Mañana Literary Society


The Mañana Literary Society was an informal meeting of science fiction writers in Los Angeles, California. Hosted by Robert A. Heinlein and his second wife Leslyn at their Laurel Canyon home, the membership included authors such as Anthony Boucher, Arthur K. Barnes, Edmond Hamilton, L. Ron Hubbard, Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore, L. Sprague de Camp, Cleve Cartmill, Leigh Brackett, and Jack Williamson. The meetings took place in 1940 and 1941, until the Pearl Harbor attack resulting in the U.S. entering World War II.

''Rocket to the Morgue''

The society and many of its members appear, thinly veiled, in Boucher's Rocket to the Morgue, whose dedication, L. Ron Hubbard, then-literary agent Julius Schwartz and rocket scientist/occultist/fan Jack Parsons ; or recognizable composites of two writers. Some writers' actual pseudonyms appear as minor characters, most prominently "Don Stuart, editor of Surprising" ; but also "Anson Macdonald", "Lyle Monroe"... and Anthony Boucher.