This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, October 29, 2010.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Robert A Heinlein wrote about various futures through the lens of his own time

and the pictures he painted inspired

scientists, artists, and for better or worse creators of today's weaponry.

Biographer William H. Patterson is author of Robert A. Hydeline in dialogue with his century. We spoke following a forum for the book held last week.

You said in the forum that Heinlein at some point compared himself to to Horatio Alger.

And that actually kind of struck me

because when I get to know somebody who's a bright teenager,

it's not uncommon for me to give them a copy of something like

Starship Troopers or the Moon is a harsh mistress just because it's a it's a cool

story about dealing with some serious problems that are nonetheless very fantastic.

What was he trying to say in trying to compare himself to Horatio Alger?

Well, at the time the Heinlein was born and probably for the next 15, 20 years thereafter, Horatio

Alger was a leading children's book writer in the world.

There is something like 230 or so Horatio Alger books.

And we've come to think of them as very last century, last century before last.

And they certainly wore.

They embody those values of persistence and integrity

and marrying the boss's daughter and other similar values.

Persistence integrity, stick-toitiveness, honesty, all of those things.

And he got those values not only

...