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glaurungAfter Heinlein's death, some of his books were reissued in new "uncut" editions. AFAIK, there are four: Red Planet, Puppet Masters, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Podkayne of Mars. In each case, changes were insisted on by editors, and after Heinlein's death, Virginia Heinlein renegotiated contracts and specified that the original unaltered manuscripts be used instead of the originally published versions.
1 Red Planet, 1949
Heinlein's editor wanted the scenes detailing the Martian reproductive cycle (a scene where Willis lays some eggs, another scene at the end where adults talk about what's going to happen to Willis, that he will metamorphosize into an adult Martian) excised from the novel. She also insisted that there be more about restrictions on gun ownership in the scene where Jim has to prevent his baby brother from grabbing his ray gun (chapter 2), along with changes to other scenes referring to widespread gun ownership among the colonists. Heinlein bitterly resented both these changes and complained mightily about them (detailed in Grumbles From the Grave).
Yesterday I learned about an article on the Heinlein society website, "Red Planet - Blue Pencil" that goes into the other, more minor changes between the original finished draft and the final novel published in the 40's (and there were many). Sadly the article is posted as a blog entry with little to no formatting, and instead of using a table to illustrate the changes side by side, it is just a wall of text.
Besides gun restrictions and martian sex, the changes appear to cluster into a few categories: removing even the mildest of cuss words, removing all references to bodily functions or sex, removing colourful turns of phrase and literary references that young readers might not understand, removing slang (there was a time when slang was A Horrible Thing that had to be stomped out among the youth), removing disrespect for authority, and finally, removing or toning down places where characters think or talk in violent terms. In particular, in the original MS, Jim is a hothead who is always thinking of using his ray gun in situations where such action would obviously be massively counterproductive. Nearly all of those scenes are gone or vastly toned down in the published version.
While Heinlein would never admit it, this heavy editing of his MS (can't talk about space colonists being semi nudists, can't mention toilets, etc) probably served to teach him what could or could not be done in writing for the juvenile market of the late 40's and 50's.
But why did his editor wait until Heinlein's third juvenile to insist on numerous changes? (assuming that is actually the case, sadly Heinlein scholarship is a tiny field full of amateurs and nobody seems to have checked the first two juveniles against their original MSes). In Grumbles from the Grave, Heinlein is baffled by editor Alice Dalgleish's demands for Red Planet, after not asking for any such changes in the previous two books.
I think the answer is that the *characters* in red planet are younger. In Rocket Ship Galileo and Space Cadet, the characters are high school graduates, 18 years old and ready to go off to college. In Red Planet, while it's never explicitly said, the characters feel much younger. The Lowe Academy seems to be a boarding prep school rather than a college. If Frank and Jim are 13 years old and starting ninth grade, that would almost fit with how old they feel (Jim in particular feels even younger, perhaps he skipped a grade of primary school). Maybe Dalgleish demanded so many changes not because they were needed to pass muster amongst the librarians who bought Scribner's juvenile offerings, but because she was reacting to young boys talking and acting in ways she felt were much too mature for them - and she would never have objected to the slang, the guns, the violence, etc, if Jim and Frank had instead been 18 year olds going off to college.
Red Planet is alone among the juveniles in having the protagonists be so young (Torby starts out very young in Citizen of the Galaxy, but he never feels as young and immature as Jim and Frank). Perhaps Heinlein figured out that Dalgleish's censorious treatment of Red Planet stemmed from the youth of the protagonists, and stuck with young adult characters ever after.
It can be hard to distinguish the two versions of Red Planet - on the epub I have, there's no mention of it being different from the 1949 version on the copyright page, so unless there's cover text or a forward stating that it's the original uncut edition, you need to find the passage in chapter 2 where Jim has to prevent the baby from grabbing his ray gun. If there's talk of Jim having taken an "Oath" of gun ownership, and his father chiding him for not upholding that oath by almost allowing the baby to touch the gun, then it's the 1949 version. If there's nothing about oaths, and Jim's sister says that she is good at shooting too and is old enough to have a gun herself now, then it's the "uncut" version first published in 1992.
2 Puppet Masters (1951)
Heinlein set out to write an SF horror novel. His editor felt that some of the horror was too intense, and that there was too much sex. Also, by the standards of the time, the MS was too long, and Heinlein was asked to shorten it, from almost 100,000 words to 72,000.
The longer version of the novel describes how the puppeteer riding Sam doesn't allow him time to poop very often, and how the medical staff had to treat him for the consequences of this once he's freed. There's a passage describing the blood sports that the puppeteers begin to broadcast once they stop trying to hide themselves. And (unsurprisingly) there's more sex. There are numerous scenes omitted from the 1951 version, and also general condensing of the prose.
I prefer the uncut version, because there's a bit more of Mary being an awesome bad ass, and it's clear Sam (and Heinlein) thought that Mary's competence and lethality made her sexier.
