A Heinlein Concordance

A Heinlein Concordance

created by M. E. Cowan

Robert A Heinlein

From the stories: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ
From the real world: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w xyz

A Heinlein Concordance presented by the Heinlein Society

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

In 1893, William Waldorf Astor built the luxurious Waldorf Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in New York City. After Jacob Astor IV built the Astoria next door in 1897, the hotels were operated jointly until 1929, when they were razed to make way for the Empire State Building. A new Waldorf-Astoria was built in the block defined by Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, and 49th and 50th Streets, opening in 1931. The hotel still sets a standard for luxury and service.

(Time Enough for Love)

Wales

Country within the United Kingdom (with England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). It occupies a peninsula jutting westward from England into the Irish Sea, bounded by Liverpool Bay and the estuary of the River Dee (north), the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel (west), Bristol Channel and the estuary of the River Severn (south), and England (east). After years of battles with England to maintain Welsh independence, Wales was officially linked with England by the Act of Union in 1536. In spite of domination by England, Wales has preserved its traditional Celtic culture and language.

(Friday)

Wall Street Journal

Business-oriented daily newspaper published in New York City and in four regional editions. The newspaper was founded in 1889 by Charles H. Dow of Dow Jones & Company to cover business and financial news. In the 1930s it began to carry feature articles on other subjects, and its editorial and opinion pages address political issues.

(The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)

wallaby

Middle-sized marsupial belonging to the kangaroo family, found chiefly in Australia. The 11 species of wallabies (genus Macropus, subgenus Protemnodon) resemble the bigger kangaroos but their teeth are somewhat different. [Australian aboriginal, walaba]

(Methuselah's Children)

Wandering Jew

In medieval Christian legends, a man doomed to live until the end of the world because he taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion. A reference in John 18:20–22 to an officer who struck Jesus at his arraignment before the High Priest is sometimes cited as the basis for the legend.

(Time Enough for Love)

Washington, D.C.

Capital of the United States of America, situated on the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The District of Columbia was created in 1790 specifically to provide territory, not claimed by any state, in which to build the capital city. The city was built based on a design by the French engineer Pierre-Charles L'Enfant.

(The Day After Tomorrow, "Gulf", The Puppet Masters, Stranger in a Strange Land)

Booker T. Washington

(1856–1915) First president of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and an influential crusader for educational opportunities for African Americans. Washington believed that education in crafts and industrial skills was the best road to economic security for African Americans, and ultimately to full social equality, and he promoted this philosophy through his work in education and his influence with leading political figures. Among his dozen books is his autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), which was translated into many languages.

(The Puppet Masters, Stranger in a Strange Land)

Waterloo

Village in Belgium 9 miles (14.5 km) south of Brussels, the site of the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. The name has become a byword for a devastating and decisive defeat (particularly one that is widely regarded as well-deserved).

(Starship Troopers)

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

(1769–1852) British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828–30). He rose to military prominence in India; won acclaim with victories in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–14); and shared in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). As reward for his military achievements, he rose steadily through the ranks of nobility, (knight, baron, viscount, earl, and marquess) until he was named Duke of Wellington.

(The Rolling Stones)

Herbert George Wells

(1866–1946) English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian best known for his science fiction novels, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The Food of the Gods (1904). Behind his inventiveness was a concern for social reform; he was an active Socialist, and joined the Fabian Society in 1903.

Men Like Gods: Novel by H.G. Wells published by Macmillan in 1923. [Library of Congress call number PZ3.W465Men]

(Job: A Comedy of Justice, Rocket Ship Galileo)

whistle stop

A train station at which the train stops only when signalled; or the community, usually a small rural town, associated with such a station.

(Time for the Stars)

Wichita, Kansas

Seat of Sedgwick County in south central Kansas, on the Arkansas River near the mouth of the Little Arkansas. It was founded in 1864 as a trading post at the site of a village of the Wichita Indians; and became a transportation center as first the cattle drives to Abilene, Kansas, and then the railroad passed through the area.

(Job: A Comedy of Justice)

Norbert Wiener

(1894–1964) U.S. mathematician who founded the science of cybernetics. He graduated from Tufts College at age 14, did graduate work at Harvard and Cornell, read philosophy at Cambridge University under Bertrand Russell, and taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During World War II, he worked on developing high-speed electronic computer radar.

