Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree, Jr. (Berkley, 1979)
James Tiptree Jr. is the pen name of American science fiction writer Alice Bradley Sheldon (1915–1987). Having built a reputation through numerous short stories published since 1968, Up the Walls of the World from 1978 is her first novel. It’s also her first book to be published after her gender and real name had been revealed – much to the embarrassment of prominent science fiction writers who were confident that the author must be male:
There was speculation, based partially on the themes in her stories, that Tiptree might be female. Robert Silverberg wrote: “It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing”.
Harlan Ellison had introduced Tiptree’s story in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions with the opinion that “[Kate] Wilhelm is the woman to beat this year, but Tiptree is the man”.
This paperback edition was published by Berkley Books in 1979. It’s among my favorite uses of Premier Shaded. Arranged with tight spacing and carefully handled overlaps, the shadowed caps emerge from the uncredited cover art. The fact that the title has been squeezed (see the non-circular O’s) can’t derogate from the sublimeness.
