User talk:Jim Douglas/Robert A. Heinlein bibliography table

Straw man proposal for Robert A. Heinlein bibliography
Rough draft, work in process, formatting errors, for discussion only

Notes

F = Future History

f = Compatible with Future History, not officially canonical.

J = Juvenile (includes all of the Scribner's juveniles)

j = Juvenile (subject to interpretation)

N = Non-fiction

Discussion
Since the "Discussion" tab just directs to this same page, we'll discuss here.

I salute the motivation and the aggregation of the information. As I said elsewhere, table formats are ugly. Additionally, they are notoriously difficult and tedious to edit, and very easy for novice editors to mess up. Further, it is a mistake to duplicate information in two places because they easily get out of sync, especially in collaborative editing. I strongly recommend against a table format. I think the basic sectioning of the Bibliography as it stand is good, though a few tweaks and improvements could be made, notably integrating some of the notes you include above. I would leave it basically as is, but add a timeline as in the section I've added below. Hu 07:07, 20 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm in total agreement, for both of the reasons you mention plus one more. Putting the table together wasn't too bad initially; I formatted it in Microsoft Word, then exported it to HTML (and yesterday I reformatted it using Wiki table format).  That part was manageable.  But then I had to fix details, like hyphens to mdashes, and some missing dates, etc.  And finding a single entry to fix in that massive table became a major pain.  So that's the first point: it's impossible to edit.  And as you said, it's ugly as sin.  And finally, after I put it all together and tried to print the page for review, it turns out that it doesn't paginate, so you get a single page and the remainder is lost, just as if it was an image.  So...the exercise was extremely worthwhile because it forced me to review Heinlein's complete body of work.  The table itself is a complete disaster.  Your format is far superior in every way -- it's cleaner, it's editable (critical on a wiki), and it's printable.  You did an excellent job putting this into a useful format!


 * Would there be any value in also presenting this as an alphabetical list? I'm leaning towards no, based on (1) duplication (keeping two lists in synch on a Wiki is problematical), (2) (it would double the page size (assuming it's on the same page), and (3) I'm not entirely sure that it's a useful presentation. -- Jim Douglas (talk)  (contribs)  13:54, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Alternate Structure for the Timeline
This is the chronological order of publication, with the exception of the 1938 first novel which was published essentially unaltered poshumously.


