Quick question:

anyone know any info about Michael Whelan's cover art for GFTG? I believe this is one of his only Heinlein covers, besides TCWWTW and Friday.


The cover features RAH in a bathrobe perched on a foreign shore with his faithful stuffed owl (named Pallas Athena) at his back. Does the owl have any significance besides a brief mention in a 1967 letter to his agent? (GFTG p.213) The letter is funny and concerns the owl's origins. (Where is the stuffed owl now?) Not sure if an owl is mentioned in any of Heinlein's fiction.

Also the art features a model rocket behind RAH that looks like a Hugo award (GFTG p.84). There are some bits of text scrawled on books and papers in the lower left- "Vendredi" (a french copy of "Friday"?), and "ANAS...[illegible]" or something like that?

I vaguely recall a print of this cover art going on ebay a while ago, but it went for more than I could afford. Michael Whelan's website used to include a link to a larger version, under the title "Last Look Back" but the link isn't active anymore. My reasons for wanting to research this cover are specific-- I'm thinking about getting a tattoo....

The stuffed owl was not at Ginny's place in Florida, and it did not make it to the Archive as realia, so I am guessing that it was disposed of during the move from California to Florida in 1991.