Neat Sheets: The Poetry of James Tiptree, Jr.
The poetry contained in this volume was discovered by Jeffrey D. Smith. With the exception of "S.O.S. Found in an SF Bottle" and the short playlet, "Go from Me, I Am One of Those Who Pall (A Parody of My Style)", they were found paper-clipped together in a single folder. The poems found in that folder can all be accurately dated to the late 1940s and early 1950s.
As James Tiptree, Jr., Alice Sheldon wrote many of the best science fiction stories to appear in the 1970s and 1980s, winning all the major awards the field had to offer. The poetry in this volume dates from an earlier period, written in the late 1940s and early 1950s (around the same time as her first article, "The Lucky Ones," appeared in the New Yorker). Emotional and full of vigor, Neat Sheets: The Poetry of James Tiptree, Jr., is a must for Tiptree lovers, shedding new light on one of science fiction's most enigmatic personalities and one of its greatest writers.
"The one thing in the world I wanted was something I'd done solo,
all by myself, unhelped... on my own. I didn't believe I could, I was
almost too frightened to try. So can you see why I wanted those stories
to flutter over the transom and into the slushpile all on their own,
without a nod or a smile from any living soul? Without even a person
behind them – in those days I still had a bit of physical charm left,
and I'd learned the hundred ways in which the destiny of a pretty woman
differs from a plain one – sad but true. (And that applies to men too,
god help them)."
– Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.) from an interview in Locus
Contents:
- Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler
- The Dust Speaks
- The Boast
- Lines for a Traveller
- Union Station, 1942
- This Neat Sheet
- Inhuman Utterance
- A Jingle of False Coins
- Guilt Edge
- Prayer for 1943
- The Awakening
- For Life
- The Cannibal is Lonely
- Conversation of Voyagers
- St. Anthony at the Pool
- The Dream
- A Glossary
- Jack of Hearts
- Elements of Love
- S.O.S. Found in an SF Bottle
- Go from Me, I Am One of Those Who Pall (A Parody of My Style)
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James Tiptree Jr.
James Tiptree, Jr. (1915–1987) was the pen name of American science fiction author Alice Bradley Sheldon, used from 1967 to her death. She also occasionally wrote under the pseudonym Raccoona Sheldon (1974–1977). Tiptree/Sheldon was most notable for breaking down the barriers between writing perceived as inherently "male" or "female" – it was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree, Jr. was a woman.
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