As for his first novel, it remained lost for more than 60 years, until a copy of the manuscript was discovered in a garage in Seattle. Recently published, "For Us, the Living" adds another dimension to Heinlein's body of work.

Less a traditional commercial novel than philosophical fiction, it has value for its prophecies and for the light it sheds on Heinlein's other books. One reason he refused to publish the novel later in his career was that he used it as a source for ideas and events that appeared in his subsequent work, including "Stranger in a Strange Land," "Starship Troopers" and the story "If This Goes On . . . ."

"It's completely rewritten my view of his career," said Robert James, a Heinlein scholar who wrote an afterword to "For Us, the Living." "The impression was that he was writing commercial fiction from Day 1. Like a juggernaut he dominated science fiction. Actually from Day 1 he was writing what society should be about."

In that sense, Mr. James said in a telephone interview, Heinlein was a very American writer, "descended from Mark Twain and others, trying to form a cultural response to their community." He added that the book might have been turned down originally because it "advocated fairly dangerous ideas," including a free-love attitude toward sex.