Savage Popcorn

Dealing with fan mail is a problem faced by many authors – especially as their popularity grows. CT2 reveals that Robert Heinlein had an entertainingly unique solution to this – the form letter.

While a form letter such as this may be a bit impersonal, some acknowledgement is better than none and it is impressive that Heinlein managed to reply to pretty much all his mail. There is probably also something revealing about fandom in the fact that a mere 21 responses were enough to cover the vast bulk of Heinlein’s mail.

Sadly this approach was abandoned in 1984 when, according to Heinlein’s wife, Ginny: “with the advent of computerization in our household, we no long use the form letter to answer fan mail. I find that it is possible now, with the computer, to write individual letters in reply to fan mail faster than I could check off the answer on the form.”

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