<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

James Benjamin Blish (May 23, 1921 – July 30, 1975) was a leading science fiction author who may have been even more important to the field as one of the shapers of science fiction criticism.

Blish had a bachelor's degree in microbiology and, after serving as a medical technician in World War II, he became the science editor for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. His scientific background and training were obvious in the accuracy with which he presented the speculations in his own fiction and his critical standards. In the 1930s he belonged to the Lunarians, the New York fan group that also included such luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl.

In the '50s, Blish gained notice with the Okies series, Astounding stories about a future with immortality and antigravity. These were published as four novels—Earthman, Come Home (1955), They Shall Have Stars (1957), The Triumph of Time (1958), and A Life for the Stars (1962)— then combined into the omnibus Cities in Flight (1970).

Blish's best-known novel was the Hugo-winning A Case of Conscience (1959), which raised the question of a planet whose inhabitants are apparently born without Original Sin. Blish further explored theological issues in Doctor Mirabilis (1964), a historical novel about Roger Bacon, and Black Easter (1968) a tale of technology summoning the Devil and its sequel The Day after Judgment (1971). He decided that these four books formed a thematic series, which he called After Such Knowledge.

Blish wrote science fiction criticism under the name William Atheling Jr. Here he propounded the theory that science fiction should be judged both as fiction, with the traditional literary virtues of prose, characterization, etc., and as science, with respect for known facts and theories. There are three collections of his criticism, The Issue at Hand (1964), More Issues at Hand (1970), and The Tale That Wags the God (1987)

Ironically, Blish's biggest impact was probably as a pioneer of media fiction, with twelve volumes of short stories made from the televised episodes of Star Trek, as well as the first Star Trek novelization, Spock Must Die (1970).

Imprisoned in a Tesseract (1987), by David Ketterer, is a biographical and critical study. Blish was elected to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002.

External Links

Science Fiction Hall of Fame