Description

Once upon a time fan Walter J. Daugherty recorded Robert A. Heinlein’s Guest of Honor speech to the 3rd Worldcon, Denvention, in 1941, on seven two-sided lacquer discs. Many years later (about sixty), Ginny Heinlein, a founding director of THS, authorized the Society to offer this recording as an audio CD as a members-only premium, and THS originally offered its audio CD disc for an additional contribution to qualify as a “Charter Member” of the Society.

Eventually it became clear it was sort of silly to still be calling new folks “Charter Members” just because they wanted the special pleasure of owning that recording of Robert A. Heinlein as a young pro addressing his first Worldcon. So, we moved the speech to our first members-only premium, no longer tied to “Charter Membership”, but –and this was important to us– still honoring Ginny’s wish that it only be available to members of THS for a contribution above and beyond the usual yearly membership dues. With website moves, it has been unavailable for some time, but we are pleased it is once again available for a donation from a paid member.

The Society gratefully acknowledges member John Rumpelein’s work in cleaning up the audio in 2024; it is the same content as previously released to Charter Members.
The file is approximately 100 megabytes and is a 320kbps MP3 file. The audio is in a .zip file with two transcriptions of the speech. The first transcript is contemporary and originally sold by Forry Ackerman, preserved as a PDF. The second is a PDF extract of “A Revised Transcript of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1941 Guest of Honor Speech” by David E. Wright Sr., originally published in The Heinlein Journal #22

Note: You MUST be an active paid member of the Society first to donate and receive this premium.
Lifetime members may use their special coupon code at checkout to receive it for no extra donation as a thank-you for their membership at the Lifetime level.