Starman Jones

by Robert A. Heinlein

Published 18 February 1971
  • The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either neededconnections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money thanMax, the son of a widowed, poor mother, was every going to have. What Maxdoes have going for him are his uncle’s prized astrogation manuals— books on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory word forword, equation for equation. When Max’s mother decides to remarry abullying oaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his uncleChet’s manuals, and Max’s near complete memorization of them, is aticket to the stars!
  • From the First Golden Age of Heinlein, this is the so-called juvenile(written, Heinlein always claims, just as much for adults) that started them alland made Heinlein a legend for multiple generations of readers.