But, as stated in Grumbles from the Grave, Heinlein didn't make any revisions to the MS before getting word from his editor about what had to be changed. So in addition to the cuts, the 1951 version incorporates improvements and revisions that he would have made anyway even if he hadn't been asked to drastically shorten the story and remove some material that squicked the editor. The uncut version, in contrast, is basically an unrevised final draft, lacking all those improvements.
The restored version's copyright notice will say "revised edition, Jan 1990," and on page 1 of chapter 1, Sam wakes up in bed with an unnamed blonde woman. In the 1951 version, he wakes up alone.
3 Stranger in a strange land (1961)
Unusually, Heinlein plotted the novel thoroughly in advance and stuck to that plot as he wrote (stated in Expanded Universe). This meant that each incident in the finished story was part of the plot, there were no parts which he could excise without damage to the story. But his finished draft was over 200,000 words, and he was told to shorten that to 150,000. He managed to condense it down to 160,000, entirely through line edits, shortening sentences and paragraphs without removing anything substantive. (this is detailed in Grumbles from the Grave).
I've read both versions of the novel multiple times and I could not point to any places where there's anything like a deleted scene in the shorter version. The cut version is the exact same story, with the exact same events and scenes, just told in fewer words.
Wikipedia's page on Stranger has a letter from Heinlein to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972:
"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. ... The original, longest version of SISL ... 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."
Unfortunately, after Heinlein's death, Virginia Heinlein re-read the original MS for the first time in decades, and decided that she liked it better than the cut version. She showed the uncut version to the editor at the publisher that had the rights to Stranger, they agreed they liked it better, and the uncut version became the only version to be printed from 1990 on.
The longer version has more Heinleinisms in it, which is probably why Mrs Heinlein liked it better. But the shorter version is Heinlein's preferred version, and in addition to fewer words, it contains all the improvements, revisions, and fixes that were decided on in the editing process. Find a used copy of the original 1961 novel, unless you are a devoted fan who cannot bear to have any of those sacred Heinleinisms lost.
The longer version has a preface by Virginia Heinlein talking about how the decision was made to publish a longer version of the novel, and it will say something like "original uncut" on the cover. The second sentence of the uncut version is "Valentine Michael Smith was as real as taxes but he was a race of one." This sentence does not appear in the 1961 version.
4 Podkayne of Mars (1963)
As originally written, Podkayne dies at the end. Heinlein's editor demanded that the final chapter (narrated by Podkayne's brother) be altered to have her survive instead. Modern versions of the novel restore the original ending, or provide both endings. The final chapter is just a few pages long.
I strongly dislike this novel regardless of which version of the final chapter it has, so I can't speak to which might be better.
1 Red Planet, 1949
Heinlein's editor wanted the scenes detailing the Martian reproductive cycle (a scene where Willis lays some eggs, another scene at the end where adults talk about what's going to happen to Willis, that he will metamorphosize into an adult Martian) excised from the novel. She also insisted that there be more about restrictions on gun ownership in the scene where Jim has to prevent his baby brother from grabbing his ray gun (chapter 2), along with changes to other scenes referring to widespread gun ownership among the colonists. Heinlein bitterly resented both these changes and complained mightily about them (detailed in Grumbles From the Grave).
Yesterday I learned about an article on the Heinlein society website, "Red Planet - Blue Pencil" that goes into the other, more minor changes between the original finished draft and the final novel published in the 40's (and there were many). Sadly the article is posted as a blog entry with little to no formatting, and instead of using a table to illustrate the changes side by side, it is just a wall of text.
Besides gun restrictions and martian sex, the changes appear to cluster into a few categories: removing even the mildest of cuss words, removing all references to bodily functions or sex, removing colourful turns of phrase and literary references that young readers might not understand, removing slang (there was a time when slang was A Horrible Thing that had to be stomped out among the youth), removing disrespect for authority, and finally, removing or toning down places where characters think or talk in violent terms. In particular, in the original MS, Jim is a hothead who is always thinking of using his ray gun in situations where such action would obviously be massively counterproductive. Nearly all of those scenes are gone or vastly toned down in the published version.
While Heinlein would never admit it, this heavy editing of his MS (can't talk about space colonists being semi nudists, can't mention toilets, etc) probably served to teach him what could or could not be done in writing for the juvenile market of the late 40's and 50's.
But why did his editor wait until Heinlein's third juvenile to insist on numerous changes? (assuming that is actually the case, sadly Heinlein scholarship is a tiny field full of amateurs and nobody seems to have checked the first two juveniles against their original MSes). In Grumbles from the Grave, Heinlein is baffled by editor Alice Dalgleish's demands for Red Planet, after not asking for any such changes in the previous two books.
