James Tiptree Jr. "Happiness is a Warm Starship." Stories, Novels

True revolutionaries of the genre can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and the author who published under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. is certainly one of them. The "new wave" was already in full swing, and newcomer wunderkinds Roger Zelazny and Ursula Le Guin had already reaped major science fiction awards, but Tiptree immediately stood out even against this glamorous backdrop. His novellas and short stories—which won a total of two Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards, and were nominated for various genre awards over forty times—were distinguished, despite their varied plots, by a unique authorial voice, a distinctive grotesque humor, and a break with conventional genre tropes. James, however, rarely appeared in public and received his awards by mail, but he maintained an active correspondence, both with colleagues in the field (Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Harlan Ellison), and with journalists and fans. From this correspondence, as well as from the author's frequent fascination with paranoia, espionage, and persecution mania, a portrait was crafted of an elderly intelligence veteran channeling his difficult life experiences into uniquely disturbing fantasies. And, as it later turned out, it was all true, with one caveat: the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. was a woman with a remarkable biography, Alice Sheldon. In the ten years that passed between Tiptree's debut and the scandalous revelation of his pseudonym, a body of work was created that is unparalleled both in the genre and far beyond—and not the least bit outdated. An award, annually presented for the best science fiction novel exploring gender relations and gender identity, was named after Tiptree.
So, we present to you a collection of the best works of this modern classic. Most of the works included in this book are translated for the first time.