Страница 46 из 59
EDITOR 's NOTE: We never saw the boy.
VIP
March 20, 1969: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
This almost fractured me. Our tickets arrived marked "VIP." No fooling. I thought "VIP" was just an idiom-but swelp me, our tickets are so marked. I laughed until I was hoarse.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In early 1969, an invitation came from the Brazilian government to attend a film festival to be held in Rio de Janeiro. All expenses would be paid by that government-we would be guests. The only payment would be that Robert give a talk.
Robert wrote this as a P.S. to Lurton in a business letter. His talk was given at the theater at the French Embassy.
As I recall, this was the only free trip Robert ever accepted; it even included courtesy of the port-no customs or immigration needed. The return to New York was another matter!
APPRAISAL
November 21, 1968: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Did I tell you about the appraisal on my donation of mss., et al. to the U of California]? If not, I must-for I am astounded. The appraisal was made by Robert Metzdorf of New York and Co
What he appraised was just the fraction of the total gift which is now actually in the university's library, to wit, about two-thirds of my mss. plus a couple of boxes of foreign editions and some [paperbacks] in English. The valuation he placed on this fraction was $30,230.00 --
-and I was flabbergasted.
Sure, Gi
I still expect the IRS to scream about the appraisal. I'm very glad-now-that we got the number one appraiser. If the IRS won't accept it, I now feel safe in taking it to Tax Court.
EDITOR 's NOTE: The IRS did not object to the valuation placed on these papers.
CATS
January 12, 1957: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Pixie is dying...uremia, too far gone to hope for remission; the vet sent him home to die several days ago. He is not now in pain and still purrs, but he is very weak and becoming more emaciated every day-it's like having a little yellow ghost in the house. When it reaches the stage of pain, I shall have to help him past it and hope that he will at last find the door into summer he has looked for. We are pretty broken up about it...we have become excessively attached to this little cat. Of course, we knew it had to be when we first got him and I would much rather outlive a pet than have the pet outlive us -- we're better equipped to stand it. Nevertheless, it does not make it any easier...
March 23, 1959: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Polka Dot had her kittens on St. Patrick's Day-like this: Gi
April 10, 1961: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Things have been confused and this is late. First we had kittens. Then Shamrock turned out to be the kind of mother who holes up in a tavern while her brats slowly freeze in the car, i.e., she takes vacations from the kittens without warning, as long as twenty-four hours, which finds us, Gi
Then the galley proofs on Stranger in a Strange Land arrived and that killed three days of the time of each of us; it's a long book. Gi
May 20, 1962: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
The new kittens are two weeks old and fat and healthy. A hawk or an owl got Gi
April 17, 1964: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
No more news here, save that Shammie, immediately following the adoption of her latest litter last Sunday, at once went out and set a new crop-so we should have more kittens ca. 17 June. A busy body, that one-thirty-one kittens so far and she has just turned five.
August 16, 1967: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Both Gi