2
When the Howard Families seized the Starship New Frontiers only a few were more than a century and a quarter old; all of that few—save the Senior—are dead, at times and places on record. (I except the strange and possibly mythical case of life-in-death of Elder Mary Sperling.) Despite genetic advantage and access to the longevity therapies known collectively as “the immortality option,” the last died in 3003 Gregorian. By the records it would seem that most of them died through refusing further rejuvenation—that being still the second commonest cause of death today.
3
(1) Ira Johnson was less than eighty at the time the Senior claims (elsewhere) to have left home. Ira Johnson was himself a Doctor of Medicine. How long he practiced, and whether or not he ever let another Doctor of Medicine attend him, are not known.
J.F. 45th
(2) Ira Howard—Ira Johnson—This appears to be a chance coincidence of given names at a time when Biblical names were common. Families’ genealogists have been unable to trace any consanguinity.
4
Ira Johnson was seventy when Lazarus Long was ten.
5
This anecdote is too obscure to be elaborated here. See Howard Encyclopaedia: Ancient weapons, chemical-explosives firearms.
6
While this passage bears inner contradictions, the idioms are authentic for North America of the twentieth century. They name certain types of financial dishonesty. See “Swindles” under “Fraud” in Krishnamurti’s New Golden Bough, Academe Press, New Rome.
7
This doggerel is attributed to the twentieth century. See appendix for semantic analysis.
8
There is no record that the Senior ever attended a school for militaro-naval officers, or any military school. On the other hand, there is no proof that he did not. This story may be autobiographical to whatever extent it is true; “David Lamb” may be one more of the many names used by Woodrow Wilson Smith.
The details are consistent with Old Home’s history so far as we know it. The Senior’s first century coincides with that century of continuous war which preceded the Great Collapse—a century of much scientific progress paralleled by retrogression in social matters. Waterborne and airborne ships were used for fighting throughout this century. See appendix for idioms and technicalities.
9
From the noun “chaperon.” This word has two meanings: (1) A person charged with preventing sexual contacts between males and females not licensed for such contacts; (2) a person superficially performing such disservice while in fact acting as a benign lookout. It appears that the Senior uses the word here in its first meaning rather than in its antithetical second meaning. See appendix.
10
Context implies second meaning.
11
The Gatling gun (Richard J. Gatling, 1818-1903) was obsolete by the time Lazarus Long was born. This allegation is barely possible if one stipulates that an obsolete weapon might be used in some small, out-of-the-way insurrection.
12
Sequence of events cannot be reconciled. Perhaps a similar ship?
13
All is well
Without punishment,
The time is for playing;
Comes the hour
Without delay
For laying (school) books down.
Purists will see that the Senior gave this jingle a poor translation. But one wonders why he did not continue in the same vein with the cheerfully bawdy triple pun available in the last line by substituting “liberos” for “libros”? That he could have missed it seems out of character. Our Ancestor’s capric disposition is everywhere evident; his occasional professions of asceticism have at best a hollow ring.
14
Correction: Hedrick Family. This woman Laura (one of the ancestors of the undersigned) did carry the surname “Foote” under the archaic patrilineal tradition—a source of confusion in old records, as the more logical matrilineal system has always been used in the Families in assigning clan membership. But the genealogies were not revised to show this until Gregorian Year 3307. This misnomer offers a means of dating this memoir . . were it not that other records show that reindeer were not introduced onto Valhalla until approximately a century and a half after the date that the Senior—beyond question—did marry Laura Foote-Hedrick.
But more interesting is the Senior’s allegation that he used a pseudogravity field in that year to facilitate childbirth. Was he the first tocologist to use this (now standard) method? Nowhere does he assert this, and the technique is usually associated with Dr. Virginius Briggs of Secundus Howard Clinic and a much later date.
J.F. 45th
15
And descended from the Senior as well (through Edmund Hardy 2099-2259) although the Senior may not have been aware of it.
16
Fifth. James Matthew Libby was her fourth.
Books by Robert A. Heinlein
ASSIGNMENT IN ETERNITY
THE BEST OF ROBERT HEINLEIN
BETWEEN PLANETS
THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
DESTINATION MOON
THE DOOR INTO SUMMER
DOUBLE STAR
EXPANDED UNIVERSE: MORE WORLDS OF ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
FARMER IN THE SKY
FARNHAM’S FREEHOLD
FRIDAY
GLORY ROAD
THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH
HAVE SPACE SUIT—WILL TRAVEL
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL
JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON
METHUSELAH’S CHILDREN
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS
THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG
THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST
ORPHANS OF THE SKY
THE PAST THROUGH TOMORROW: FUTURE HISTORY STORIES
PODKAYNE OF MARS
THE PUPPET MASTERS
RED PLANET
REVOLT IN 2100
ROCKET SHIP GALILEO
THE ROLLING STONES
SIXTH COLUMN
SPACE CADET
THE STAR BEAST
STARMAN JONES
STARSHIP TROOPERS
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
THREE BY HEINLEIN
TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE
TIME FOR THE STARS
TOMORROW THE STARS (ED.)
TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET
TRAMP ROYALE
TUNNEL IN THE SKY
THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG
WALDO & MAGIC, INC.
THE WORLDS OF ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
PRELUDE
COUNTERPOINT
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
INTERMISSION
SECOND INTERMISSION
DA CAPO
CODA
THE LOST FLEET
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16