Re: Re:STARSHIP TROOPERS

   From: TEHughes@aol.com

   WHOOPS! Childrens author??? You haven't read his later books,
starting with
   "Stranger in a Strange Land"  as a matter of fact he degenerated into
a dirty
   old man before they cut that brain tumor out of his head. Besides, he
wrote
   for who paid him and he wrote what they asked for like any
professional
   author. 

Many of his earlier books (cf Space Cadet) were written with adolescent
boys in mind.  What I have heard (though never seen verified) is that
Starship Troopers was meant to be part of that set.  It came out as
a standard book though because of the high intellectual content (the
standard avenue for Heinlein to publish SF kiddies books wouldn't take
Starship Troopers.)  Somewhere on the web theirs is a Heinlein
Book-ography
which goes into this in greater detail.  The lack of gratuitous
Penthouse
letters style sex-scenes does give this idea some weight.

cheers
brad