A fan of scifi during the 1930ΓÇÖs, James Blish published his first short story, ΓÇ£Emergency RefuelingΓÇ¥ in 1940 at the age of 19. A member of the Futurians, a New York fan group, Blish completed his microbiology studies at Rutgers in 1942, and served as a medical lab technician in the Army during World War II. Following the war. Blish continued his academic studies in zoology at Columbia before turning his full attentions to writing.
Three of his early works were written under the pen names of Donald Laverty, John MacDougal and Arthur Merlyn. Blish broke through with the first of his Okie stories ­ stories set in flying cities that were powered by antigravity machines called
