James Tiptree, Jr.

[knivesout]

From time to time, I like posting up topics on possibly lesser-mentioned sf writers. This time, I'd like to share some information I've gathered on James Tiptree Jr.

Here's a bio, adapted from the one at The Templeton Gate :

James Tiptree, Jr. - the most commonly used pseudonym of Dr. Alice Hastings Bradley Sheldon (1915-1987), a clinically trained psychologist and a former operative of the C. I. A. In 1977, her first SF short story - "Birth of a Salesman" - appeared in Analog (as by Tiptree), although she had previously published a story in The New Yorker under her real name as early as 1946.

Her pen-name was derived from a brand label on a jar of marmalade - don't bother looking for that label in your supermarket unless you live in England - and her most convincing argument for its use was that her business colleagues would be sure to censure her if they knew she wrote science fiction. Her true identity was not known for many years by even the editors who purchased her stories.

Her first collection, Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home, published in 1973, included fifteen stories that had originally appeared in various magazines and original anthologies from 1968 to 1972. Even though containing her earliest stories, the book is a treasure-trove of unique concepts and themes and was a most impressive debut.

Along with "The Women Men Don't See," her second collection includes several other impressive stories, most notably two award winners, "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death" (Nebula) and "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (Hugo). The latter is considered by many to be the first of the cyberpunk tales, long before William Gibson arrived on the scene.

During her twenty year SF career Tiptree concentrated primarily on shorter works, and only published two novels. The first of these, Up the Walls of the World, came in 1978. It is rich in narrative technique, and although it was a Hugo nominee I feel it is a sadly neglected example of the best of space opera. Another seven years would pass before her next novel, Brightness Falls from the Air, which concerns the various people who have gathered on the far planet Damiem to witness the spectacle of the expanding wavefront of a novaed star twenty light-years distant.

Out of the Everywhere, a collection from 1981, included four stories which had been published under another pseudonym, Raccoona Sheldon.

Tiptree created many varied and interesting alien characters for her stories, but it could be said that some of the most alien are the humans. Her work is permeated with the frustrations humanity experiences as unique and separate individuals, most often unable to connect emotionally and intellectually with others. This was most apparent in her later work from the mid-80s, collected in Crown of Stars, posthumously published in 1988.

Two other collections, published in 1986, showcased linked stories; Tales of the Quintana Roo included three stories set on the southeastern coast of Mexico, and The Starry Rift, set in the same milieu as Brightness Falls from the Air, is most likely portions initially edited out of that novel.

Even though her persona was penetrated mid-way through her writing career, Tiptree/Sheldon will forever remain an intriguing mystery. She rarely spoke of her personal life, and never of her work for the government, so it is through her fiction we must attempt an analysis of her philosophy and her legacy. Sadly, the end of her life was as tragic as the previous years had been enigmatic. In failing health herself, she fulfilled a promise she had made to her now blind and bed-ridden husband years before. On May 19, 1987, she shot him and then turned the gun on herself. They were found, hands tightly clasped, laying side by side on his bed.

She is sorely missed.

######

She has been immortalised in the SF community with the creation of the The James Tiptree, Jr. Award, an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.

I'm currently reading the short story collection, A Crown of Stars and am deeply impressed. The stories exhibit an impressive range, from the traumatic war scenario of Yanqui Doodle, the theologically charged alien contact of Second Going to the musings on love, death and time travel in Backward, Turn Backward. Tiptree's grasp of human nature, her emotionally engaged narratives and sheer breadth of vision easily mark her as one of the best short story writers to have graced sf. I look forward to reading more works by her.

Here's a good Tiptree site

Here are a couple of stories you can read online:
The Women Men Don't See:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/clas...tiptree21.html
The Screwfly Solution, written under the alternate pseudonym 'Racoona Sheldon':
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/clas.../sheldon1.html

[GOLLUM]

Thanks JP, I quite liked the Screwfly Solution.

In case you miseed it here's some more stories:

1972 Nebula nomniated story Painwise.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/clas...ee4/index.html

Short story, Beam Us Home:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/clas...ee3/index.html

[rune]

Anyone read any of her novels -


Up the Walls of the World (1978)

Brightness Falls from the Air (1985)

The Starry Rift (1986)

Houston, Houston, Do You Read(1989)

[GOLLUM]

No Rune but now that you've listed them I would like to investiagte them further. I'll have to see if the local library or booksellers have a copy...

[Jimmy]

I've read only short stories, great "The Screwfly Solution" which has everything what good sf needs, interesting plot, good language, fine idea plus some reflections on nature of men and women. Also very good, more classical sf "We who stole 'The Dream'" and a liitle 'worse" "The Man Who Walked Home", "In Midst of Life" and "Mother in the Sky with Diamonds".
But "Screwfly Solution" is one of the greates novelettas I've ever read, I recommend it to everyone.

[Brown Rat]

I read Brightness Falls from the Air many years ago and remember almost nothing about it.

I reread Starry Rift recently because "The Only Neat Thing to Do," one of the short stories collected in that volume, has stuck in my mind for decades. The central character, an adolescent girl, impressed me deeply when I was young, and I related to her strongly: finally, a girl who, like me, longed to explore space! Her ultimate sacrifice slayed me.

Upon rereading, the story still resonates for me, but I can see why some readers complain that it is maudlin.

[Marya]

There's a new biography of Alice Sheldon called James Tiptree, Jr - The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/bo...a7b450&ei=5070 (the NY Times article)

There is also an article at Salon.com (Aug. 10) entitled Stranger than Science Fiction by Laura Miller. You need to view an ad to look at it for free so if you're so inclined, you can go and read.

I had never heard of her before I saw the article about the biography.

[iansales]

'And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side' is a favourite short story.