Editing Robert A. Heinlein (section)

===California===
In 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy, owing to [[pulmonary tuberculosis]]. During a lengthy hospitalization, and inspired by his own experience while bed-ridden, he developed a design for a [[waterbed]].<ref name="Expanded Universe">''Expanded Universe''</ref>

After his discharge, Heinlein attended a few weeks of graduate classes in [[mathematics]] and [[physics]] at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA), but he soon quit, either because of his ill-health or because of a desire to enter politics.<ref>Afterword to ''[[For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs]]'', 2004 edition, p. 245.</ref>

Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, including [[real estate agent|real estate sales]] and [[mining|silver mining]], but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active in [[Upton Sinclair]]'s socialist [[End Poverty in California movement]] (EPIC) in the early 1930s. He was deputy publisher of the ''EPIC News'', which Heinlein noted "recalled a mayor, kicked out a district attorney, replaced the governor with one of our choice."<ref>{{cite book |title=Off the Main Sequence | author=Robert A. Heinlein |date=2005 |publisher=Science Fiction Book Club |isbn=1-58288-184-7 |page=xiii |section=Foreword by Michael Cassutt}}</ref> When Sinclair gained the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nomination for [[Governor of California]] in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for the [[California State Assembly]] in 1938, but was unsuccessful. Heinlein was running as a left-wing Democrat in a conservative district, and he never made it past the Democratic primary.<ref>(afterword to ''For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs'', 2004 edition, p. 247, and the story "[[A Bathroom of Her Own]]"). Also, an unfortunate juxtaposition of events had a [[Konrad Henlein]] making headlines in the [[Sudetenland]]s.</ref>