Synopses & Reviews
James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of
Alice B. Sheldon
(1915-1987), in whose honor the Tiptree Awards are given annually. She wrote some of the best short SF ever, winning two Hugos and three Nebulas. This book brings together stories previously uncollected-including an early one published under her own name in
The New Yorker-and many of her colorful non-fiction pieces, mainly autobiographical, published under the Tiptree name (1970-1987). What shines through in this book is the magnetic and charming personality of the author, one of the most influential SF personalities of her era.
Review
"Tiptree is one of science fiction's greatest assets."—
Science Fiction Chronicle"James Tiptree, Jr. is one of science fiction's greats. Tiptree emerged in the late '60s, writing luminous, heartbreaking stories, each written in a distinct voice, each obliquely but beautifully narrated with an eccentric subtlety and a mordant wit."—San Jose Mercury News
"Should whet readers' appetites."—Dallas Morning News
"Tiptree is a master . . . In all ways, she is a truly great writer, perhaps the greatest in science fiction today . . . Her characters are real and human; her word portraits are exquisite and her construction is flawless."—Baltimore Sun
"One of SF's most gifted stylists."—NY Daily News
About the Author
James Tiptree, Jr., was actually Alice Hastings Bradley Sheldon (1915-1987), a fact she kept secret for the first ten years of her meteoric career under the Tiptree pseudonym, as she won awards and acclaim. The truth came out in 1977. She also wrote as Raccoona Sheldon. She was born in Chicago, but spent much of her childhood in Africa and India. Her father was a lawyer and traveler. Her mother, Mary Hastings Bradley, was a well known geographer, traveler, and author of 35 books, who also wrote a successful children's book of which Alice was the heroine. After leaving her first career in the CIA in 1955, Sheldon got a Ph.D. in experimental psychology in 1967 and began her writing career. She won the Hugo, Nebula and Jupiter awards for her short fiction. Today, the annual Tiptree Award, for SF that explores and expands gender roles, is given in her memory.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Jeffrey D. Smith
I. Meet Me at Infinity: Uncollected Fiction
Happiness Is a Warm Spaceship
Please Don't Play with the Time Machine, or, I Screwed 15,924 Back Issues of Astounding for the F.B.I.
A Day Like Any Other
Press Until the Bleeding Stops
Go from Me, I Am One of Those Who Pall (A Parody of My Style)
The Trouble Is Not in Your Set
Trey of Hearts
The Color of Neanderthal Eyes
II. Letters from Yucatan and Other Points of the Soul: Uncollected Nonfiction
If You Can't Laugh at It, What Good Is It?
In the Canadian Rockies
I Saw Him
Spitting Teeth, Our Hero—
Do You Like It Twice?
The Voice from the Baggie
Maya Maloob
Looking Inside Squirmy Authors
Comment on "The Last Flight of Doctor Ain
Afterword to "The Milk of Paradise
Afterword to "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Introduction to "The Night-blooming Saurian
The Laying On of Hands
Going Gently Down, or, In Every Young Person
There Is an Old Person Screaming to Get Out
The Spooks Next Door
Harvesting the Sea
More Travels, or, Heaven Is Northwest of You
With Tiptree Through the Great Sex Muddle
Quintana Roo: No Travelog This Trip
Review of The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
How to Have an Absolutely Hilarious Heart
Attack, or, So You Want to Get Sick in the Third World
The First Domino
Everything but the Signature Is Me
The Lucky Ones
Something Breaking Down
Dzo'oc U Ma'an U Kinil—Incident on the
Cancun Road, Yucatan
Not a New Zealand Letter
Biographical Sketch for Contemporary Authors
Contemporary Authors Interview
S.O.S. Found in an SF Bottle
s20Note on "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
How Do You Know You're Reading Philip K. Dick?
Review of Kayo
Zero at the Bone
A Woman Writing Science Fiction
Chronology of Publications