Blish was born on 23 May 1921 at East Orange, New Jersey. While in high school, Blish self-published a fanzine using a hectograph, called The Planeteer. The fanzine ran for six issues. Blish attended meetings of the Futurian Science Fiction Society in New York City, during this period.
Blish was among the first literary critics of science fiction, and he judged works in the genre by the standards applied to "serious" literature. He took to task his fellow authors for deficiencies, such as bad grammar and a misunderstanding of scientific concepts, and the magazine editors, who accepted and published such material without editorial intervention. His critiques were published in "fanzines" in the 1950s under the pseudonym William Atheling, Jr. The essays were collected in The Issue at Hand (1964) and More Issues at Hand (1970). Reviewing The Issue at Hand, Algis Budrys said that Atheling had, along with Damon Knight, "transformed the reviewer's trade in this field". He described the persona of Atheling as "acidulous, assertive, categorical, conscientious and occasionally idiosyncratic". Blish was a fan of the works of James Branch Cabell, and for a time edited Kalki, the journal of the Cabell Society. In his works of science fiction, James Blish developed many ideas and terms which have influenced other writers and on occasion have been adopted more widely, such as faster than light communication via the dirac computer, introduced in the short story "Beep" (1954). The dirac is comparable to Ursula K. Le Guin's ansible. Blish is also credited with coining the term gas giant, in the story "Solar Plexus" as it appeared in the anthology Beyond Human Ken, edited by Judith Merril. The story was originally published in 1941, but did not contain the term. Blish reworked the story, change the description of a large magnetic field to "a magnetic field of some strength nearby, one that didn't belong to the invisible gas giant revolving half a million miles away".

Q: Can you tell me about the general critical reception to Jame's Bilsh's work?
A: In his works of science fiction, James Blish developed many ideas and terms which have influenced other writers and on occasion have been adopted more widely,

Q: What is the greatest legacy of James Blish?
A: James Blish developed many ideas and terms which have influenced other writers and on occasion have been adopted more widely,
Who's work has been influenced by James Blish?
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