(Citizen of the Galaxy)

Wiesbaden

Capital (since 1946) of the state of Hessen in southern Germany. The city has been a spa since Roman times (Aquae Mattiacae); it became famous in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was frequented by such notables as J.W. von Goethe, Johannes Brahms, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, as well as various royal families. The name Wisibada ("Meadow Spring") was first recorded in 829.

(Glory Road)

Kaiser Wilhelm

1. Wilhelm von Hohenzollern (1797–1888) became Regent of Prussia in 1857 and king (Wilhelm I) in 1861 upon the death of his brother Friedrich Wilhem V. After leading Prussia and the North German Confederation to victory over Napoleon III in 1870, he was declared Kaiser (emperor) of the Second German Empire in 1871.

2. Wilhelm II (1859–1941), grandson of Wilhem I, was Kaiser of the German Empire and king of Prussia from 1888 through the end of World War II in 1918. After his abdication, he lived in exile in the Netherlands until his death.

[German kaiser, "emperor", from Latin caesar]

(Job: A Comedy of Justice, The Rolling Stones)

John Wilkes Booth

(1838–1865) Member of a distinguished U.S. acting family, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He was himself killed by U.S. soldiers when he resisted arrest.

("The Man Who Sold the Moon")

williwaw

A sudden gust of cold wind, common on mountainous coasts in high latitudes.

(The Door Into Summer)

Woodrow Wilson

(1856–1924) 28th president of the United States (1913–21), who led the U.S. into World War I but also championed the League of Nations. His support for the League earned him the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. A professor of history before he entered politics, he wrote a five-volume History of the American People (1902) and other books on U.S. history and government.

A History of the American People: Five-volume opus by Woodrow Wilson (history professor and President of the United States, 1913–1920), published by Harper & Brothers in 1902 (Library of Congress call number E178.W76). An expanded version, with additional sources, was published in a limited edition (400 copies) in 1918 [Library of Congress call number E178.W782].

(Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, To Sail Beyond the Sunset)

Walter Winchell

(1897–1972) U.S. journalist whose newspaper columns and radio broadcasts of news and gossip gave him a vast audience and great influence in the United States in the 1930s, through the 1950s.

(Stranger in a Strange Land)

Windsor

The surname adopted by the British royal family in 1917. Formerly the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the family name was changed to downplay their German connection because Great Britain was at war with Germany. The name was taken from Windsor Castle, a royal residence since the time of William the Conqueror, situated in the town of Windsor in Berkshire, west of London.

(The Number of the Beast)

Winged Victory

Common name for a statue of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, by the Thracian sculptor Paeonius (flourished 450–400 BCE). The statue was excavated in Olympia, Greece, in 1875, and is displayed in that city's archeological museum.

(The Number of the Beast, Space Cadet)

Winnipeg

Capital of the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, 40 miles (65 km) south-southwest of Lake Winnipeg. The original 18th-century settlement was a trading post, which later merged with a settlement of Scots immigrants to form the beginnings of the new city. [Cree win nipee, "muddy water"]

(Friday)

Winslow, Arizona

City in Navajo County, east-central Arizona in the valley of the Little Colorado River. It was founded in 1882 as a terminal of the Santa Fe Railway, and named for railroad official Edward F. Winslow.

(Job: A Comedy of Justice)

Witwatersrand

(The Rand) Ridge of gold-bearing rock located mostly in Gauteng province, South Africa, between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers. The discovery of its gold deposits in 1886 sparked a gold rush and the development of the city of Johannesburg nearby. [Afrikaans, "ridge of white water"]

(Tunnel in the Sky)

The Wizard of Oz

Children's book by L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) about a young girl from Kansas, Dorothy Gale, who is carried by a tornado into the magical land of Oz. With the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion as her companions, she seeks out the Wizard to petition him to send her back home, and to give her companions what they most desire: a brain for the Scarecrow, a heart for the Tin Man, and courage for the Cowardly Lion. To earn these rewards, they must destroy the Wicked Witch of the West, whose sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, was killed when Dorothy's house fell out of the sky and landed on her. Baum wrote 13 more Oz books, some of them recounting the further adventures of the characters in The Wizard of Oz, and some introducing new characters and new marvels in the Land of Oz. The following characters make appearances or are mentioned in The Number of the Beast:

