Heinlein estate - evil moneygrubbers or benevolent patrons?
I read this Boing Boing article today with mixed feelings. On the one hand I have been a huge fan of late Robert Heinlein for over 20 years and have read and enjoyed every one of his books. On the other hand I think since his wife Virginia died there have been some questionable decisions motived by nothing more than a quick buck. Anyone who's seen Starship Troopers 2 will attest to that! 
Back to the point - it appears that a relatively small publisher (their biggest names appear to be George R R Martin and Janny Wurts) is printing a 46 title collection of Heinlein's work entitled "The Virginia Collection". The price for this gem? A mere US$2,500. 
With a limited print run of 5000 we're looking at gross sales of US$12,500,000.
So ... is someone making money hand over fist here? Or is there something else going on? The obvious question is "where is the money going?" It appears to be (and I fervently hope it is) funding The Heinlein Prize - a trust fund that is dedicated to advancing "commercial space activity" (in light of Heinlein's sympathies this likely means 'non-governmental space activity' rather than 'for-profit space activity'). The trust has announced a US$500,000 prize to the first winner, but somewhat suspiciously there are as yet no nominees. Have the trustees not heard of SpaceShipOne's success in the X-Prize?
I will accordingly reserve judgment until they do actually hand out some money, although it does look authentic - there is even a Russian version of the site which makes sense if you have read any of Heinlein's non-fiction.
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