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In researching this article, I was surprised to find that the tales incorporated into McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang fit into a single, slim volume. While there were more books written with co-authors at a later date, McCaffrey wrote all of these initial tales alone, and while they are relatively few in number, they had a large impact. I encountered the first story in an anthology, early in my reading career, and others when they appeared in various magazines. The stories were memorable, and Helva was a sympathetic and compelling protagonist. I remembered them for years, long after I’d forgotten many of the other tales I read in that era. McCaffrey didn’t produce a large quantity of stories about Helva, but those she wrote were of the highest quality.