Book Review: James Tiptree, Jr. purports to be a biography of a science fiction writer, but might be better characterized as a lengthy study of gender, gender identity, and a woman who refused to let society limit her because of her sex. When reading a biography, the reviewer has to distinguish between the life of the subject and the skill of the biographer. Alice Sheldon was mercurial, high strung, melodramatic, beautiful, and born to a wealthy family. She led an exciting life. As a child in the 1920s her parents took her on three trips to Africa. She married young, was one of the early women to join the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women's Army Corps), was one of the first assigned to Air Force photointelligence, divorced and remarried, ran a chicken hatchery in New Jersey, worked for the CIA, earned a Ph.D., and finally, at age 51, published science fiction stories under a male pseudonym and persona, all while living luxuriously. Quite a life! As a science fiction writer Sheldon won several awards and carried on an extensive correspondence with many of the notable writers of the time, presenting herself as male in her letters, when in fact she was one of the minority of female science fiction writers of the time. In her male persona, she was widely accepted by and developed friendships with both female and male writers. Julie Phillips' presentation in James Tiptree, Jr. is generally thorough, but is filtered through her own biases and too often she takes the creative and dramatic Sheldon's statements at face value. She also, understandably, has difficulties with pronouns, Tiptree being both "he" and "she." At times there are subjects Phillips oddly chooses not to cover in depth and she has a strong and personal presence and point of view concerning her subject, which isn't always convincing. Regarding a gun Sheldon owned, Phillips states: "The gun must have given her a sense of power over death," whatever that means, and really? Fortunately, Phillips also provides enough source material that the reader can often form conclusions independently. Based on the information given, the reader could easily conclude and defend a thesis that Alice Sheldon was either heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, had serious mother or father issues, was transgender, or some combination of the above. As she said, "I am (was) notoriously f---ed up about sex," though after sex with a man she also wrote "I feel normal!" When Sheldon lost her male Tiptree persona, she also lost her ability to write convincingly. At the time Tiptree was generally thought clearly a male, though some thought Tiptree was female, and others felt it remarkable that a male author could write with such sensitivity -- of course when Tiptree was exposed as female it was less notable. Although one could read James Tiptree, Jr. as just the story of one person's gender confusion, for those interested in the subject of the interplay of female and male in all of us, it serves as an unusually intriguing case study in changing times, as well as a look at the place of early female writers in science fiction in the era of Women's Lib (almost shocking when read about today). For those interested in science fiction of the 60s and 70s, gender identity, and the social position of women from the 1930s to 1980s, this is a highly useful and interesting book. [3½★]
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