James Blish

James Blish brought a clever intellectualism to space opera, mixing in ethics, genetic manipulation, and religion in works that helped define science fiction in the 40s and 50s.
He is considered one of the field's first important critics.

Born in New Jersey in 1921, he trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University and then became a medical technician for the U.S. Army during World War II. While developing his career as a professional writer, he worked as a science editor for a pharmaceutical company.

In 1940, he became a full-time writer creating groups of novels that were alternately space opera and novels weighing in on the price of knowledge.

In 1968, Blish moved to Oxford, England where he stayed until dying of lung cancer in 1975.

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