Editing Robert A. Heinlein (section)

===Honorifics===
Heinlein is usually identified, along with [[Isaac Asimov]] and [[Arthur C. Clarke]], as one of the three masters of science fiction to arise in the so-called [[Golden Age of science fiction]], associated with [[John W. Campbell]] and his magazine ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding]]''.<ref>{{Cite book
| last = Freedman
| first = Carl
| author-link = Carl Freedman (writer)
| title = Critical Theory and Science Fiction
| publisher = Wesleyan University Press
| isbn = 978-0819563996
| date = April 24, 2000
| edition = 1st
| page = 71
}}</ref>
In the 1950s he was a leader in bringing science fiction out of the low-paying and less prestigious "[[pulp magazine|pulp]] ghetto". Most of his works, including short stories, have been continuously in print in many languages since their initial appearance and are still available as new paperbacks decades after his death.

[[File:heinlein-crater.jpg|thumb|[[Heinlein crater]] on [[Mars]]]]

He was at the top of his form during, and himself helped to initiate, the trend toward [[social science fiction]], which went along with a general maturing of the genre away from [[space opera]] to a more literary approach touching on such adult issues as politics and [[human sexuality]]. In reaction to this trend, [[hard science fiction]] began to be distinguished as a separate subgenre, but paradoxically Heinlein is also considered a seminal figure in hard science fiction, due to his extensive knowledge of engineering and the careful scientific research demonstrated in his stories. Heinlein himself stated—with obvious pride—that in the days before pocket calculators, he and his wife Virginia once worked for several days on a mathematical equation describing an Earth–Mars rocket orbit, which was then subsumed in a single sentence of the novel ''Space Cadet''.