I think the answer is that the *characters* in red planet are younger. In Rocket Ship Galileo and Space Cadet, the characters are high school graduates, 18 years old and ready to go off to college. In Red Planet, while it's never explicitly said, the characters feel much younger. The Lowe Academy seems to be a boarding prep school rather than a college. If Frank and Jim are 13 years old and starting ninth grade, that would almost fit with how old they feel (Jim in particular feels even younger, perhaps he skipped a grade of primary school). Maybe Dalgleish demanded so many changes not because they were needed to pass muster amongst the librarians who bought Scribner's juvenile offerings, but because she was reacting to young boys talking and acting in ways she felt were much too mature for them - and she would never have objected to the slang, the guns, the violence, etc, if Jim and Frank had instead been 18 year olds going off to college.
Red Planet is alone among the juveniles in having the protagonists be so young (Torby starts out very young in Citizen of the Galaxy, but he never feels as young and immature as Jim and Frank). Perhaps Heinlein figured out that Dalgleish's censorious treatment of Red Planet stemmed from the youth of the protagonists, and stuck with young adult characters ever after.
It can be hard to distinguish the two versions of Red Planet - on the epub I have, there's no mention of it being different from the 1949 version on the copyright page, so unless there's cover text or a forward stating that it's the original uncut edition, you need to find the passage in chapter 2 where Jim has to prevent the baby from grabbing his ray gun. If there's talk of Jim having taken an "Oath" of gun ownership, and his father chiding him for not upholding that oath by almost allowing the baby to touch the gun, then it's the 1949 version. If there's nothing about oaths, and Jim's sister says that she is good at shooting too and is old enough to have a gun herself now, then it's the "uncut" version first published in 1992.
2 Puppet Masters (1951)
Heinlein set out to write an SF horror novel. His editor felt that some of the horror was too intense, and that there was too much sex. Also, by the standards of the time, the MS was too long, and Heinlein was asked to shorten it, from almost 100,000 words to 72,000.
The longer version of the novel describes how the puppeteer riding Sam doesn't allow him time to poop very often, and how the medical staff had to treat him for the consequences of this once he's freed. There's a passage describing the blood sports that the puppeteers begin to broadcast once they stop trying to hide themselves. And (unsurprisingly) there's more sex. There are numerous scenes omitted from the 1951 version, and also general condensing of the prose.
I prefer the uncut version, because there's a bit more of Mary being an awesome bad ass, and it's clear Sam (and Heinlein) thought that Mary's competence and lethality made her sexier.
But, as stated in Grumbles from the Grave, Heinlein didn't make any revisions to the MS before getting word from his editor about what had to be changed. So in addition to the cuts, the 1951 version incorporates improvements and revisions that he would have made anyway even if he hadn't been asked to drastically shorten the story and remove some material that squicked the editor. The uncut version, in contrast, is basically an unrevised final draft, lacking all those improvements.
The restored version's copyright notice will say "revised edition, Jan 1990," and on page 1 of chapter 1, Sam wakes up in bed with an unnamed blonde woman. In the 1951 version, he wakes up alone.
3 Stranger in a strange land (1961)
Unusually, Heinlein plotted the novel thoroughly in advance and stuck to that plot as he wrote (stated in Expanded Universe). This meant that each incident in the finished story was part of the plot, there were no parts which he could excise without damage to the story. But his finished draft was over 200,000 words, and he was told to shorten that to 150,000. He managed to condense it down to 160,000, entirely through line edits, shortening sentences and paragraphs without removing anything substantive. (this is detailed in Grumbles from the Grave).
I've read both versions of the novel multiple times and I could not point to any places where there's anything like a deleted scene in the shorter version. The cut version is the exact same story, with the exact same events and scenes, just told in fewer words.
Wikipedia's page on Stranger has a letter from Heinlein to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972:
"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. ... The original, longest version of SISL ... 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."
Unfortunately, after Heinlein's death, Virginia Heinlein re-read the original MS for the first time in decades, and decided that she liked it better than the cut version. She showed the uncut version to the editor at the publisher that had the rights to Stranger, they agreed they liked it better, and the uncut version became the only version to be printed from 1990 on.
The longer version has more Heinleinisms in it, which is probably why Mrs Heinlein liked it better. But the shorter version is Heinlein's preferred version, and in addition to fewer words, it contains all the improvements, revisions, and fixes that were decided on in the editing process. Find a used copy of the original 1961 novel, unless you are a devoted fan who cannot bear to have any of those sacred Heinleinisms lost.
The longer version has a preface by Virginia Heinlein talking about how the decision was made to publish a longer version of the novel, and it will say something like "original uncut" on the cover. The second sentence of the uncut version is "Valentine Michael Smith was as real as taxes but he was a race of one." This sentence does not appear in the 1961 version.
4 Podkayne of Mars (1963)
As originally written, Podkayne dies at the end. Heinlein's editor demanded that the final chapter (narrated by Podkayne's brother) be altered to have her survive instead. Modern versions of the novel restore the original ending, or provide both endings. The final chapter is just a few pages long.
I strongly dislike this novel regardless of which version of the final chapter it has, so I can't speak to which might be better.