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Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land Cover.jpg
Hardcover, showing Rodin's sculpture
Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone
 
AuthorRobert A. Heinlein
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherG. P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
June 1, 1961
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages408 (208,018 words)
ISBN978-0-441-79034-0

Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians, and explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Terran culture.

The title "Stranger in a Strange Land" is a direct quotation from the King James Bible (taken from Exodus 2:22). The working title for the book was "A Martian Named Smith", which was also the name of the screenplay started by a character at the end of the novel.

Heinlein's widow Virginia arranged to have the original unedited manuscript published in 1991, three years after Heinlein's death. Critics disagree about which version is superior, but Heinlein preferred the original manuscript and described the heavily edited version as "telegraphese".

In 2012, the Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America".

Plot