Alberto Monteiro wrote: > In Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast", the succession > of USA presidents in "Timeline 2" is Woodrow Wilson, > Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, > Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, ..., > Neemiah Scudder Interregnum. > > I guess that he gave two 4-year mandates to each of the > three brothers (is it legal to have a brother succeed > another one in the USA?), which would make Ted Kennedy to > leave office in 1984 - or earlier, in the case of impeachment. > > Or maybe each Kennedy above is a different family member, which > would place Kennedy VI being elected in... hmmm... 1960 + 5 x 8... > 2000 (!). > > It's a pity that he abandoned this idea in later books, > because in "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" the presidents > are Roosevelt, Alvin Barkley (who?), and Patton (who dies > in 1961).
IIRC, To Sail Beyond the Sunset had entirely different timelines from the ones in The Number of the Beast. I don't think Heinlein abandoned any ideas so much as tried to contrast them (arguably to better or worse effect depending on how much esteem you give Heinlein's final quadrology). Heinlein used the presidential succession and the first man to land on the moon as indicative of each major timeline in his last four books (with both US presidential succession and moon landing being highly variable and indicative of stronger political, social, and economic trends), and he did try to show at least a few differences between the timelines that might have resulted indirectly from vastly different presidents and moon landings. -- --Max Battcher-- http://www.worldmaker.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
