20 female masters of science fiction to add to your reading list

Cover of James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, by Julie Phillips (Cover image via St. Martins Press)

4. James Tiptree Jr.

Some authors choose pseudonyms and then stick to them when it is most convenient, and no more. Editors and publishers know the author’s true name and persona, while some savvy readers can discover the truth with little effort. Other authors, however, take concealment far more seriously. To discover their actual identities can take a monumental effort and would likely breach that writer’s sense of artistry and even personal safety.

Usually, it’s an investigation that’s best left undone. However, sometimes pen names are revealed in ways that are important and potentially ground shaking, depending on where you stand.

From 1967 to 1977, many assumed that James Tiptree Jr. was a man. There was no reason to believe otherwise, given the name and the domination of male authors in the science fiction genre. Sure, Tiptree never made any public appearance, but he regularly wrote with fans and authors.

In letters to fellow writers like Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le Guin, he said that he was a man with strong feminist views. Hence, stories with strong feminist messages like in “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” or “The Screwfly Solution” (the latter of which was adapted for the Masters of Horror series).

Who was James Tiptree Jr.?

All well and good, except James Tiptree Jr. was not real. Rather, “he” was the female-identifying author Alice Sheldon. Readers eventually tracked down biographical similarities between “Tiptree’s” life and Sheldon’s in 1977. In a letter to Ursula K. Le Guin, who had since become a friend, Sheldon said that:

"I never wrote you anything but the exact truth, there was no calculation or intent to deceive, other than the signature which over 8 years became just another nickname; everything else is just plain me. The thing is, I am a 61-year-old woman named Alice Sheldon."

Regardless of the drama over pen names, Tiptree/Sheldon’s work is notable for its feminism, far-future views, and dark themes. Reading her work is not often uplifting, but it is fascinating.