Heinlein's Future History: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Collect It
Robert Heinlein started building his Future History before most of its readers were born. The project began in Astounding Science Fiction in 1939 and ran, intermittently, through the early 1950s. By the time Shasta Publishers collected the stories in hardcover, Heinlein had outlined a coherent timeline stretching from the near future to roughly the year 2600. It was, at the time, the most sustained attempt anyone had made to treat science fiction as a continuous literature rather than a series of disconnected adventures.
That ambition is why the Future History still matters to collectors. The three Shasta volumes that first brought it into hardcover, The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950), The Green Hills of Earth (1951), and Revolt in 2100 (1953), are not simply collectible Heinlein titles. They are the first time the Future History existed as a physical object you could hold and read in sequence. That counts for something.
What the Future History Actually Is
The simplest description is a shared fictional universe, but that undersells it. Heinlein built the Future History around a timeline he first published in Astounding in 1941, charting the development of human civilization from the 1950s through a period of interstellar colonization. Individual stories fit into that framework whether or not the reader knows it.
The three Shasta volumes cover the earlier portion of that arc. The Man Who Sold the Moon collects the stories of D.D. Harriman, the entrepreneur who wills the first lunar expedition into existence through sheer commercial stubbornness. The Green Hills of Earth follows: a loose collection of stories about the men and women who live and work in the early space age, anchored by the figure of Rhysling, the blind singer of the spaceways. Revolt in 2100 moves further along the timeline to a near future in which a theocratic dictatorship has taken hold in the United States, and a group of conspirators works to overthrow it.
That last premise reads differently in every decade it finds a new reader. Heinlein wrote the theocracy as a direct extrapolation from tendencies he observed in American life in the 1930s and 1940s. The story collected as the title novella, "If This Goes On...", originally ran in Astounding in 1940. What it's about depends on who's reading it and when.
The Shasta Volumes as a Collecting Goal
The three Future History volumes are the most coherent collecting goal within the Shasta catalog. They were published sequentially, they share a production format (boards with cloth shelf back, as documented by L.W. Currey in Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors), and they tell a complete story when shelved together. A collector who set out to acquire all three in matching condition with unclipped jackets would have something genuinely significant.
First edition firsts of all three exist and trade accordingly. For more on identifying Shasta first editions, including what to look for on the copyright page and how the physical format varies across the catalog, see our Shasta Publishers collecting guide. And for the broader Heinlein bibliography across all publisher periods, our publisher-by-publisher identification guide covers the full picture.
On Second Printings
The honest case for a Shasta second printing starts with scarcity. First printing copies of all three Future History titles in collectible condition are not easy to find, and when they do surface, they price accordingly. A first printing of Revolt in 2100 in a near fine unclipped jacket is a meaningful acquisition. A second printing in a very good unclipped jacket is a different kind of acquisition, and the distinction matters.
What the second printing offers is the book itself, in a physical form that presents honestly, at a price point that reflects its actual position in the market. The text is identical. The format is identical: boards with cloth shelf back, the same jacket design, manufactured by H. Wolff in New York. What changes is the copyright page, which reads "Second Printing, 1954" rather than "First Edition." That's the whole of it.
For a reader-collector, someone who wants the Future History on the shelf in a form that connects to its original publication context, a solid Shasta second printing is a reasonable path. For a collector whose focus is on first printings specifically, it isn't. That's not a judgment; it's just the market being the market.
One thing worth noting: the jacket price matters regardless of printing. An unclipped jacket on any Shasta Heinlein is a positive. Price-clipped copies are common; an intact price is a real condition distinction, and on this copy it's intact at $3.50.
The Copy We Have
We currently have a Revolt in 2100 second printing (Shasta Publishers, 1954) available in the shop. Very good in a very good unclipped jacket. The jacket shows minor spine toning and very slight shelfwear, no significant chipping. Boards have light corner bumping and minor rubbing. Pages clean and unmarked throughout. One condition note: the rear free endpaper has separated from the hinge; the binding is otherwise tight and square, and the fault is documented in the listing photographs.
If you're building toward the complete Shasta Future History run and want a Revolt in 2100 on the shelf while you search for a first, this is a copy that fills that role honestly. View the listing here.
