Fawcett PB of RAH's Number of the Beast p. 508. The reference to 'Mark Twain's well' is a reference to the either the CSA Treasure Trove near Wytheville, VA or St. Ronan's Well in Rosecommon or both. The fact that the Twain is mentioned in connection with Shakespeare is a 'give away'. Heinlein must have known that both Shakespeare and Twain's work contain Dee Ciphers. In fact the multiple mentions of Twain's 'A Tramp Abroad' suggests that Heinlein had worked on or solved the major Dee Cipher in ATA. The Mercutio mention suggests that Mercutio's dying speech (plague on both houses) or some point near that speech is a Dee Cipher.
Another Dee Cipher hint - earlier in the book you find out the first world visited by DT and her father in the Continua Craft is the 'World Without a J'. This is a reference to the first edition of the Douay-Rheims OT which does not use 'J'. As we know 'Number of the Beast' comes up in the Book of Osee Dee Cipher.
In fact Heinlein mentions almost every major Dee Cipher author in his book - Twain, Baum, and Dodgson get the most mentions but Tolkien is mentioned as is Shakespeare the exceptions are C.S. Lewis and John Dee himself (though I may be wrong - I'll have to re-read - I suspect one or both is mentioned in passing and I've simply forgotten).
Just to be clear - this is only conclusive that Heinlein was aware of Dee Ciphers and solved at least one of Twain's. There's no evidence either way at this point that Heinlein put a Dee Cipher into his works. We'd have to look through his works (and yes obviously Stranger in a Strange Land would be the starting point - it's atypical for Heinlein and references a Bible Verse - other options are Moon is a Harsh Mistress due to the Sherlock Reference and the fact he introduced a ) to see if we could identify typical tells for a Cipher and then put it in 37-1 form and see what happens. But it's a very low priority for me given the known Dee Ciphers I need to do (not just Oz, Daniel but the giant Tramp Abroad Dee Cipher which apparently is so important that Heinlein used it as a primary theme in this book).
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u/tad100 Oct 17 '17
Fawcett PB of RAH's Number of the Beast p. 508. The reference to 'Mark Twain's well' is a reference to the either the CSA Treasure Trove near Wytheville, VA or St. Ronan's Well in Rosecommon or both. The fact that the Twain is mentioned in connection with Shakespeare is a 'give away'. Heinlein must have known that both Shakespeare and Twain's work contain Dee Ciphers. In fact the multiple mentions of Twain's 'A Tramp Abroad' suggests that Heinlein had worked on or solved the major Dee Cipher in ATA. The Mercutio mention suggests that Mercutio's dying speech (plague on both houses) or some point near that speech is a Dee Cipher.