizen of the Galaxy

Outward Bound
    3 novels, 592 pages
    one masterpiece; one still strongly controversial; and another quirky.
    Have Space Suit — Will Travel
    Starship Troopers
    Podkayne of Mars
    (this Podkayne has both Heinlein's original ending and the standard one.)

  


  
And if you want to follow Heinlein's thinking into other fascinating byways:

Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
    27 essays & stories, 582 pages
    insightful fun with the Twentieth Century's great futurist.

  


  
Unless you are a specialist or collector — for instance, you want a foreword specific to an earlier edition — the fiction contents of the following books are re-collected in the list above; of course all worth reading:

  • The Best of Robert Heinlein
  • The Green Hills of Earth
  • The Man Who Sold the Moon
  • The Menace from Earth
  • Revolt in 2100
  • The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (also as 6 by H)
  • Waldo and Magic, Inc.
  • The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein

A couple of other reprint collections have single items not in the list:

  • A Robert Heinlein Omnibus
      
    includes Beyond This Horizon
      
  • Three by Heinlein (also as A Heinlein Triad)
      includes The Puppet Masters,
      but it's the abridged version:
      see Heinlein's Missed Bestsellers

  

© 2006 Robert Wilfred Franson


  
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