October 15, 1954: Lurton Blassingame to Robert A. Heinlein
You’re not in as much of a squeeze as you think. We’ll have to see whether the Library Journal lambastes you, and sales. If sales stay up, the squeeze wasn’t tight enough to hurt.
TUNNEL IN THE SKY
October 25, 1954: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
I am starting a novel [Tunnel in the Sky} as soon as I finish this letter. That is to say, that I start walking up and down and swearing at the cat; I should start the first chapter any time between midnight tonight and two weeks from now.
Look, I did write to [Learned T.] Bulman just once and no more-I have not answered his answer and do not intend to. The thing that made writing to Bulman so extremely difficult and time wasting was that (Scribner’s) had written to him also, conceding all of his objections, but telling him that she was writing to me and that I would explain where I stood. That is what made it so damn difficult-I have to write to him and refute his nonsense without calling her a prevaricator…or worse.
So far as I am concerned I have dropped the matter, do not intend to write to him again, and have not answered her last letter about it. But it is not out of my mind, as I feel equally strongly impelled to write another boys’ book and not to write one. I like that series, am proud of it, and it has paid well, but I have a very sour taste about my relations with Scribner’s. I agree that Miss Dalgliesh must sell books and should stay on as good terms with librarians as possible, but it does not strike me as good business to kowtow to everything that any librarian wants.
December 11, 1954: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Just a quick report —
I finished boys’ book Tunnel in the Sky at 3 A.M. today Must be cut and retyped; ms. should be in your hands by end of January.
December 31, 1954: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Schoolhouse in the Sky [Tunnel in the Sky] went out to be smooth-typed yesterday. I expect to have it in Miss Dalgliesh’s hands by 26 January, as requested.
January 24, 1955: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Herewith are the table of contents and the word count on Schoolhouse in the Sky [Tunnel in the Sky]; they were squeezed out yesterday in catching an air express dispatch in order to put the first copy in Miss Dalgliesh’s hands as early as possible…It is not exactly a juvenile, although I’ve kept it cleaned up so that it can pass as a juvenile. It is not the ordinary run of science fiction, either. I don’t know what it is…well, it’s a story.
I hope this reaches you before you have read it, because I want your expert help on one feature. The story has quite a lot of hunting in it. As you know, I know very little about hunting-but I am strongly aware of how easily one can lose the reader through small mistakes that break empathy. If you find anything which you feel does not ring true, will you please point it out to me and I will rewrite as directed to correct the fault.
February 1, 1955: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
I am surprised and pleased to hear that you think Schoolhouse [Tunnel in the Sky] may have slick possibilities. I am still more surprised that you passed the hunting scenes without suggesting changes. (I would be most happy to make such changes.) I did not use a central nonhuman character in this book because the book is filled with the killing of animals…all perfectly legitimate, of course, but I was afraid of questionable empathy if I let this story shift at any point to a nonhuman viewpoint in view of the necessity of showing them killing for meat. In my next one I will no doubt have a successor to Willis, Lummox, etc.
In the meantime, I have been hung up for a solid week on the new adult novel. It is the Man-from-Mars idea that I first talked about several years ago. It is an idea as difficult as it is strong and one I have had trouble with twice before. If I don’t break the logjam soon I’ll put it aside and write a different novel. I am not especially distressed about it; if I don’t whip it this time, I will some other time, and I expect to deliver an adult novel some time early this year, either this one or another one.