James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon [Hardcover]

Julie Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

James Tiptree, Jr. burst onto the science fiction scene in the 1970s with a series of hardedged, provocative short stories. Hailed as a brilliant masculine writer with a deep sympathy for his famale character, he penned such classics as Houston, Houston, Do You Read?and The Women Men Don't See. For years he corresponded with Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison,Ursula Le Guin. No one knew his true identity. Then the cover was blown on his alter ego: A sixty-one-year old woman named Alice Sheldon. As a child, she explored Africa with her mother. Later, made into a debutante, she eloped with one of the guests at the party. She was an artist, a chicken farmer, aWorld War II intelligence officer, a CIA agent, an experimental psychologist. Devoted to her second husband, she struggled with her feelings for women. In 1987, her suicide shocked friends and fans. The James Tiptree, Jr.Award was created to honor science fiction or fantasy that explores our understanding of gender. This fascinating biography, ten years in the making, is based on extensive research, exclusive interviews, and full access to Alice Sheldon's papers

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Journalist Phillips has achieved a wonder: an evenhanded, scrupulously documented, objective yet sympathetic portrait of a deliberately elusive personality: Alice Sheldon (1915–1987), who adopted the persona of science fiction writer James Tiptree Jr. Working from Sheldon's (and Tiptree's) few interviews; Sheldon's professional papers, many unpublished; and the papers of Sheldon's writer-explorer-socialite mother, Phillips has crafted an absorbing mélange of several disparate lives besides Sheldon's, each impacting hers like a deadly off-course asteroid. From Sheldon's sad poor-little-rich-girlhood to her sadder suicide (by a prior pact first shooting her blind and bedridden husband), Sheldon, perpetually wishing she'd been born a boy, made what she called "endless makeshift" attempts to express her tormenting creativity as, among others, a debutante, a flamboyant bohemian, a WAC officer, a CIA photoanalyst, and a research scientist before producing Tiptree's "haunting, subversive, many-layered [science] fiction" at 51. Sheldon masked her authorship until 1976, and afterward produced little fiction, feeling that a woman writing as a man could not be convincing. Through all the ironic sorrows of a life Sheldon wished she hadn't had to live as a woman, Phillips steadfastly and elegantly allows one star, bright as the Sirius Sheldon loved, to gleam. 16 pages of b&w photos. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Julie Phillips, a journalist, took a decade to complete James Tiptree, Jr., her first book. Drawing on Alice Sheldon's voluminous papers and more than 40 existing interviews with the author, Phillips ably handles the contradictions of Sheldon's personae, negotiating with uncommon grace and confidence the complexities of a woman best known as a man. Although Sheldon's readers may already know the story behind her strange life, Phillips keeps the material fresh. James Tiptree, Jr. will find fans even among those who have never read science fiction. The quality of the writing and Phillips's insights are apparent from the single criticism—that the biographer may have delved too deeply into Sheldon's life.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312203853
• ISBN-13: 978-0312203856
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magnificent, important biography--for world, fo SF field, for women writers and readers of SF, August 13, 2006

By 

Jeanne Gomoll (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon (Hardcover)

I probably shouldn't have done any driving for a day or two after reading Julie Phillips' biography of James Tiptree, Jr./Alice Sheldon. I was too distracted with thoughts of this life, this complicated amazing person, that had suddenly elbowed itself into my own. I'll never again be able to tell that thrilling, easy story that I've told way too often -- of the woman who wrote under a man's pseudonym and who, when she decided to write under a woman's name, couldn't get published without Tiptree's recommendation. That story now feels like the gloss it is, and so much less interesting that the real one. It's a holographic biography -- At times I felt like I could freeze the action. put down the book, and walk all around this 3-dimensional, fully fleshed out person. Ali revealed slices of herself to most people, seldom letting them see more than the single persona; she was constantly disguising herself, always performing, even for herself. Readers of Julie's biography are privileged to a much wider view: sadly, a view Ali never may never have allowed herself. The room had been lit up and the photo had become a hologram, the voice had become many voices.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the Ultimate Biography, December 21, 2006

By 

Guy W. Salvidge (WA Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon (Hardcover)

This book is a delight. I would go so far as to say it is the best biography I have ever read (not that I've read a great number). Philips has presented an exhaustive but not exhausting account of the life of Alice B. Sheldon, aka James Tiptree Jr., aka Racconna Sheldon. This is a comprehensive work at over 400 pages of smallish print. One gets the feeling that Philips has done the job almost to perfection.

