Jubal Harshaw

Jubal Harshaw is a fictional character featured in Stranger in a Strange Land, a novel by Robert A. Heinlein. He is described as: "Jubal E. Harshaw, LL.B., M.D., Sc.D., bon vivant, gourmet, sybarite, popular author extraordinary, neo-pessimist philosopher, devout agnostic, professional clown, amateur subversive, and parasite by choice."
The character's name was chosen by Heinlein to have unusual overtones, like Jonathan Hoag.
The main character of the novel, Valentine Michael Smith, enshrines him (much to Harshaw's initial chagrin) as the patron saint of the church he founds. Critics have also suggested that Harshaw is actually a stand-in for Robert Heinlein himself, based on similarities in career choice and general disposition; though Harshaw is much older than Heinlein was at the time of writing.
Literary critic Dan Schneider wrote of Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land that Harshaw's belief in his own free will, was one "which Mike, Jill, and the Fosterites misinterpret as a pandeistic urge, 'Thou art God!
A 2011 Medium review evaluates Harshaw negatively, labeling him "Heinlein’s crude wish-fulfillment stand-in for himself" and "a pedant" for whom: "There’s nothing another character can say to him that won’t produce a lecture in reply, and even the faintly interesting ones tend to slide back into tired sexist stereotypes by the time he’s done."
Other fictional appearances
Harshaw also appears in three later Heinlein novels:
* The Number of the Beast (1980)
* The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
* To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987)

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