Synopsis: This collection of letters ranges from the 16-year old Heinlein writing home to masterful statements of a man on top of the science fiction world in the 1960s. At times, the record is frustratingly fragmentary. For example, there is no information on what happened with his first marriage to Elinor Curry, and correspondence with his second wife Leslyn was destroyed by Heinlein following their divorce. The letters that survive are both extensive and incomplete, both from design and accident. There are 34 banker's boxes of letters in the Archives at UCSC, more than exist for any other American writer of the postwar period. The letters in this volume were chosen to illuminate Robert Heinlein's character and career. Many are extracts, rather than the full letters. “Overall, the pattern to be found in this correspondence is that of an extremely bright, charming, unusually perceptive human being finding his way through the world.”