Tiptree's Paper Clip

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I am the proud owner of a paper clip once owned by Alice Sheldon, a giant of science fiction under the name of James Tiptree, Jr. Sheldon kept a physical distance from her literary genre of choice. She didn't attend conventions and very seldom met with anybody, fan or writer, from the community. I never even came close to meeting her. So you may be wondering how I came in possession of this literary relic. Well...

Gardner Dozois and Susan Casper met Sheldon once in the late seventies or early eighties, at her place in McLean, Virginia. Her house was mostly glass and sat over a stream that ran through the living room. Raccoons would come into it at night. In an interview published in the Temporary Culture chapbook She Saved Us From World War Three Gardner said, “…we went out there and spent the afternoon. We had burgers, I think, which they grilled, and we sat around for a while. I found out during the afternoon that she kept her Nebula Award in a closet with galoshes piled on top of it.”

He also said that Sheldon was flamboyant, even theatrical. “She really dominated your attention. She was magnetic. […] While we were eating our hamburgers… She had put out paper napkins and I was nervous, so I sat nervously shredding a napkin. She told me later that after we left she had picked up the shreds of the napkin and put them in a baggie and written “Napkin Shredded by Gardner Dozois” and the date on a label. Whether that still exists or not, I have no idea.”  

Such souvenirs were obviously important to Sheldon. When Gardner and Susan started to leave, she looked around hurriedly for something to give him as a memento and ended up handing him an oversized blue plastic paper clip—the one you see enshrined above.

Such souvenirs were not important to Gardner So he gave it to me.

Thus it was that this luminous object passed from a believer to an infidel to a believer again. This is the Wheel of Samsara in action.

 

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