"The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

Publisher: Signet
Copyright: 1950

The man who sold the moon is the first of the three volume collection of short stories by Robert Heinlein that begins his future history series (I reviewed the second "Revolt in 2100" a couple of weeks ago). This volume includes the stories "Let There Be Light", "The Roads Must Roll", "The Man Who Sold the Moon", "Requiem ", "Life-line ", and "Blowups Happen".

All of these stories are set in what is now our recent past, but as they were written in the early 1950s a possible future as far as the author was concerned.

The stories themselves deal with topics such as power generation / renewable energy, the first spaceship to the moon, the dangers of nuclear energy, and mortality - quite a mix.

It is interesting to note that "Life-line" was the first story Robert A. Heinlein sold, and which was published in the August1939 edition of Astounding, which was then edited by John W. Campbell Jr. who is responsible for discovering many of what are now considered to be the classic science fiction authors.