Editing James Blish (section)

== 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 ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding Science Fiction]]'', appearing in the October 1946 issue, earning Blish national circulation for the first time.

=== Pantropy (1942–1956) ===
[[File:Two_complete_science_adventure_books_1951sum_n3.jpg|thumb|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".<ref name="Kirkus Big Ideas" /> He would revisit, revise, and often expand on previously written stories. An example is "Sunken Universe" published in ''[[Super Science Stories]]'' in 1942. The story reappeared in ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'' as "Surface Tension", in an altered form in 1952. The premise emphasized Blish's understanding of microbiology, and featured microscopic humans engineered to live on a hostile planet's shallow pools of water. The story proved to be among Blish's more popular and was anthologized in the first volume of [[Robert Silverberg]]{{'s}} ''[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964|The Science Fiction Hall of Fame]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=James|first=Blish|title=The Science Fiction Hall of Fame|date=Jan 1976|publisher=Avon|isbn=9780380007950|editor-last=Silverberg|editor-first=Robert|volume=1|location=New York|pages=477–514|chapter=Surface Tension}}</ref> It was also anthologized in ''[[The Big Book of Science Fiction]]'' (2016), edited by [[Ann VanderMeer|Ann]] and [[Jeff VanderMeer]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Big Book of Science Fiction: 9781101910092 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/248846/the-big-book-of-science-fiction-by-edited-by-ann-and-jeff-vandermeer/|access-date=2020-06-27|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com|language=en-US}}</ref>

The world of microscopic humans 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".<ref name="Kirkus Big Ideas" />

=== ''Cities in Flight'' (1950–1958) ===
{{Main|Cities in Flight}}
''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'' asserts that not until the 1950s, and the Okie sequence of stories beginning their run, "did it become clear [Blish] would become a [science fiction] writer of unusual depth".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/blish_james|title=Authors : Blish, James|date=2018-03-11|website=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]|access-date=2020-02-19}}</ref> 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 ''[[The Decline of the West|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 [[Spindizzy (Cities in Flight)|spindizzies]], a type of [[anti-gravity]] engine. The premise and plot reflected Blish's feelings on the state of [[Western culture|western civilization]], and his personal politics.<ref name="Kirkus Big Ideas" /> The first two stories, "Okie", and "Bindlestiff", were published in 1950, by ''Astounding''. "Sargasso of Lost Cities" appeared in ''Two Complete Science-Adventure Books'' in April 1953. "Earthman, Come Home" followed a few months later, published by ''Astounding''. In 1955, Blish collected the four stories together into an omnibus titled ''Earthman, Come Home'', published by Putnam.

More stories followed: In 1956, ''They Shall Have Stars'', which edited together "Bridge" and "At Death's End", and in 1958, Blish published ''The Triumph of Time''. Four years later, he published a new Okies novel, ''A Life for the Stars''. The Okies sequence was edited together and published as ''Cities In Flight'' (1970).

Clute notes, "the brilliance of ''Cities in Flight'' does not lie in the assemblage of its parts, but in the momentum of the ideas embodied in it (albeit sometimes obscurely)."<ref name="Kirkus Big Ideas" />
[[File:Two_complete_science_adventure_books_1953spr_n8.jpg|thumb|The novella ''Sargasso of Lost Cities'', Blish's third ''Cities in Flight'' story, was published in ''[[Two Complete Science-Adventure Books]]'' in 1953. ]]

=== ''After Such Knowledge'' (1958–1971) ===
Blish continued to rework older stories, and did so for one of his best known works, ''[[A Case of Conscience]]'' (1958). The novel originated as a novella, originally published in an issue of ''[[If (magazine)|If]]'', in 1953. The story follows a Jesuit priest, Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez, who visits the planet Lithia as a technical member of an expedition. While on the planet they discover a race of bipedal reptilians that have perfected morality in what Ruiz-Sanchez says is "the absence of God", and theological complications ensue. The book is one of the first major works in the genre to explore religion and its implications. It was the first of a series including ''[[Doctor Mirabilis (novel)|Doctor Mirabilis]]'' (1964) -- during whose preparatory research Blish taught himself Latin, to assist reading historic documents [cite: personal conversations with JB] -- and the two-part story ''[[Black Easter]]'' (1968) and ''[[The Day After Judgment]]'' (1971). The latter two were collected as ''The Devil's Day'' (1980). An omnibus of all four entries in the series was published by Legend in 1991, titled ''After Such Knowledge'' (a reference to T.S.Eliot: "After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" [cite: personal conversations with JB]).

''A Case of Conscience'' won the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was collected as part of Library of America's omnibus ''American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-1958''.<ref name="NESFA Longlist">{{Cite web|url=http://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1959.html|title=The Long List of Hugo Awards, 1959|website=[[NESFA]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517071616/https://www.nesfa.org/data/LL/Hugos/hugos1959.html|archive-date=2019-05-17|access-date=2020-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Blish|first=James|title=American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-58|date=2012-09-27|publisher=[[The Library of America]]|isbn=9781598531596|editor-last=Wolfe|editor-first=Gary K.|volume=228|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americansciencef0000unse/page/373 373–554]|chapter=A Case of Conscience|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americansciencef0000unse/page/373}}</ref>

=== ''Star Trek'' (1967–1977) ===
{{Main|Star Trek (Bantam Books)}}
Bantam Books commissioned Blish to adapt episodes of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|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.<ref name="Ketterer" />{{Rp|25}}

The first original novel for adults based on the television series, ''[[Spock Must Die!]]'' (1970),<ref>''Spock Must Die'' was preceded by ''[[Mission to Horatius]]'' by [[Mack Reynolds]], but the latter novel was written for children.</ref> 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!''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ayers|first=Jeff|title=Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion|title-link=Voyages of Imagination|date=2006-11-14|publisher=[[Pocket Books]]|isbn=9781416503491|location=New York|pages=9–11}}</ref> 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!''.<ref name="Ketterer">{{Cite book|last=Ketterer|first=David|title=Imprisoned in a Tesseract: The Life and Work of James Blish|date=September 1987|publisher=[[Kent State University Press]]|isbn=9780873383349|location=Kent, Ohio|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/imprisonedintess00kett}}</ref>{{Rp|21}}