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Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
https://heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1127		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  daverzx1 [ Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Hi there heinlein fans! I was just wondering if you know who owns the rights to the Heinlein novels. Are they all owned by the same company? Or perhaps by the Heinlein family?

And this is my first post, yeay I feel like I am part of a community!

- Daverzx1
Author:  NickDoten [ Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
I'll offer the Heinlein Trust and then trust for our resident experts to expand upon your question
Author:  JJGarsch [ Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
All of the Virginia Edition volumes list the copyright holder: the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust. (The previously unpublished material is copyright 2011; all else 2003.) The Prize Trust set up the Virginia Edition Publishing Co. to publish the series when the Trust's initially selected independent publisher, Meisha Merlin Publishing Co., failed in the spring of 2007 after six volumes were printed. See the earlier pages of the Virginia Edition thread for more of the sorry details.
Author:  daverzx1 [ Thu Oct 06, 2011 4:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Thank you very much Mr. Garsch. Do you know what their website URL is? I would like to know if they are going to re-publish some of the old novels with new cover art. If they are, I would like to ad them to the collection.
Author:  Airgetlam [ Thu Oct 06, 2011 4:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Daverzx1,

The Virginia Edition website is, oddly enough: http://www.virginiaedition.com/

:)

As you'll see when you visit the site, these are leather bound books, with no cover art to speak of. It's also, as far as I know, an all or nothing affair, i.e. you can't order individual volumes. You might look on ebay, I suppose there may be someone reselling them there, but I'm not sure. As a subscriber, I've got my copies, so I haven't been looking.

That being said, there was another company who was reprinting hard covers in leather. I picked up a copy of Starship Troopers on ebay before I found the VE information, and subscribed.

I wish you luck...I too enjoy cover art, and sometimes wish that the VE books had slip covers, but then I'm sure I'd want picture X instead of picture Y, so maybe it's a good thing.

Welcome!
Author:  JJGarsch [ Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
With respect to cover art: The original Meisha Merlin run of the Virginia Edition had slipcases, with their outward-facing sides decorated with vertical slices of what would have been a mural by Donato Giancola when the first 12 or so volumes were on the shelf and in order (four murals were planned, but only the first was painted). The same art was duplicated on the paper dust jackets.

One thing I know for a fact about the trouble Meisha Merlin ran into: The slipcases ended up costing more to produce than the books themselves. (This was in part because two different sizes of slipcase were required to fit the standard clothbound and optional leatherbound books, respectively.) Hence the relatively undecorated, somewhat lower-priced, no-options Virginia Edition Mark II.
Author:  Airgetlam [ Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Most interesting. Thanks for the information...I'll have to chat with him next time I see him. He's a most pleasant person to talk to :)
Author:  daverzx1 [ Sun Oct 16, 2011 3:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Wow that is one expensive set of books. For the entire collection it is $1500. I will be saving my pennies for a great many years before I buy those.

Thank you for getting me that website there Airgetlam. I appreciate that.

- David McLuhan
Author:  Airgetlam [ Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Yes, they are. The other company I couldn't remember at the time was Easton Press. They are also insanely expensive, but my perception is that they're somewhat of a boutique shop. I purchased their edition of Starship Troopers off of ebay. But if you're looking for reasonably priced reading copies, I'd find your local used book dealer, or an online version thereof.

Good luck!
Author:  BillMullins [ Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Author:  JJGarsch [ Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
The online Heinlein Archives that became active in 2007 has some (most?) of the VE's previously unpublished content available in PDF form for a nominal fee. Naturally the Archives also includes a great deal not included in the VE, such as a longer Citizen of the Galaxy manuscript showing Heinlein's markups to bring it down to published length.
Author:  BobCarver [ Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
The Archive has the potential to be a great resource, but for me, the watermark makes most of the material unreadable. Perhaps some enterprising soul will remove the watermarks someday and republish the material in Kindle format.
Author:  vranger [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
The easiest and almost always least expensive place to get out of print hardbacks and paperbacks are used copies sold by Amazon resellers. You can virtually always get copies in excellent shape for much less than the cost of buying a new paperback. I've personally switched to Kindle editions (Kindle is Amazon's ereader for anyone who has been in a coma for the last three or four years LOL). I've gotten to the point where I detest having to read a book on paper anymore.
Author:  BillMullins [ Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Possible Pirated Editions of Heinlein Books???

After reading account by Jerry Pournelle of what appears to be someone issuing print-on-demand books of various science fiction authors without authorization, I was able to find some of RAH's work issued by Hephaestus:







I gather these are compilations of wikipedia articles, but they give the impression that they are compilations of actual RAH stories. Either way, it's wrong.

Looks like Bill Higgins has this type of rip-off.
Author:  RobertPearson [ Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Author:  LilLeaguer [ Mon Nov 07, 2011 1:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
(President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) is also tracking the issue of Wikipedia compilations. He mentions Fonte Wikipedia and Books LLC as questionable publishers.
Author:  beamjockey [ Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
Author:  JimC22 [ Fri May 30, 2014 4:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Who owns the rights to the Heinlein books?
The library foundation also owns several of the copyrights.
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