What makes this book so amazing? Firstly, the subject, Alice Sheldon, is fascinating. This is much more than a biography of a science fiction writer (although it is that too); it is a chronicle of a difficult and ultimately tragic life. It would be hard to read this book and not feel for Sheldon, who 'lived inside her body as though inside an alien artifact.' Sheldon's lack of comfort in her own body is palpable in these pages. One can sense her dis-ease. Philips presents this difficult material sympathetically, correctly asserting that Sheldon's life is indicative of the changing landscape of sexual politics in twentieth century America.

The various sections of Sheldon's life are interesting in themselves. For example, the chapters on Africa are fascinating, as is the material on Sheldon's mother, Mary Hastings Bradley (who I'd never heard of, although she was a famous writer in her day). 'Alli's' life is overshadowed by that of her successful mother, and the older woman's presence hangs over these pages. By the time we finally get to Sheldon's own writing career, more than half the book (and half her life) is over. This enables us to see the ephemeral figure of 'James Tiptree Jr.' in the context in which he was concieved.

One funny thing about this book is that Tiptree's writing career is made to seem almost like an afterthought, or a not-entirely successful experiment. This is strange because most readers of this book will come to it thinking of Tiptree as one of the greatest writers in SF history (which 'he' is). But although Tiptree garnered the Hugos and Nebulas in quick time, none of it was much comfort to Sheldon. Here, again, one can sense Sheldon's dissatisfaction with her creations. A slight criticism of this book, in my mind, is that Philips spends little time addressing the themes and ideas in the stories themselves. It is almost as though the author of the biography does not quite appreciate the value of the stories to the extent that many of Tiptree's readers do. Stories like 'A Momentary Taste of Being' and 'Her Smoke Rose Up Forever' are surely some of the greatest in the English language.

It may be that in not coming from a SF background, Philips sees Tiptree's writing in the context that Sheldon herself may have seen it in. OK I am speculating, but Sheldon was clearly not content with having written these fabulous stories. As Philips makes clear, Sheldon 'meant it' when she wrote about death again and again. The ending to this book, which deals with the circumstances of Sheldon's murder of her husband 'Ting' and then her suicide, is simply shocking. Not knowing the details of Sheldon's death in advance, I was floored by this ending. This make me realise that while a reader such as myself finds enlightenment (or even redemption) in Tiptree's fiction, Sheldon herself drew little comfort from it.

This is an essential book, not only for those interested in Tiptree's SF career, but also for anyone interested in twentieth century history. It is useful especially in regard to the history of the so-called 'sexual revolution,' which came a few decades late for Alice B. Sheldon.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating. Disturbing. You don't need to be a Tiptree fan to read this., September 16, 2006

By 

Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon (Hardcover)

I read a few stories by James Tiptree Jr., but I never went out of my way to do so. If you're wondering how much you'd get out of reading this biography if, like me, you didn't know enough to be a fan... don't worry. The book is fascinating enough on its own.

Julie Phillips did a remarkably good job of collecting the details of Alice Sheldon's life, and in presenting them in a way that brought this woman to life. Ali was interesting in her own right: independent (yet overwhelmed by her accomplished mother), creative and artistic (but somewhat directionless), willing to take risks (some foolhardy, others courageous). Some of the story is disturbing, because this woman was -- in a bunch of ways -- rather screwed up. But it's also a positive story, because she didn't let herself be a victim to her weaknesses.

What struck me particularly about Ali Sheldon's story was the woman's need to separate her identities into very different personae. After struggling with the social roles available to her, she remarkably managed to turn the prism of her personality conflicts and sexual confusion into the most creative of efforts: to create new and groundbreaking science fiction stories that, ironically enough, often dealt with "women's issues" from the outside.

Tiptree lived only in his/her writing, either as an author or as a snail-mail correspondent. (Just imagine what "he" would have done with e-mail and online forums.) Tiptree created close friendships that respected the author's desire for anonymity (though most people thought it was because he worked for the CIA or another government agency) -- raising good navel-gazing questions about how one can be close to another person and not know the most "intimate" facts about them.

And it's that issue of "identity" and "who are we, when all people know of us is what we present?" that's so compelling... even if you could care less about the science fiction literary scene.

This is an excellent book if you're intersted in SF history, and obviously if you're a fan of James Tiptree Jr.'s fiction. But it's a darned good read if your only interest is in how creative people get that way... and what it may cost them.