Blish is one of many neglected science fiction writers of the '50s and '60s. His short stories have been particularly hard to come by, so this collection of eighteen tales and a poem should be especially welcome. Editor Lyall has selected a wide range of stories, which explicates some of the higher aesthetic principles of that underappreciated art form. Blish maintained a tightly wrought but highly readable prose style, whether venturing onto the surface of a distant frozen moon ("How Beautiful with Banners") or to the farthest reaches of galactic empire ("This Earth of Hours"). .This collection includes a number of Blish's greatest stories, including several from his "Cities in Flight" sequence, the original novella of "A Case of Conscience", "Surface Tension", (voted as one of the best stories ever by the Science Fiction Writers of America) and his great werewolf story, "There Shall Be No Darkness". It also features an essay in which he dissects the New Wave-from the point of view of someone who understood and appreciated modernist literature—and two poems. Content: James Blish and the Beginning of Interpretation • essay by Gregory Feeley A Work of Art (1956) / novelette by James Blish Surface Tension [Pantropy] (1952) / novelette by James Blish The Bridge [Cities in Flight] (1952) / novelette by James Blish (variant of Bridge) Tomb Tapper (1956) / novelette by James Blish The Box (1949) / short story by James Blish The Oath (1960) / novelette by James Blish Beep (1954) / novelette by James Blish F Y I (1953) / short story by James Blish Common Time (1953) / short story by James Blish There Shall Be No Darkness (1950) / novelette by James Blish A Dusk of Idols (1961) / novelette by James Blish Earthman, Come Home (1953) / novelette by James Blish How Beautiful With Banners (1966) / short story by James Blish This Earth of Hours (1959) / novelette by James Blish Testament of Andros (1953) / novelette by James Blish A Style in Treason (1970) / novelette by James Blish A Case of Conscience (1953) / novella by James Blish Making Waves / short story by James Blish Two Poems • poem by James Blish .
Author
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr. In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians. Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–1944 as a medical technician in the U.S. Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer. He is credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. (The story was originally published in 1941, but that version did not contain the term; Blish apparently added it in a rewrite done for the anthology, which was first published in 1952.) Blish was married to the literary agent Virginia Kidd from 1947 to 1963. From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute. Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish became the first author to write short story collections based upon the classic TV series Star Trek. In total, Blish wrote 11 volumes of short stories adapted from episodes of the 1960s TV series, as well as an original novel, Spock Must Die! in 1970 — the first original novel for adult readers based upon the series (since then hundreds more have been published). He died midway through writing Star Trek 12; his wife, J.A. Lawrence, completed the book, and later completed the adaptations in the volume Mudd's Angels. Blish lived in Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead until the mid-1960s. In 1968, Blish emigrated to England, and lived in Oxford until his death in 1975. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of Kenneth Grahame. His name in Greek is Τζέημς Μπλις"
