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4.39 AVERAGE
4.39 AVERAGE
This was such a difficult book to get through because I really did not like Alice Bradley Sheldon. As portrayed as a young girl, I felt sorry for her. Her parents took her on African adventures complete with cannibals. I think adventures are fine for children as long as their safety is assured. For Alice and her parents, this was not always the case.
The author Phillips says a great deal about Sheldon’s latent lesbianism. I don’t see it as latent. In her first marriage, her husband Billy Davey caught her with another woman and was physically abusive because of it. I’m sure he was abusive for other reasons, too. During this marriage Sheldon also got pregnant, and her mother Mary Hastings Bradley helped her get an abortion. This must have been so difficult for her mother who struggled to have children. Why would you involve someone who you knew had lost a child before you were born?
Sheldon also tells the story of her mother trying to seduce her to a fellow writer and a lesbian Joanna Russ. Why would anyone accept as gospel truth the statements of this woman? She was a drug addict, though brilliant. I think Mary Bradley was a controlling parent; however, not that controlling.
And her poor second husband Ting Sheldon. Sheldon obviously married him for security and because he reminded her of her father. The author said that she fell in love with him; however, I don’t see it. Ting took care of her. When he lost his sight and could not take care of her anymore, Sheldon couldn’t stand it. As early as 1977, I believe, she got him to agree to a suicide pact and would sit next to him as he slept with a loaded gun. His son Peter knew that something was wrong; however, he didn’t imagine that his father was afraid to die at the hands of his wife. After all, Peter’s sister Audrey was a suicide, and her death was such a blow to his father Ting. Although he couldn’t see, Ting enjoyed life. Just imagine being afraid to sleep because you’re wife might shoot you in the head. When the police came the first time that night, why didn’t Ting tell them the truth? Was he ashamed?
Allie Sheldon as James Tiptree, Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon was fun for her. I think that all authors should use pseudonyms. It’s freeing and who really cares who they are? When people are dead, that’s when I like to read about them. I hate 20-year-old actors writing their life stories. What did I know at 20 – what do I know now?
I will read Allie Sheldon’s stories to see if they speak to me. I do feel that her soul was tortured because she tried to be too many things to too many people. If she was born today, how different would Sheldon’s life be, if her sibling had lived, if she had children, if she lived as a lesbian, if, if, if . . . ?
The author Phillips says a great deal about Sheldon’s latent lesbianism. I don’t see it as latent. In her first marriage, her husband Billy Davey caught her with another woman and was physically abusive because of it. I’m sure he was abusive for other reasons, too. During this marriage Sheldon also got pregnant, and her mother Mary Hastings Bradley helped her get an abortion. This must have been so difficult for her mother who struggled to have children. Why would you involve someone who you knew had lost a child before you were born?
Sheldon also tells the story of her mother trying to seduce her to a fellow writer and a lesbian Joanna Russ. Why would anyone accept as gospel truth the statements of this woman? She was a drug addict, though brilliant. I think Mary Bradley was a controlling parent; however, not that controlling.
And her poor second husband Ting Sheldon. Sheldon obviously married him for security and because he reminded her of her father. The author said that she fell in love with him; however, I don’t see it. Ting took care of her. When he lost his sight and could not take care of her anymore, Sheldon couldn’t stand it. As early as 1977, I believe, she got him to agree to a suicide pact and would sit next to him as he slept with a loaded gun. His son Peter knew that something was wrong; however, he didn’t imagine that his father was afraid to die at the hands of his wife. After all, Peter’s sister Audrey was a suicide, and her death was such a blow to his father Ting. Although he couldn’t see, Ting enjoyed life. Just imagine being afraid to sleep because you’re wife might shoot you in the head. When the police came the first time that night, why didn’t Ting tell them the truth? Was he ashamed?
Allie Sheldon as James Tiptree, Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon was fun for her. I think that all authors should use pseudonyms. It’s freeing and who really cares who they are? When people are dead, that’s when I like to read about them. I hate 20-year-old actors writing their life stories. What did I know at 20 – what do I know now?
I will read Allie Sheldon’s stories to see if they speak to me. I do feel that her soul was tortured because she tried to be too many things to too many people. If she was born today, how different would Sheldon’s life be, if her sibling had lived, if she had children, if she lived as a lesbian, if, if, if . . . ?
