Eponymously Yours, W. Skeffington Higgins

Q. Is it true you have a book out?

A. Sort of. A book to which I have contributed a chapter has just been published in France.

Q. How many books does that make for you this month?

A. Two.


Q. What's the name of the book?

A. Solution Non Satisfaisante: Heinlein et L'Arme Atomique.

Q. What does that mean?

A. Solution Unsatisfactory: Heinlein and the Atomic Weapon.

Q. Who created it?
A. Éric Picholle, a French critic, translator, and physicist. He is also the author, with Ugo Bellagamba, of Solutions Non Satisfaisantes, une Anatomie de Robert A. Heinlein.

Q. Wait, isn't that the same book?

A. No.

Q. But they have the same title!

A. If you wanted to watch Alien, would you rent Aliens?

Q. Oh.

A. The older book, Solutions Non Satisfaisantes, is a comprehensive critical look at Robert A. Heinlein's literary career.

Q. How good is it?

A. Good enough to win the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for science fiction criticism in 2009.

Q. What's the new book about?

A. The new book, Solution Non Satisfaisante, begins with the first translation into French of Heinlein's 1941 story "Solution Unsatisfactory." Following that are essays by Éric Picholle, the American critic H. Bruce Franklin, and me.

The Heinlein story, published before the U.S. entered World War II, is remarkable because it foresaw a nuclear arms race. In "Solution Unsatisfactory" the United States develops a radioactive superweapon-- dust that, dropped from a few bombers, can render a city uninhabitable-- and uses it to end World War II. American leaders are then confronted with the certainty that other nations will also develop such weapons. The U.S. uses its brief period of nuclear superiority to create a military dictatorship with control of atomic weapons-- a "solution" even the author didn't like.

In his chapter, "Robert Heinlein, l’atome et la lune," Éric writes about Heinlein's fictional visions of nuclear weapons, the real-life struggle to create nuclear policy, and Heinlein's own efforts to influence that policy.

Prof. Franklin's chapter, "Ne vous inquiétez pas, ce n’est que de la science-fiction!," is an excerpt from his 1988 book War Stars: The Super Weapon and the American Imagination.

Éric has long been intrigued by these issues, and Heinlein's connections to them. Heinlein had a close friend, Robert Alden Cornog, who was an atomic physicist and engineer. He worked on cyclotrons at Berkeley in the 1930s, and later joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. There's a photo of him on the wall outside the Main Control Room here at Fermilab. Éric knew that I had taken an interest in Cornog, so he asked me to write a short biography for the book, "Robert Cornog, l’ami atomiste." Not much has been written much about Cornog before.

The book also has bibliographies, timelines, and appendices.

Q. How much does it cost?

A. According to the back cover, sixteen euros.

Q. What does the cover look like?

A. This. For the back cover and spine, go here.

Q. Are there any pictures?

A. There are a great many illustrations. I managed to find a good 1943 photo of Cornog which had been misidentified. Perhaps of greatest interest to my correspondents here is my "about the author" photo, which reproduces in black-and-white Reidar Hahn's Zeusaphone portrait. At last it has become useful for something more than an eyelash census.

Q. Do you speak French?

A. No. Éric translated my chapter.