To Be Held in Kansas City, Missouri

Plans have been announced for a major convention to be held in Kansas City, Missouri to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of American author Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein's birth on 7/7/1907 will be celebrated on the weekend of 7/6 - 7/8/2007, with a series of major events on the centennial day, Saturday, 7/7/2007.

The Heinlein Centennial Convention will be a multi-faceted event celebrating Heinlein's life, works and far-reaching influence. More than 3,000 professional and amateur attendees from throughout the US and around the world are expected to participate in distinct tracks focusing on Heinlein's contributions to science fiction, American literature, the American aerospace industry and commercial development of space, and film and television. Evaluation of Heinlein's overall impact on American culture and politics will be an integral part of all the tracks.

The Hyatt Regency Crown Center & Westin Crown Center hotels, adjacent to the Crown Center complex in downtown Kansas City, have been selected as the site of the Heinlein Centennial Convention. All three venues will host various Convention events. The convention is sponsored and organized by Heinlein Centennial, Inc., a California nonprofit corporation.

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein, born in Butler, Missouri on July 7, 1907, became known by the 1940s as one of the premier writers of speculative fiction and was later widely credited as an influence on postwar American literature and the US space program. Heinlein grew up in Kansas City and later attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He was commissioned with a background in naval engineering in 1929 and served as a line naval officer until his medical discharge in 1934.

Heinlein worked at a variety of trades, including grassroots political work, until 1939, when he turned to writing as a profession. Within two years, he was one of the most highly regarded authors in science fiction. During World War II, he returned to naval aircraft engineering as a civilian, spending the war years at the Naval Air Experimental Station in Philadelphia.

It was in the decades immediately following the war that Heinlein wrote the works for which he is most highly regarded, including the award-winning and controversial novels Starship Troopers (1959) and Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), the latter of which introduced the word "grok" to the language and strongly influenced the counterculture of the 1960s. He also wrote twelve novels for young adults that helped redefine and refine the notion of "juvenile literature," and some 40 other important novels and book-length works. Several of his novels have been turned into feature films, with his other works in frequent option for development.

Robert Heinlein died on May 8, 1988 in Carmel, California, leaving a substantial literary and philosophical legacy that was managed by his widow Virginia until her death in 2003, and is now managed by the Heinlein Prize Trust (www.heinleinprize.com), among whose aims is to continue Heinlein's lifetime championing of space progress by presenting the US$500,000 "Heinlein Prize" for advances in commercial space development. Heinlein also left millions of readers and admirers worldwide, with his works translated into most of the world's major languages. Seventeen years after his death, the majority of his published works are still in print and selling briskly.

Much more than a "science fiction writer," Robert Heinlein was an important and influential American philosopher and thinker. His impact can be discerned in postwar through present-day American fiction, current political circles, and perhaps most importantly, on the US space program. His writings from 1945 through 1960 are credited with influencing a generation of engineers that went on to build Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle. Near the end of his life, he was still involved with space policy, contributing to discussions on the military uses of space.

FMI: www.HeinleinCentennial.com