Mendlesohn on Heinlein

I am a life-long fan of Robert Heinlein. I'm such a fan that I can now, as an adult, see the flaws in his writing and the limits of his thinking and still have a soft spot for the guy and his books. He's kind of like family that way.

I've read both volumes of James Patterson's biography of Heinlein and enjoyed them. However, it became clear fairly early that Patterson considers Heinlein's evolution into a right-winger as a natural and inevitable development. Any man with as much intelligence and honor and patriotism as Bob Heinlein would necessarily end up as a conservative Republican. (I'm putting words into Patterson's mouth here, but that is the feeling I get from his books.)

So, being somewhat unsatisfied by Patterson's account, I was thrilled to hear about a new bio being written by Farah Mendlesohn. I am not familiar with Ms. Mendlesohn's work, but the people over at Crooked Timber seem to think she's great and that's good enough for me.

The upshot is that I have happily pre-ordered the book and anxiously await it's arrival. I feel that I should inform Ms. Mendlesohn about how happy I would be to have the book arrive by Christmas. She might not know.