author
Alice Eleanor Jones
1916–1981
A sharp, witty science fiction writer and journalist, she is best remembered for 1950s stories that mixed satire with pointed ideas about gender, technology, and society. Though her time in the genre was brief, several of her tales have lasted as memorable feminist classics.
1 Audiobook
The Happy Clown
by Alice Eleanor Jones
About the author
Born in 1916, she was an American writer and journalist who also published as Alice Eleanor Nearing. She earned a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania, and her background in scholarship shows in the control and intelligence of her prose.
Her science fiction work appeared mainly in the mid-1950s, but it made a strong impression. Stories such as Created He Them and The Happy Clown are still noted for their dark humor, social satire, and early feminist edge, often exploring how ordinary life can turn strange, unsettling, or absurd.
Outside fiction, she worked as a journalist, and that clear, observant style carries into her storytelling. She died in 1981, but her reputation has continued to grow as later readers and editors rediscovered writers who brought fresh perspectives to classic science fiction.