Neat Sheets: The Poetry of James Tiptree, Jr.

by James Tiptree Jr., Karen Joy Fowler (Introduction)

Recently discovered early poetry by this Hugo and Nebula-award winning author.

Tiptree was one of the most original writers ever in a field that values originality above all things. These early poems are intriguing, suggestive, and essential to all serious fans of her work. - Michael Swanwick

James Tiptree was one of the best short story writers of the last half of the twentieth century. - Gardner Dozois

The Poetry has a heightened sense of emotionalism, a clear message of isolationism and loneliness, a disappointed romanticism, and the occasional lash of a sharp wit. - from the introduction by Karen Joy Fowler

. . . phrases such as "I am burned to a fine white bone of truth" and "'Life ' is just another name for agony" speak of pure Sheldonian anguish. Read and weep. - Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

Some of the poems are powerful and lucid. Others probably had private meaning. They form a footnote to a significant career. - Aboriginal Science Fiction Alice Sheldon was one of the most charming and involving people to grace the science fiction field with their presence in modern times. She was enchanting both in person and in her fiction. She won, and deserved to win, the Nebula and the Hugo for short fiction and was many times a nominee, producing a body of work in the 1970s that is unexcelled in range, variety, and depth. She invented cyberpunk in "The Girl Who Was Plugged In. " She wrote "The Women Men Don't See, " which is arguably the greatest feminist science fiction story. She had the respect and admiration of her peers and the love of her readers, and yet she never rested on her laurels, always teaching herself new techniques, working for years to write in persons and verb tenses other than third and past to achieve her effects. - David Hartwell

Genres: Poetry

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

"James Tiptree Jr." was born Alice Bradley in Chicago in 1915. Her mother was the writer Mary Hastings Bradley; her father, Herbert, was a lawyer and explorer. Throughout her childhood she traveled with her parents, mostly to Africa, but also to India and Southeast Asia. Her early work was as an artist and art critic. During World War II she enlisted in the Army and became the first American female photointelligence officer. In Germany after the war, she met and married her commanding officer, Huntington D. Sheldon. In the early 1950s, both Sheldons joined the then-new CIA; he made it his career, but she resigned in 1955, went back to college, and earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology.

At about this same time, Alli Sheldon started writing science fiction. She wrote four stories and sent them off to four different science fiction magazines. She did not want to publish under her real name, because of her CIA and academic ties, and she intended to use a new pseudonym for each group of stories until some sold. They started selling immediately, and only the first pseudonym—"Tiptree" from a jar of jelly, "James" because she felt editors would be more receptive to a male writer, and "Jr." for fun—was needed. (A second pseudonym, "Raccoona Sheldon," came along later, so she could have a female persona.)

Tiptree quickly became one of the most respected writers in the field, winning the Hugo Award for The Girl Who was Plugged In and Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, and the Nebula Award for "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death" and Houston, Houston. Raccoona won the Nebula for "The Screwfly Solution," and Tiptree won the World Fantasy Award for the collection Tales from the Quintana Roo.

The Tiptree fiction reflects Alli Sheldon's interests and concerns throughout her life: the alien among us (a role she portrayed in her childhood travels), the health of the planet, the quality of perception, the role of women, love, death, and humanity's place in a vast, cold universe. The Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award) has celebrated science fiction that "expands and explores gender roles" since 1991.

Alice Sheldon died in 1987 by her own hand. Writing in her first book about the suicide of Hart Crane, she said succinctly: "Poets extrapolate."

Julie Phillips wrote her biography, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

Reviews

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very personal book. It gave me the impression I was reading Tiptree's private diary, with dream notes, undisclosed love poems, rhymes she played with for her own amusement. There's wonderful humor in these poems, there's mystery, sensuality, despair. And, while they might not all be great poetry, their honesty strikes you. "The Awakening", "Elements of Love" are beautiful love poems, and my personal favorites. The collection ends with "S.O.S. Found in an SF Bottle", a tribute to the women writers of science fiction, and "Go From Me, I Am One of Those Who Pall: (A Parody of My Style)", a brilliantly funny and very weird playlet.

[Jennifer]

The final original work of Tiptree that I've read - that and her start trek fanfic "Meet Me at Infinity." Both very quiet ways to end this read through of all of her work.

Some of the poems here are interesting, my favorites being "Prayer for 1943," "The Cannibal Is Lonely," "A Glossary" and the only one she published during her sf days (as Racoona in a feminist fanzine):"S.O.S." But this very short collection is mostly of interests for true Tiptree enthusiasts.

I'm rather sad to be done with my Tiptree read through and both excited for and dreading her biography. I feel like it will be a sad read and after reading her letters I doubt she would have wanted such an extensive bio to be published, but surely would also have known it was inevitable.

[Joseph Buechel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few of the pieces in here were very good. A few were alright. In my opinion, the faux theater piece at the end is the most interesting.