James Tiptree, Jr
James Tiptree, Jr. is the pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon, an influential science fiction writer born in Chicago in 1915. She had a diverse upbringing, traveling extensively in Africa and India, which likely influenced her writing. Tiptree discovered science fiction at a young age but did not begin writing in the genre until 1968, using a pseudonym to navigate the perceived stigma surrounding science fiction in professional circles. Her work received immediate acclaim, leading to several prestigious awards, including the Nebula and Hugo Awards for her stories such as "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?". Tiptree's writing often explored themes of gender and perception, reflecting a nuanced understanding of societal views on women. Despite her success in short fiction, her novels did not achieve the same acclaim. In a notable moment in her career, she withdrew her story "The Women Men Don't See" from a Nebula nomination due to concerns over the interpretation of her gender. Tiptree publicly revealed her identity in 1976, continuing to write until her death by suicide in 1987. Her legacy endures, marking her as a significant figure in feminist science fiction.
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Subject Terms
James Tiptree, Jr.
Author
- Born: August 24, 1915
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Died: May 19, 1987
- Place of death: McLean, Virginia
Biography
James Tiptree, Jr., is the pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon, who also wrote some stories under the name Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree was born in Chicago in 1915. Her father, Herbert Bradley, was a lawyer and amateur naturalist and her mother, Mary Hastings Bradley, a well-known writer of fiction and travel books. The family traveled widely in her youth, particularly in Africa and India.
Tiptree discovered science fiction at the age of nine, reading her first issue of Weird Tales in 1924. Despite writing nonfiction pieces for science-fiction fan magazines, she did not try her hand at writing in the genre until 1968, and then only under a pseudonym. Enlisting in the army in World War II, Tiptree began a career in government service. In 1945, she married Huntington Sheldon, and in 1952 she was part of the founding of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1955, she left the CIA to pursue an education, receiving her B.A. from American University in 1959.
In 1967, she earned a Ph.D. in psychology, and it was mostly to protect her grant status in that profession that she wrote under an alias, fearing that science fiction was not quite “respectable” in professional circles. When she began writing science fiction, however, both fan and critical reaction was immediate and enthusiastic. Her second published story, “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” (1969), was nominated for a Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Only four years later she won the 1973 Nebula for best short story. She also won a Hugo Award for her novella The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1989), and her novella Houston, Houston, Do You Read? (1989) earned both a Hugo and a Nebula.
Tiptree avoided the novel genre, a preference which proved sound, since her only two novels, Up the Walls of the World (1978) and Brightness Falls from the Air (1985) sold poorly and were negatively reviewed. But she was able to succeed beyond the science-fiction magazine market by collecting her short stories in five solidly selling anthologies, and also two volumes of what fellow science-fiction author A. E. van Vogt called “fix-ups,” separate stories rewritten and combined to form a larger novelistic work.
Much of Tiptree’s fiction involves gender and perception of gender, including a motif common to many feminist science- fiction writers, using the concept of the alien to depict the way that male cultures perceive women. While Tiptree insisted that gender played no role in her pseudonym, it almost became an issue in 1974, when her story about gender perception, “The Women Men Don’t See,” received an overwhelming number of nominations for a Nebula award. Because the stated reasons for many of her nominations was wonder at a “male” author’s skill at presenting a female point of view, Tiptree felt compelled to withdraw her story from consideration. Two years later, she went public with her identity, but continued to publish under her pseudonym until her death by suicide in 1987.