James Blish

Life Blish was born on May 23, 1921, at East Orange, New Jersey. While in high school, Blish self-published a fanzine, called The Planeteer, using a hectograph. The fanzine ran for six issues.

Blish was a member of the Futurians.

Blish attended meetings of the Futurian Science Fiction Society in New York City during this period. Futurian members Damon Knight and Cyril M. Kornbluth became close friends. However, Blish's relationships with other members were often bitter. A personal target was fellow member Judith Merril, with whom he would debate politics. Merril would frequently dismiss Blish's self-description of being a "book fascist". She wrote in Better to Have Loved (2002), "Of course [Blish] was not fascist, antisemitic, or any of those terrible things, but every time he used the phrase, I saw red."

Blish studied microbiology at Rutgers University, graduating in 1942. He was drafted into Army service, and he served briefly as a medical laboratory technician. The United States Army discharged him for refusing orders to clean a grease trap in 1944. Following discharge, Blish entered Columbia University as a master's student of zoology. He did not complete the program, opting to write fiction full-time. The library also has a complete catalog of Blish's published works.

Career Throughout the 1940s, Blish published most of his stories in the few pulp magazines still in circulation. His first story was sold to fellow Futurian Frederik Pohl for Super Science Stories (1940), called "Emergency Refueling". Other stories were published intermittently, but with little circulation. Blish's "Chaos, Co-Ordinated", co-written with Robert A. W. Lowndes, was sold to Astounding Science Fiction, appearing in the October 1946 issue, earning Blish national circulation for the first time.

Pantropy (1942–1956)

Blish's The Warriors of Day was originally published in Two Complete Science-Adventure Books in 1951 as "Sword of Xota"

Blish was what Andrew Liptack called a "practical writer". It was also anthologized in The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

The idea of human colonists engineered to thrive in alien environments - for which Blish coined the term "pantropy" - continued in "The Thing in the Attic" in 1954, and "Watershed" the following year. The fourth entry, "A Time to Survive", was published by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1957. The stories were collected, edited together, and published as the fix-up The Seedling Stars (1956), by Gnome Press. John Clute said all of Blish's "deeply felt work" explored "confronting the Faustian (or Frankensteinian) man". The stories were loosely based on the Okie migration following the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and were influenced by Oswald Spengler's two-part Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of the West).

The stories detail the life of the Okies, humans who migrate throughout space looking for work in vast city-ships, powered by spindizzies, a type of anti-gravity engine. The premise and plot reflected Blish's feelings on the state of western civilization, and his personal politics.

Star Trek (1967–1977)

Bantam Books commissioned Blish to adapt episodes of Star Trek. The adapted short stories were generally based on draft scripts and contained different plot elements from the aired television episodes.

The stories were collected into twelve volumes and published as a title series of the same name from 1967 to 1977. The adaptations were largely written by Blish; however, his declining health during this period proved problematic. His wife, J. A. Lawrence, wrote a number of installments. Her work remained uncredited until the final volume, Star Trek 12, published in 1977, two years after Blish's death. was also written by Blish, and he planned to release more. According to Lawrence, two episodes featuring popular character Harry Mudd, "I, Mudd" and "Mudd's Women", were held back by Blish for adaptation to be included in the follow-up to Spock Must Die!. However, Blish died before a novel could be completed. Lawrence did eventually adapt the two episodes, as Mudd's Angels (1978), which included an original novella The Business, as Usual, During Altercations by Lawrence. In her introduction to Star Trek 12, Lawrence states that Blish "did indeed write" adaptations of the two episodes. The introduction to Mudd's Angels acknowledges this, stating that Blish left the two stories in various stages of completion and they were finished by Lawrence; Blish does not receive author credit on the book.

Blish credited his financial stability later in life to the Star Trek commission and the advance he received for Spock Must Die!.

Literary criticism and legacy Blish was among the first literary critics of science fiction, and he judged works in the genre by the standards applied to "serious" literature. He took to task his fellow authors for deficiencies, such as bad grammar and a misunderstanding of scientific concepts, and the magazine editors who accepted and published such material without editorial intervention. His criticism was published in "fanzines" in the 1950s under the pseudonym William Atheling Jr. An admirer of Ezra Pound, Blish adopted the same pseudonym the poet used for his music criticism.

The essays were collected in The Issue at Hand (1964) and More Issues at Hand (1970). Reviewing The Issue at Hand, Algis Budrys said that Atheling had, along with Damon Knight, "transformed the reviewer's trade in this field". He described the persona of Atheling as "acidulous, assertive, categorical, conscientious and occasionally idiosyncratic".

Honors, awards and recognition The British Science Fiction Foundation inaugurated the James Blish Award for science fiction criticism in 1977, recognizing Brian W. Aldiss. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 2002.

Awards and nominations 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novel, for A Case of Conscience. 1968 Nebula Award nomination for Best Novel, for Black Easter. 1970 Hugo Award nomination for Best Novella, for We All Die Naked. 1970 Nebula Award nomination for Best Novella, for A Style in Treason.

Posthumous Awards and nominations 2001 Retro-Hugo Award nomination for Best Novelette, for "Okie". 2004 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella, for A Case of Conscience. 2004 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novelette, for "Earthman, Come Home".

Guest of Honor 1960 Guest of Honor, 18th World Science Fiction Convention. 1970 Guest of Honor, Scicon 70.