Blish, James

WRITER (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)
BORN 23 May 1921, East Orange, New Jersey - DIED 30 Jul 1975, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
BIRTH NAME Blish, James Benjamin
CAUSE OF DEATH lung cancer
GRAVE LOCATION Oxford, Oxfordshire: Holywell Cemetery, St. Cross Road (next to St. Cross Church) (near the grave of Kenneth Grahame)

James Benjamin Blish was educated as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University. From 1942 to 1944 he served in the army as a medical technician. After the war he became science editor for Pfizer until he became a full time professional writer.

In 1947 he married literary agent Virginia Kidd (1921-2003. They divorced in 1963. From 1962 to 1968 he worked for the Tobacco Institute. He lived in Milford, Pennsylvania before he emigrated to England in 1968. There he lived in Oxford.

He was the first author to write short stories based on the Star Trek television series. Eleven stories were adapted from exisiting episodes and 'Spock Must Die!" (1970) was an original story.

He died of lung cancer when he was writing another his 12th adaption of a Star Trek episode. His second wife Judith Ann Lawrence (b.1940), whom he had married in 1964, finished the story and wrote another Star Trek adaption afterwards.

Images

The grave of James Benjamin Blish at Holywell Cemetery, Oxford.
Picture by Androom (21 Oct 2012)

 

Sources
James Blish - Wikipedia (EN)


Bloch-Bauer, Adele

Published: 04 Nov 2012
Last update: 14 Mar 2022