Methuselah's Children
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Methuselah's Children is a 1941 science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein.
Heinlein used his "Future History" series of stories (The Man Who Sold the Moon, Revolt in 2100, etc.) as a background for this novel about the Howard Families. They are the product of a centuries-long eugenics scheme started in 1873 by a millionaire named Ira Howard who found himself dying of old age in his forties. He therefore sets up a trust fund in order to encourage particularly long-lived human specimens to breed with each other, in order to select for longevity and thereby to prevent others from suffering his fate. Several centuries later, a stable and peaceful world discovers the Howards, and demands the secrets of their extended life spans, refusing to believe that the Howard Families simply chose their ancestors wisely.
This is the first appearance of Lazarus Long, who is so old that oftentimes when he miscalculates his age he is off by an entire century. This book also features an appearance by the mathematical genius Andrew "Slipstick" Libby, previously seen as a teenager in the short story "Misfit".
Hounded from the Earth, the Howards hijack a star ship meant for colonization and try to find a better planet to live on. They even find a planet where aliens live. When Mary Sperling joins the natives, Lazarus decides it's time to go back to Earth and claim their rights.
Heinlein returned to the Lazarus Long character towards the end of his career, making this the first title in a set of five interrelated novels involving time travel, parallel dimensions, free love, voluntary incest, and a concept that Heinlein called "pantheistic solipsism" or "world-as-myth" — the theory that universes are created by the act of imagining them, so that somewhere, even fictional worlds such as the Land of Oz are real.
Other Lazarus Long books books include Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and To Sail Beyond the Sunset.
Editions
- 1958, The Gnome Press, Inc (SIGNET), paperback, ISBN 0451090837
- November 1986, Pocket Books, paperback, ISBN 0451130898
- November 1, 1986, Baen, paperback, ISBN 0671655973fr:Les Enfants de Mathusalem