Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965

by Eric Leif Davin

Partners in Wonder revolutionizes our knowledge of women and early science fiction. Contrary to accepted interpretations, women fans and writers were a welcome and influential part of pulp science fiction from the birth of the genre. Davin finds that at least 203 female authors, under their own female names, published over a thousand stories in science fiction magazines between 1926 and 1965. This work explores the distinctly different form of science fiction that females produced―one that was both more utopian and more empathetic than that of their male counterparts. Partners in Wonder presents, for the first time, a complete bibliography of every story published by women writers in science fiction magazines from 1926 to 1965 and brief biographies on 133 of these women writers. It is thus the most comprehensive source of information on early women science fiction writers yet available and of great importance to scholars of women's studies, popular culture, and English literature as well as science fiction.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

446 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Cheryl]

Oops. Essays and the bibliography. No stories. Immensely valuable, but not at all what I wanted.

[Ross Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eric Leif Davin's Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction 1926-1965 is an impressive work, skewering the myths of female involvement (that is, the lack thereof) in the formation of science fiction. Davin applies the scientific method to the "common wisdom" that women writers have been criminally underrepresented in the genre. I'm about a hundred pages in as I write this (early Aug, 2008), but this quote summarizes Davin's arguments well:

"If any woman believes that science fiction and fantasy publishers are closed to women, she is either gravely misinformed, or she is making excuses for her own incompetence by attributing her failure to editorial prejudice" -- Marion Zimmer Bradley (1977)