Universe

Heinlein, Robert A. "Universe." Astounding May 1941. Rpt. as book New York: Dell, 1951. Rpt. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Vol. IIA. Ben Bova, ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973. New York: Avon, 1974. Rpt. with its sequel "Common Sense" as Orphans of the Sky. London: Gollancz, 1963. New York: Berkley, 1970.

Possibly the definitive story about a generation-starship: a ship whose passengers and/or crew are "men and women, whose families breed, and whose remote descendants eventually reach the destination" (S. F. Ency., "Generation Starships"). The people of "Universe" have forgotten their mission and mistake the spaceship for a world. See in this Category E. Bryant's ''Phoenix. . ., H. Martinson's Aniara, K. O'Donnell's Mayflies, M. Leinster's "Proxima Centauri," R. J. Sawyer's Golden Fleece, N. Spinrad's "Riding the Torch," and E. C. Tubb's The Space-born''; see under Drama, K.-B. Blomdahl's, Aniara, the TV series Starlost, and the Star Trek episode "For the World Is Hollow . . . ." Cf. and contrast RAH's later Citizens of the Galaxy (1957), which Sargent (1988; q.v. under Reference) says features space ships which are sovereign states. [] "Universe" is discussed by Wolfe, esp. 61-65, and by H. Bruce Franklin in Robert A. Heinlein, 43-44; see Wolfe under Reference and both under Literary Criticism.[]