by 
And the Answer Is:
A woman!
Most people credit Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus Unbound as the first science fiction novel. I’d venture a guess that most people think of early science fiction authors as male and would have guessed that a man started the genre.
I’m in the middle of reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Nebula Award and Hugo Award winner for best book in 2013), which got me thinking about female science fiction writers.
Since March is Women’s History Month, I thought a little voyage into the history of women authors in science fiction, fantasy, and horror would be entertaining, surprising, and fun.
The Early Years
Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818; however, two 17th century female authors, Aphra Behn and Margaret Cavendish (The Blazing World–1666), preceded her and wrote in the Proto SF tradition. Yeah, I didn’t know what Proto SF was either. Click the link for an explanation.
I read Behn and Cavendish in grad school, but I didn’t connect either woman with science fiction or fantasy. Utopian literature, yes. I guess utopian does fall under the speculative literature umbrella.
Both women are interesting: Behn was not only a writer and activist but also a spy for Charles II, while Cavendish stood out as an educated, intellect among men and women of the English Renaissance.
19th Century or Where Have the Women Gone?
Science fiction takes off in the 19th century, but the genre hasn’t yet been labeled and separated from “literature.”
Two greats come to mind: Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth) and HG Wells (The Time Machine, War of the Worlds). They take center stage in what will become science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Women authors vanished from the genre; however, there was Jane C. Loudon (20-years-old), who wrote The Mummy: A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century. The movies are still with us.
20th Century
Science fiction and fantasy come of age. Pulp magazines spring up and the genres are off and running. Often the women in these stories become stereotypes, but that discussion is for another blog post.
Until the 1970s, what is most striking about science fiction, fantasy, and horror is the apparent absence of women writers. However, their absence is more of an illusion than a reality.
Women wrote for the pulp magazines and wrote novels, but for many, their solution for publication in a genre that seemed to be exclusively male was to write using a pseudonym.
The audience for science fiction and other speculative genres was primarily male. Editors and publishers didn’t believe men would read stories written by women.
For example:
- In 1969, “Playboy asked Ursula Le Guin for permission to run ‘Nine Lives’ (her story of love, clones and extraterrestrial mining) under the byline ‘U.K. Le Guin’ because, as a Playboy editor put it, ‘Many of our readers are frightened by stories by women authors.'” –NY Times, 1982
- “Robert Silverberg, an SF great, famously stepped in it with this quote about the mysterious Mr. Tiptree: ‘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. I don’t think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man nor the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman, and in the same way I believe the author of the James Tiptree stories is male.’‖“More Than Yourself: Race, Gender and the Other in Science Fiction”
Here are a few of the women who hid their identity in order to be taken seriously in a male-dominated field:
- James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice B. Sheldon
- CJ Cherryh, aka Carolyn Janice Cherry
- CL Moore, aka Catherine Lucille Moore
- L. Taylor Hansen, aka Lucile Taylor Hansen
- Tarpé Mills, aka June Mills
- Andre Norton, aka Alice Norton
- JK Rowling, aka Joanne Rowling
Even Joanne Rowling used her initials because her publisher was afraid boys wouldn’t read a book written by a woman. She was “outed” very quickly, and the news didn’t hurt her sales. There’s a lesson in her experience.
Lest you think women don’t face discrimination in today’s enlightened world, here’s a personal anecdote:
In 2002, I was asked to recommend new books for high school English classes, I suggested adding more female authors to their required reading list.
“Boys won’t read women authors” was the response I received from the committee of women.
When I suggested that perhaps that was because they hadn’t been asked to read women writers, I received looks that suggested I was delusional.
My experience is that wise men and women read good books, regardless of the author’s gender.
Influential Women Writers
Here’s a partial list of who’s who among the women who paved the way for other women writers:
- Roquia Sakhawat Hussain: Sultana’s Dream (1905) feminist science fiction with flying cars!
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Moving the Mountain (1911) and Herland (1915) utopian, feminist novels
- Ursula K. Le Guin: ”The Left Hand of Darkness,” won both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award (1969)
- Anne McCaffrey: the first woman to win a Hugo for her novella “Weyr Search” (1968) two years later she won a Nebula Award
- James Tiptree (Alice B. Sheldon): won Hugo Award and Nebula Award
- Lois McMaster Bujold: The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award
- Doris Lessing: the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (2007) and number 5 on The Times list of “The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945″
- Octavia Butler: multiple-recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards
- Angela Carter: ranked number ten on The Times list of “The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945″
- Connie Willis: multiple-recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards
- Vonda McIntyre: Hugo Award and Nebula Award
Women’s history is about women being brave enough to ignore opposition, follow their dreams, and pave the way for the women who come after them.
Source for Portrait of Mary Shelley
The Usual Reminders
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