SISTERS OF TOMORROW: The First Women of Science Fiction

This big anthology celebrates women as writers of SF and links their emergence in the early years of the 20th century to the fact that progressive social ideals, including First Wave Feminism, were opening new doors for women. Most of these writers were middle class and white, and had achieved a degree of independence through education. A survey of 43 magazines that featured SF in the 1920s to 1940s indicated that publishers played safe by directing women to work in genres where female writers were already established, including Gothic romances and fantastic poetry as well as newer genres such as the laboratory monster. This collection includes not just women's sci-fi stories and poetry but also journalism, interviews and essays. The editor offers four main reasons why women were attracted to SF. First and most obviously, because they had an affinity for science as a discipline, for instance Clare Winger Harris whose women's college had a dedicated science building, while L. Taylor Hansen wanted to capture the thrill of scientific discovery. Secondly because they were attracted by SF as a genre, and in the case of Leslie F. Stone this was because her family saw science as a male pursuit and she made a deliberate choice to defy their lack of encouragement. Lilith Lorraine saw it as a form of political expression, a way of making a difference, and finally it was an area of work in which women could compete on equal terms with men and earn the same fees. Part 1, Authors, is a collection of dramatic, action-packed SF tales, often disrupting beliefs about human domination of the universe. A Verse section ranges from Julia Boynton Green's amusing "Radio Revelations" to Lilith Loraine's magnificent "Men keep strange trysts" with its reference to "the thick veil of the commonplace". The work of Journalists and Editors is followed by a final section on women Artists, illustrated in colour. The writing of 20 leading SF women is accompanied by biographies and critical evaluations. Comprehensive selection of works by genre luminaries, including author C. L. Moore, artist Margaret Brundage, and others who were well known in their day, including poet Julia Boynton Green, science journalist L. Taylor Hansen, and editor Mary Gnaedinger. 396pp, paperback, colour illustrations.