James Blish (1921-1975)

James Blish played a key role in the transformation of pulp science fiction into more mature and eloquent forms. Like many of the genre’s writers, he began as a fan in the 1930s, when he belonged to the well-known New York fan group the Futurians, and became friendly with such writers as Damon Knight and C.M. Kornbluth.

Blish worked hard to develop his craft, but it was not until the 1950s, with his "Okie" (or "Cities in Flight") stories, that he made his mark. Appearing in Astounding Science Fiction, these tales featured flying cities, powered by antigravity devices called Spindizzies, moving through the galaxy looking for work. Underpinning the pulp-style plotting of much of the series was a serious and pessimistic interest in the cyclic nature of history. The cycle is carried, at the end of The Triumph of Time (1958), from the death of our universe to the birth of the next, in a memorable passage where the character Mayor Amalfi becomes, literally, the deep structure of the new universe.

The years 1950 through 1958 were extraordinarily productive for Blish, and many of his best short stories were published in this period, including "Beanstalk" (1952), "Surface Tension" (1952), "Common Time" (1953), which is probably his most praised story, "Beep" (1954) and "A Work of Art" (1956). He also published his first novel in book form, Jack of Eagles (1952), which was followed by The Warriors of Day (1953).

In The Seedling Stars (1957) and other stories of the period, Blish introduced biological themes which had previously been rather neglected in science fiction in favor of the "harder" sciences of physics and astronomy. In addition, Case of Conscience (1959), which won the Hugo award for Best Novel, was one of the first serious attempts in science fiction to deal with religion, and remains one of the most sophisticated in its tale of a priest faced with a planet whose inhabitants seem free of the concept of original sin.

Blish's later years were preoccupied with Star Trek books, as well as with the encouragement of younger writers through the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference, the Science Fiction Writers of America, and the UK's Science Fiction Foundation, each of which he helped found.

Selected Bibliography:
Jack of Eagles (1952)
The Warriors of Day (1953)
The Seedling Stars (1957)
Case of Conscience (1959)
Titian’s Daughter (1961)
Cities in Flight (1970)
The Best of James Blish (1971)


Courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Copyright © John Clute and Peter Nicholls 1993. 1999, published by Orbit, an imprint of the Time Warner Book Group UK.