Editing James Blish (section)

=== ''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>