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Outing
Moderate: Infertility, Misogyny, Abortion, Death of parent, War
Minor: Incest, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Dementia
Well written, interesting biography. Did get bogged down in the middle.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/816992.html[return][return]This is surely a model of how to write a biography. Although her subject died in 1987, Julie Phillips has been through all her private papers, done the necessary bureaucratic sleuthing through her career, dug into her parents' background, interviewed the elderly first husband and many other relatives and friends, reflected on the wider social and literary currents of the time illustrated by the main narrative, and supported it all with extensive notes.[return][return]But that's not enough to make a successful biography. To do that you have to not only know your subject; you have to have chosen someone who is in some way fascinating in their own right, and be able to communicate that fascination to your readers. Phillips has done that admirably. I haven't read a lot of Tiptree's work (having said which, there isn't so very much to read), but I think you could safely give this book to someone who had never heard of her, even someone who never reads science fiction, and sill expect them to enjoy it.[return][return]Most readers, however, will have bought this book largely to find out more about Tiptree/Sheldon's writing; we don't get anything about that until halfway through, but I don't think anyone will be bored by the first fifty years of Sheldon's life - privileged Chicago upbringing, childhood safaris to Africa, a Christmas elopement and disastrous first marriage, World War II and the CIA, psychological research, a better choice of second husband. And then the decade of fame as SF writer James Tiptree, Jr, producing strange, memorable stories, winning Hugos and Nebulas for them, engaging in intimate correspondence with the luminaries of the genre, but all under a pseudonym which was eventually exposed. I had not realised, however, that the Hugo and nebula for "Houston, Houston, Do You Read" both came after the revelation of her true identity.[return][return]The one weak point in Phillips' analysis has been well illuminated by Farah Mendlesohn: she doesn't convincingly explain Sheldon's attitude to sexuality - in fairness, a complex question, and one to which we will probably never know the real answer (although Farah's answer is more convincing than Phillips').[return][return]I am in a rush this morning in Georgetown, just a few miles from where Alice Sheldon and James Tiptree lived and died, so don't have time to write more about this brilliant book. But we are promised that the paperback will include more photographs, and more of Sheldon's own art, so I may find myself buying it all over again.
Excellent read! Sheldon/Tiptree led a fascinating life and it was well researched and engaging the whole way through.
While reading James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, I couldn't help but wonder if it will be possible to write such a well-supported, detailed biography of any of our contemporary authors fifty years from now. Throughout her life - decades before she began publishing as James Tiptree, Jr. - Alice Sheldon was an avid correspondent. She wrote to family, friends, politicians, newspapers and authors. The amazing thing is that she routinely kept copies of many of these letters. Also, many of the recipients of her letters also kept them. Thus, Julie Phillips was able to write a detailed, insightful biography based on evidence from primary sources. Do any authors today really keep ALL of their outbound and inbound email? Do they start doing so thirty years before they start publishing? I doubt it. I grieve the amount of potentially important archival material about authors is that is lost daily, with the dominance of digital communication.
Oh, yes, and this is a fabulous book about a great SF author, SF in the 1960's, female identity in the mid-Twentieth century and a woman with a complicated gender and sexual identity.
Oh, yes, and this is a fabulous book about a great SF author, SF in the 1960's, female identity in the mid-Twentieth century and a woman with a complicated gender and sexual identity.
I can't remember if I started reading Tiptree's bizarre but often good for a mindf**k stories before I knew that she had been outed as a female writer. This biography is a fascinating tour through her upper-class explorer childhood, to stints as a WAC to working at the CIA. Finally she falls into putting her tortured psyche into stories and the literary friendships with many famous figures from the SF world of the 60s and 70s. It does get bogged down at times with the personality analysis, by the author and the subject, but it was overall a good read for a biography.
This was read whilst working on the Letters to Tiptree collection published by Twelfth Planet Press, edited by Alex Pierce and Alisa Krasnostein, both books which absolutely blew me away. Sheldon's life had everything - from a young age she travelled through Africa with her parents and that set the tone of her life - the unbelievable. She was an artist, a chicken farmer, a World War II intelligence officer, a CIA agent, an experimental psychologist. She eloped at a young age, moved on to a second husband, and eventually, inevitably took her own life - the only question was 'when'.
She's mostly known for her writing under the name James Tiptree Jr. and it was here that she was heralded as the new name in science fiction where she was celebrated for ten years. That was, of course, until the truth was uncovered. Once editors knew she was female the exact same work they had loved was then dismissed.
I love reading biographies, and autobiographies. I've possibly read more than your average joe, but this would easily be my favourite. Phillips does an extraordinary job at showing many aspects of Sheldon's life - both her flaws and where she faed injustice. We get to see papers and photos from her life, the correspondence she kept with those closest to her (such as Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le Guin), and Phillips keeps them in a flowing order where it's almost impossible to put the book down - even at some stages you simply have to, given the length of the book, and the amount and weight of knowledge you're taking on.
Sheldon wasn't always a nice person. Troubled, complex, extraordinary - we get to see clearly exactly what she thought of herself, and it isn't always comfortable. You can always feel sympathy for her though, and an increasing urge to read everything she put out there.
Highly, highly recommended, and bravo to Phillips for an excellent job on this biography - seriously, first class and deserves a dozen awards.
She's mostly known for her writing under the name James Tiptree Jr. and it was here that she was heralded as the new name in science fiction where she was celebrated for ten years. That was, of course, until the truth was uncovered. Once editors knew she was female the exact same work they had loved was then dismissed.
I love reading biographies, and autobiographies. I've possibly read more than your average joe, but this would easily be my favourite. Phillips does an extraordinary job at showing many aspects of Sheldon's life - both her flaws and where she faed injustice. We get to see papers and photos from her life, the correspondence she kept with those closest to her (such as Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le Guin), and Phillips keeps them in a flowing order where it's almost impossible to put the book down - even at some stages you simply have to, given the length of the book, and the amount and weight of knowledge you're taking on.
Sheldon wasn't always a nice person. Troubled, complex, extraordinary - we get to see clearly exactly what she thought of herself, and it isn't always comfortable. You can always feel sympathy for her though, and an increasing urge to read everything she put out there.
Highly, highly recommended, and bravo to Phillips for an excellent job on this biography - seriously, first class and deserves a dozen awards.