Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress


Robert Heinlein

Hugo 1967, Internet Top 100

A recipe for starting a revolution, this was one of the hardest Hugo or Nebula winning books to find. I must have searched through 25 used book stores before I found a battered old copy. This was doubly surprising because Heinlein's other books are so ubiquitous and because this particular one was rated the best of the Hugo winners in an early Asimov collection. Was it because of the clear and practical suggestions on starting a political revolution? Like banning gun powder formulas so children won't hurt themselves? Was the Nixon administration secretly terrified enough to have the CIA buy and destroy all copies they could find?

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