Robert A. Heinlein

At age 17, Robert A. Heinlein graduated from Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri for one year before enrolling at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated ranked 20th out of 243 cadets. He served for five years in the Pacific Ocean, retiring in 1934 due to tuberculosis. After his retirement, he held various jobs, including silver mining in Colorado, working as a land agent, and writing political speeches, as well as a failed attempt to become an elected official. He married his first wife, Leslyn McDonald. His first story, "Lifeline," was written for a magazine contest offering $50 for the best science fiction story by a new writer, but he sold it for $70 to *Astounding Stories*, where it was published in August 1939. During World War II, he worked as a research engineer for the U.S. Navy in Philadelphia while also writing 25 novels and short stories. He met his second wife, Virginia Gerstenfeld, whom he married in 1948. Little is known about his personal life. Heinlein once stated that he wrote seven days a week for six months of the year, and spent the remaining six months traveling or relaxing. In the late 1960s, his health declined, and he underwent several treatments. His condition improved following a major operation in 1982, but his novel *To Sail Beyond the Sunset*, published in 1987, was his last.