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The Green Hills of Earth

Pages
288
Published
1951
Language
English

Synopsis

In this classic Heinlein space-opera vignette, Rhysling — a blind, radiation-scarred engineer and songwriter — travels the solar system singing his way through a future where space travel is commonplace. Framed as a magazine feature, the story follows him as he composes a song about a lost Earth he will never see again, and it ends with a fatal repair mission that seals his fate. Melancholic, hopeful, and adventurous, it is one of Heinlein's most enduring short stories.

About the author

R
Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988) was an American science fiction writer, born in Butler, Missouri. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1929 and served in the Navy until 1934, afterwards studying mathematics and physics briefly at UCLA. He sold his first story, "Life-Line", to Astounding Science Fiction in 1939 and became one of that magazine's leading contributors. In the late 1940s he was among the first science fiction authors to place work in general-interest magazines such...

Characters

RhyslingProtagonist

A blind, radiation-scarred engineer and songwriter who travels the solar system singing his way through the future.

All characters in The Green Hills of Earth