American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

In this episode, I finish up my review of the excellent novel FARMER IN THE SKY by Robert A. Heinlein. This novel has some excellent reflections on population, empires, war, ecology, and the frontier. Are the juveniles (and the Future History series at large) metaphors for the Atlantic world? Sometimes I think so.

Heinlein's fourth juvenile novel, FARMER IN THE SKY (1950) is one of the best books he wrote to that point and the most "mature" of his "boy's novels". We seen Heinlein's approach and concerns grow up with his characters. The first part of this book is an excellent window into the ecological, scientific, and political vision Heinlein develops.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's OLDTOWN FOLKS (1869) is doing a lot, and that is made clear in the second section of this book, which explores the fate of two orphans in this small New England Town, and their ultimate liberation.

"Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon" is another delightful Future History story by Robert A. Heinlein, but this one includes Boy Scouts. Can an Earth Scout ever find a place with the Moon Scouts with the Moon's inhospitable environment? Maybe if he saves the day? This story has some very harrowing life and death moments as two boys get lost a "morning glory" (a sinkhole).

In this episode I begin to explore OLDTOWN FOLKS by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is a fascinating, almost modernist, novel about one man's memory of the days of his youth in early 19th century New England. Through deep dives into characters and the community, Stowe digs into surface level and hidden aspects of New England society.

What is this early 1940s Heinlein story doing in the 1950? In this episode I explore Heinlein's brief return to ASTOUNDING with "Gulf". Thanks, I hate it.

In this episode I finish up up look at Harriet Beecher Stowe's THE MINISTER'S WOOING. It finishes up much the way we expect. Overall, this novel is a nice surprise and worth checking out if you have the time. Next up, OLDTOWN FOLKS.

This is the last of the GREEN HILLS OF EARTH stories (from the anthology, but not thematically), we explore the question of who is suited for space exploration by looking at the place of women in the frontier.

In part two of my review of THE MINISTER'S WOOING by Harriet Beecher Stowe we build out the world of post-Revolutionary New England with a closer look at the new theology of the Great Awakening and get to experience the suspicious arrival of Aaron Burr as a suitor. Then tragedy hits.

The finale of my review of Robert A. Heinlein's RED PLANET. I focus on the political aspects of the novel and the awesome portrayal of the indigenous Martians.