Robert Anson Heinlein was born in Butler, Missouri, a small town some sixty-five miles south of Kansas City. He and his six brothers and sisters were raised in Kansas City, where he attended grade school and high school, graudating from Central High in 1924.He spent a year at the University of Missouri before accepting an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. When he graduated in 1929, he stood twentieth in a class of 243. For the next five years he served as a gunnery officer on aircraft carriers. He developed tuberculosis and retired from the navy on permanent disability in 1934. He then briefly attended UCLA, studying physics and mathematics, but his continuing ill health forced him to move to Colorado to recuperate. In the next few years he tried a variety of ventures, including mining for silver in Colorado, selling real estate, and running (unsuccessfully) for public...