Betsy [Bobbin]: A little girl from Oklahoma who ends up in Oz when she is washed overboard in a storm at sea. (Tik-tok of Oz)
Cap'n Bill: An ex-sailor who has been Trot's companion from birth as he was her mother's star boarder. (The Scarecrow of Oz)
Eureka: Dorothy's white kitten, who becomes the Pink Kitten when Dorothy becomes a permanent resident of Oz. (Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz)
Glinda the Good: The Good Witch of the South, who aids Dorothy in her quest to return home from Oz in the first story, and appears in later stories. (The Wizard of Oz)
Hungry Tiger: A tiger whose conscience will not let him eat other animals. (Ozma of Oz)
King of the Flying Monkeys: The chief of the Flying Monkeys (or Winged Monkeys), who leads his troop into action when called by the wearer of the Magic Cap. (The Wizard of Oz)
Jack Pumpkinhead: A very agreeable but rather simple-minded person made by Tip, with a wooden body and a head carved from a pumpkin. was brought to life by Mombi when she sprinkled the Powder of Life on him. (The Marvelous Land of Oz)
The Sawhorse: A wooden sawhorse brought to life by Tip by applying the Powder of Life. He became one of the regulars in the royal retinue of the Land of Oz. (The Marvelous Land of Oz)
Scarecrow: A man made of straw who travels with Dorothy to see the Wizard of Oz to ask for a brain. He later becomes the Emperor of the Winkies. (The Wizard of Oz)
Tik-Tok: A copper mechanical man who has a wind-up mechanism for thinking, speaking, walking, and other movements. Dorothy found him in the rock chamber where he had been hidden. He became an honored member of Ozma's retinue. (Ozma of Oz)
The Tin Woodman: A wood chopper made of tin. The Wicked Witch of the East caused him to have accidents with his ax, cutting off parts of his body, which he replaced with tin parts. He traveled with Dorothy to the Wizard of Oz to ask for a heart. (The Wizard of Oz)
Toto: Dorothy's faithful dog who travels with her in the many adventures in the Land of Oz. (The Wizard of Oz)
Trot: A little girl whose real name is Mayre Griffiths. She and Cap'n Bill were swept by a whirlpool from the California coast to the Land of Oz. (The Scarecrow of Oz)
Professor H. M. Wogglebug: A Highly Magnified Wogglebug who has been Thoroughly Educated thanks to Professor Nowitall. (The Marvelous Land of Oz)
The Woozy: A creature about the size of a goat that appears to be made from building-block shaped parts covered with a smooth, tough dark blue skin with only three hairs on the very tip of its tail. (The Patchwork Girl of Oz)

(The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, The Number of the Beast, To Sail Beyond the Sunset)

General Leonard Wood

(1860–1927) Medical officer who became chief of staff of the U.S. Army (1910–1914). During the Spanish-American War, he commanded the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (the famous "Rough Riders"), and was subsequently promoted to brigadier general. He was largely responsible for establishing a camp at Plattsburg, New York, to give civilians officer training. He served as governor general of the Philippine Islands from 1921 until 1927. Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri is named for him.

(To Sail Beyond the Sunset)

Wotan

(Also Odin or Wodan) In Norse myth, the leader of the Aesir (gods). A god of war, he presided over Valhalla, the dwelling place of slain warriors. He was the great magician among the gods and was associated with runes. Odin was described as an old man with a flowing beard, usually wearing a cloak and a wide-brimmed hat, and a patch over the eye he sacrified to gain wisdom. The wolf and the raven were sacred to him.

(Rocket Ship Galileo)

Wright Field

Original name of an area of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. It contained laboratories for researching and developing aircraft, aircraft accessories, and specialized flight equipment. It was named for Wilbur and Orville Wright, who achieved the first successful airplane flight.

(Have Space Suit — Will Travel)

Wyoming

Constituent state of the United States of America. Situated in the northern Great Plains, it is bordered by South Dakota and Nebraska (east), Colorado (south), Utah (southwest), Idaho (west), and Montana (northwest and north). The capital is Cheyenne. Wyoming became the 44th state in 1890. Its name is derived from a Delaware Indian word meaning "land of vast plains".

(To Sail Beyond the Sunset)

Join The Heinlein Society and Pay Forward the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein and Virginia Heinlein.

The Heinlein Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."