Very well, then; my next move: "Who Are the Heirs of Patrick Henry?"

Polemic written to rouse a particular rabble at a particular time. I don't know that there's much trustworthy content about Heinlein himself other than a portrayal of how he reacted to that perceived level of threat.

Jim,
what do you think about the Schulman interview? Seems to me that Heinlein thought he was just having a long phone call with an adoring fan for a minor article. I never got the impression from the interview that he realized Schulman was going to publish the ENTIRE interview word-for-word.

Do you think this offers the strongest way to view RAH's opinions (as of 1973)?

I guess the alternative is to defer to opinions written by his friends and family about him, or to dimension-hop to an alternate Earth where Grumbles From The Grave is his (oft-threatened) autobiography, rather than just a bunch of letters. Ah, where art thou, Gay Deceiver?

There's much of interest in the Schulman interview, although - well, I'll put a pin in the "althoughs."

A good part of the interview brings to mind Errol Flynn, sipping away at mead from the king's cup while holding off a furiously slashing young twerp of an opponent with lazy, masterful parries. Probably while reading the latest missive from the hinterlands, held by a comely wench, and thinking more of 'laters' with the wench than anything else.

Nice Flynn reference, Jim.

I'd add that it seems RAH was willing to talk at that period; there's a lengthy interview he did with William Tenn that never got published, and seems to have disappeared into Tenn's personal effects, perhaps never to be found, at the same time.

I'd also add that Schulman was just too young to know what questions he should have been asking....which are, of course, the ones we would have asked him

Brilliant image. It's amazing, the differential between how the scholars on this board view RAH as an almost unreachable icon, and many average readers simply dismiss him as a "dirty old man" or as this or that. I'm sure he enjoyed the air of mystery he created about himself.

P.S. I recall a mead-drinking swordfight with Basil Rathbone in the Danny Kaye comedy The Court Jester. ("The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle...")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSNGeazCW6I
The mead-drinking is at 2:50.

And there's a nice swordfight with Cyrano de Bergerac (or was it C. D. Bales? ) in Glory Road.

"I admire your shoooes."

"I just wouldn't want to be IN your shoes . . ."

Ah, neat! It's long bemused me that Heinlein detractors, and narrowly focused fans, select just one of those three novels to particularly attack or admire. Sort of like those tiny plastic puzzles with beads and little holes: it's hard to maneuver and keep multiple beads into multiple holes at the same time. (Admittedly not up to the Errol Flynn analogy, but at least I can testify that the puzzles require coordination.)