There is a temptation in an introduction of this kind to be very biographical and spend a good deal of time on the author's lovely dark hair or firm waistline despite his advancing years. I shall resist this because the fiction, the stories before you, are what really counts. The fact that their author enjoys observing bears in the wilds of Canada or skindiving deep in Mexico is not really relevent. Nor is the information that he spent a good part of World War II in a Pentagon subbasement. These facts may clue you to the obviosity that James Tiptree, Jr. is well-traveled and well-experienced in the facts, both sordid and otherwise, of our world. But internal evidence in the stories informs us of that just as easily.