Re: [UUPoly-L] Stranger in a Strange Land

["Catherine Deville" <catdeville@cox.net>]

Lance said:
<<_Stranger in a Strange Land_ is in almost continuous reprint it seems to
me.  At least every time I wander the Science Fiction aisles at Barnes &
Noble I see it on the shelves.

Are you aware of the original, longer, version that was published a few
years ago?  It has several thousand words added that Heinlein's
publisher forced him to cut out of the first-publisedh version.  It's
mostly expository text so the story moves more slowly, but I like it
much better.>>

Actually, the "original, uncut version" is nowhere near as excellent a piece
of writing as it rambled.  And while Heinlein's publisher did require him to
shorten the novel, Heinlein himself made the cuts and stated more than once
in correspondence that he was much happier with the final product than he
was with the original.  In correspondence with Oberon Zell (then Tim Zell),
Mr. Heinlein wrote: 
"... SISL was never censored by anyone in any fashion.
The first draft was nearly twice as long as the published version. I cut it
myself to bring it down to a commercial length. But I did not leave out
anything of any importance; I simply trimmed all possible excess verbiage.
Perhaps you have noticed that it reads "fast" despite its length; that is
why. I WILL FEAR NO EVIL does not read as "fast" because it never received
its final trimming; I became extremely ill and could not do it, and would
not allow an editor to do it because my stories are fitted together like
jigsaw puzzles and it is awfully easy, in trimming, to leave out an
essential piece. So I WILL FEAR NO EVIL is not as good a story as SISL, in
my opinion--too slow--even though, again in my opinion, what I have said in
it is just as important. But I'm pleased enough that I was able to finish it
at all; it just missed being posthumous. (Mrs. Heinlein signed the contract;
I was too far gone even to write my signature.)

The original, longest version of SISL is in a fireproof vault of the
library of UCSC and can be seen there by any scholar who convinces the
special collection librarian that he has a legitimate interest. But it is
really not worth your trouble, as it is the same story throughout--simply
not as well told. With it is the brushpenned version which shows exactly
what was cut out--nothing worth reading, that is. I learned to write for
pulp magazines, in which one was paid by the yard rather than by the
package; it was not until I started writing for the Saturday Evening Post
that I learned the virtue of brevity. (And I am still too wordy in a private
communication such as this, or in conversation.)"

[Excerpted from a letter Robert A. Heinlein to Oberon (Tim) Zell, 2/28/72
(This entire letter, including Tim's letter to him to which this was in
reply, was printed in Green Egg Vol. XXII, No. 85; Beltane, 1989 with Mr.
Heinlein's permission.)]

NT, 
Cat