In the essay below, Mendlesohn examines gender roles and power structures in "Subcommittee," placing the story in the context of the time it was written, before the rise of feminism.

In the following essay, Erisman analyzes Henderson's use of the myth of the American frontier in her stories of the People. Henderson applies the concept of frontier broadly, the critic contends: "She is concerned with the timeless frontier that occurs whenever an individual or a people confronts a challenge."

In the conversation below, which was first published in 1974, Henderson recounts her life and career, and discusses her views on the genre of science fiction.

In the following essay, Erisman declares that in her stories about the People, Henderson "takes one of the most familiar elements of science fiction, the alien encounter, and one of the most familiar elements of all literature, the quest, and makes a profoundly human document, a body of fiction that portrays a people's achieving identity."