James Tiptree, pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon Biography
(1915–87), pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon, Ten Thousand Light Years from Home, Warm Worlds and Otherwise
American sciencefiction author, born in Chicago, educated at the University of California and George Washington University. After working in photo-intelligence for the CIA, from 1955 to 1968 she taught experimental psychology in Washington DC at the American University and George Washington University. She killed herself after shooting her husband, who was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Her reputation as a powerfully imaginative and emotionally disquieting science fiction author rests chiefly upon the short stories collected in Ten Thousand Light Years from Home (1973), Warm Worlds and Otherwise (1975), Star Songs of an Old Primate (1978), and Out of Everywhere (1981). Her academic training in psychology and anthropology informs her stories' concern with death, sex, and other fundamentals of human experience. Her other publications include the novels Up the Walls of the World (1978) and Brightness Falls from the Air (1985). Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1990) is a collected edition of her stories.
Additional topics
Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern FictionEncyclopedia of Literature: James Thomson Biography to Hugh [Redwald] Trevor-Roper Baron Dacre Biography