Heinlein Cover Art: “The Year of the Jackpot” Manuscript
What is even better than a book signed by your favorite author? To me, it would be the original manuscript that he banged out on an old-style mechanical typewriter, then gave to his agent for submission. And if that cool old piece of history also contains the pre-publication hand mark-ups of the editor at the magazine...why, so much the better.
Now, it seems awfully unlikely that the pre-publication manuscript of, say, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, or any of the Scribner’s juvies ever would become available to the collector, but what about some more minor work?
In mid-2025 I was fortunate enough to be able to pick up such a thing: the original typed manuscript of Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Year of the Jackpot,” which soon was printed as the cover story of the March 1952 issue of Galaxy. The piece naturally is dated—literally, as it takes place in the then-current year of 1952—but although some readers might sniff at certain aspects, it ultimately is quite moving.
I have always found the piece not only enjoyable but also even in some regards instructive in its depiction of packing “on a ‘survival kit’ basis” and the follow-up. In fact, I drew upon this story, along with Heinlein’s early postwar “world-saving” articles, plus novels such as Farnham’s Freehold and The Number of the Beast and others, when I wrote the chapter titled “ ‘Locked in Somewhere Safe’: Robert A. Heinlein and the Bomb Shelter” for my 2015 Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein from Salem Press.
For the Richard Arbib cover of the published story and the 3 interiors by Willer, see my Pulp Magazines page. The magazine is nice, and I was glad to get it.
But the manuscript itself... Wow, what a pick-up! It is by far the strangest and rarest thing in my collection. Having something that Heinlein himself personally created and handled is a special kind of thrill.
Therefore, for the 47-page manuscript itself, see below!
Now, it seems awfully unlikely that the pre-publication manuscript of, say, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, or any of the Scribner’s juvies ever would become available to the collector, but what about some more minor work?
In mid-2025 I was fortunate enough to be able to pick up such a thing: the original typed manuscript of Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Year of the Jackpot,” which soon was printed as the cover story of the March 1952 issue of Galaxy. The piece naturally is dated—literally, as it takes place in the then-current year of 1952—but although some readers might sniff at certain aspects, it ultimately is quite moving.
I have always found the piece not only enjoyable but also even in some regards instructive in its depiction of packing “on a ‘survival kit’ basis” and the follow-up. In fact, I drew upon this story, along with Heinlein’s early postwar “world-saving” articles, plus novels such as Farnham’s Freehold and The Number of the Beast and others, when I wrote the chapter titled “ ‘Locked in Somewhere Safe’: Robert A. Heinlein and the Bomb Shelter” for my 2015 Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein from Salem Press.
For the Richard Arbib cover of the published story and the 3 interiors by Willer, see my Pulp Magazines page. The magazine is nice, and I was glad to get it.
But the manuscript itself... Wow, what a pick-up! It is by far the strangest and rarest thing in my collection. Having something that Heinlein himself personally created and handled is a special kind of thrill.
Therefore, for the 47-page manuscript itself, see below!
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