 * 1938:
 * For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs (actual 2003)
 * 1939:
 * Aug.: "Life-Line" (rev. 1949)
 * Nov.: "Misfit" (rev. 1953).
 * 1940:
 * Jan.: "Requiem", ""If This Goes On—"" (rev. 1953)
 * May: "Let There Be Light" (rev. 1950 and 1963)
 * June: "The Roads Must Roll"
 * July: "Coventry"
 * Summer: "Successful Operation" ("Heil!")
 * Sept.: "Blowups Happen", "Magic, Inc." as "The Devil Makes the Law"
 * 1941:
 * Jan.-Mar.: Sixth Column (book: 1949. Alt. title: The Day After Tomorrow)
 * Feb.: ""—And He Built a Crooked House—""
 * Mar.: "Logic of Empire"
 * Apr.: "Beyond Doubt", "They (short story)They"
 * May: "Universe", "Solution Unsatisfactory"
 * July: ""—We Also Walk Dogs""
 * July-Sept.: "Methuselah's Children" July- September 1941 (rev. to novel 1958)
 * Sept.: "Elsewhen"
 * Oct.: "By His Bootstraps", "Common Sense"
 * Nov.:"Lost Legacy"
 * 1942:
 * Feb.: ""My Object All Sublime""
 * March: "Goldfish Bowl", "Pied Piper"
 * April, May: Beyond This Horizon (rev. novel 1948).
 * Aug.: "Waldo"
 * Oct.: "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag"
 * 1947:
 * Feb.: "The Green Hills of Earth"
 * April: "Space Jockey"
 * May: "Columbus Was a Dope", "They Do It with Mirrors"
 * July: ""It's Great to Be Back!""
 * Oct.: "Jerry Was a Man"
 * Nov.: "Water is for Washing"
 * Rocket Ship Galileo
 * 1948:
 * Jan.: "The Black Pits of Luna"
 * May: "Gentlemen, Be Seated!", "Ordeal in Space"
 * Space Cadet
 * 1949:
 * Jan.: "Our Fair City"
 * April, May: "Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon"
 * Aug: "Poor Daddy"
 * Nov.-Dec.: "Gulf"
 * Dec.: "Delilah and the Space Rigger", "The Long Watch"
 * Red Planet
 * 1950:
 * July: Shooting Destination Moon
 * Aug: "Cliff and the Calories"
 * Aug.-Nov. Farmer in the Sky (serialized as "Satellite Scout"
 * "The Man Who Sold the Moon"
 * Sept. "Destination Moon"
 * 1951:
 * Sept.-Oct.: Between Planets (serialized as "Planets in Combat")
 * Sept.-Nov.: The Puppet Masters (uncut publ. 1990)
 * Tomorrow, the Stars (foreword only)
 * 1952:
 * Mar: "The Year of the Jackpot"
 * Sept.-Dec.: The Rolling Stones (serialized as "Tramp Space Ship", UK: "Space Family Stone").
 * Nov.: "Ray Guns and Rocket Ships"
 * Dec. 1: "This I Believe"
 * 1953:
 * April: "Project Nightmare"
 * Nov.: "Sky Lift"
 * Starman Jones
 * 1954:
 * May-July: The Star Beast (serialized as "Star Lummox")
 * 1955:
 * Tunnel in the Sky
 * 1956:
 * Feb.-April: Double Star
 * Time for the Stars
 * Oct.-Dec.: The Door into Summer
 * 1957:
 * Aug.: "The Menace From Earth"
 * Sept.-Dec.: Citizen of the Galaxy
 * Oct.: "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants" (serialized as "The Elephant Circuit")
 * 1958:
 * April: "Who Are the Heirs of Patrick Henry?"
 * May-July: "Tenderfoot in Space"
 * Aug.-Oct.: Have Space Suit—Will Travel
 * 1959:
 * March: ""All You Zombies—""
 * Oct.-Nov.: Starship Troopers
 * 1960
 * Oct: "Pravda Means Truth"
 * 1961:
 * Stranger in a Strange Land (uncut publ. 1991)
 * 1962:
 * Aug.: "Searchlight"
 * Nov.-March: Podkayne of Mars
 * 1963:
 * July-Sept.: Glory Road
 * July-Oct.: Farnham's Freehold
 * 1965:
 * Dec.-April: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
 * "Free Men" (written 1946)
 * 1970:
 * July-Dec.: I Will Fear No Evil
 * 1973:
 * Time Enough for Love
 * April: "The Pragmatics of Patriotism" (part of a speech at Annapolis)
 * Dec.: No Bands Playing, No Flags Flying (written appr. 1947)
 * 1975:
 * "Paul Dirac, Antimatter, and You" (Compton's Encyclopedia)
 * 1976:
 * "Are You a Rare Blood?" (Compton's Encyclopedia)
 * 1979:
 * "Larger Than Life"
 * "Spinoff"
 * 1980:
 * The Number of the Beast
 * "The Last Days of the United States" (written 1946)
 * "How to Be a Survivor" (written 1946)
 * "Pie from the Sky"
 * "A Bathroom of Her Own" (written 1946)
 * "On the Slopes of Vesuvius" (written 1947)
 * "Where To?" ("Pandora's Box", 1952, rev. 1965, 1980)
 * "The Third Millennium Opens"
 * "Inside Intourist" (written 1960)
 * "The Happy Days Ahead"
 * 1982:
 * Friday
 * 1984:
 * Job: A Comedy of Justice
 * 1985:
 * The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
 * 1987:
 * To Sail Beyond the Sunset
 * 1988:
 * "Dance Session" (written 1946)
 * "The Witch's Daughters" (written 1946)
 * 1989 (posthumous):
 * Grumbles from the Grave
 * Take Back Your Government: A Practical Handbook for the Private Citizen (written as "How To Be a Politician", April 1946)
 * 1992:
 * "The Bulletin Board"
 * Tramp Royale
 * 2004:
 * Variable Star (posthumously with Spider Robinson from 1955 notes)

By keeping entries short and sweet, we avoid duplication of editing effort and we end up with a clean uncluttered list. I would not have done this without your inspiration! Hu 07:07, 20 October 2006 (UTC)