I looked at the 1940 Census for the neighborhood where Robert and Leslyn Heinlein lived. .

Someone else is there in their place.

I was not the first person to notice this. Mike Glyer, for one, .

. See for yourself.

The question that intrigues me is whether it was Leslyn having fun, a desire to throw off the "busies" or Other (a mistake?). Also, did she subconsciously or consciously want children?

Good catch. Wonder whether this is them rebelling against government intrusion. Isn't it illegal to lie to a census taker?

Could have been either of them. But somebody was definitely making fun of the feds.

I see that Beamjockey has commented there that Bill Patterson convinced him it was likely an error rather than prankish. It is rather hard to imagine Robert or Leslyn riffing off this whole scenario on the spur of the moment for some kind of "fun," is it not?

Throughout my life, there has been a vocal band of opposition to each Census - it's oppression, it's control, it's Big Brudda, etc. (Frankly, I think that's a massive case of Missing The Point, but I gave up trying to understand fringe agitators a decade back.)

I don't know how common that attitude might have been in 1940, especially for someone of Heinlein's peculiar makeup - I can see it going both ways (patriotic duty / unnecessary gumminting). It may have been intentional dissimulation rather than prankishness.

I recall that Heinlein once urged taxpayers to pay a penny more in tax than they owed, to cause more paperwork for the IRS. Libertarian statement or prank?