Tiptree's mysterious identity fascinated fans and sparked much speculation, with everyone believing she was a man. The revelation during her lifetime was a shock: these brief, tough, and cheeky short stories, which all too often ended in death, were written by an elderly lady with white feather curls. Alice Bradley Sheldon, who published her first stories under the male pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. at the age of 51 and quickly rose to fame, had already led an unusual and eventful life by that time. As a beautiful, intelligent, and pampered daughter of an upper-middle-class family from Chicago, she spent much of her childhood in Africa, became a painter and art critic, and served in the US Army during World War II. She worked for the CIA, ran a chicken farm, and earned a PhD in psychology.