Robert Anson Heinlein was born in Missouri in 1907. He was a four-time winner of the Hugo Award for his novels Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Double Star, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. His Future History series, incorporating both short stories and novels, was first mapped out in 1941. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929, but was forced by illness to retire from the Navy in 1934. In 1939 he sold his first science fiction story to Astounding magazine and soon devoted himself to the genre. By the time hed died, in 1988, it was evident that he was one of the formative talents of science fiction: a writer whose unique vision, unflagging energy, and persistence, over the course of five decades, made a great impact on the American mind.