Time moves on. Once upon a time, the famous “4E” recorded Robert A. Heinlein’s Guest of Honor speech to the 3rd Worldcon, Denvention, in 1941, on disc. Many years later (Oh, roughly 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 that audio CD disc (you remember those, right?) 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 it to its own kind of 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.

And, still, technology keeps on moving. Not many folks are using discs anymore. They’ve got their audio stored on USB sticks, or their phone as highly compressed digital files like the ubiquitous MP3 format. Continuing to deliver this classic recording on disc to a new generation that wants it just feels silly at this point.

So, we are pleased to announce that as of today, if members of THS would like to receive this recording in a downloadable easily-transportable MP3 format for use in their car or on their smartphone –or wherever MP3 will play– we are prepared to service you.

The required contribution is still the same as it’s been in recent years –$50. And you still need to be a THS member to qualify to receive it for that contribution amount in the first place.

But if you qualify, and you’d like to receive the classic 1941 “Discovery of the Future” audio of Heinlein’s first Worldcon Guest of Honor speech, you can head over to our Join/Renew/Donate page, head towards the bottom of the page, click on the Denvention Audio donation, and after we confirm you’re a member of THS, we’ll send you an email with a link to a secured webpage, and a valid password for that webpage, so you can download it to your local harddrive and then use it for your own personal use on all your digital devices.

1941, meet 2018.