The Issue at Hand

William Atheling, Jr. was the pseudonym under which James Blish wrote criticism. The Issue at Hand (1964) collects the columns he wrote in that guise for fanzines during the early 1950s-early 1960s. This book concentrated on the SF magazines.

There was an additional collection, More Issues at Hand (1970), that concentrated on SF books.

The two Atheling books along with Damon Knight's In Search of Wonder represent the earliest systematic, high-quality criticism of the SF field.

Both books were published by Advent:Publishers.

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Publication

1964

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