Star Songs of an Old Primate was published by Ballantine Books in 1978, the year after Alice Sheldon’s identity as James Tiptree Jr. was revealed to the science fiction community. The collection thus appeared in a transformed context: stories that had been read as the work of a reclusive male writer were now understood as the work of a woman who had spent decades concealing her identity — and this knowledge inevitably colored their reception.
The collection includes “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” (Hugo and Nebula winner) — in which male astronauts discover that women have inherited the Earth after a plague killed all men, and that the all-female society functions perfectly well without them. The story’s power lies in the men’s reactions: rather than accepting their obsolescence, they become violent — confirming the women’s decision to eliminate the male sex. Read after the identity revelation, the story becomes not merely a feminist thought-experiment but a personal statement about what it means to observe male behavior from behind a male mask.
Other stories in the collection explore themes of transformation, contact, and the limits of communication — but all carry the additional weight of biographical knowledge. “The Old Primate” of the title is Sheldon herself: an aging woman looking at the human species (and particularly the male of the species) with the objectivity of an anthropologist studying primates.
Collecting Star Songs of an Old Primate
First edition (Ballantine Books, New York, 1978): Paperback original.
Market values:
- First Ballantine paperback: $10–$25
- First hardcover (UK, Gollancz, 1978): $30–$80