Judith Merril

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Science Fiction Writer
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Judith Merril
Pseudonym(s):	Cyril Judd
Born:	January 21, 1923 New York City, New York
Died:	September 12, 1997 Toronto, Canada
Occupation(s):	Novelist, short story author, editor
Genre(s):	Science fiction
Debut work(s):	"That Only a Mother"
Influenced:	Karl Schroeder

Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 - September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer and political activist.

Her first paid writing was in other genres, but in her first few years of writing published science fiction she wrote her three novels (all but the first in collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth) and some stories. Her roughly four decades in that genre also included writing 26 published short stories, and editing a similar number of anthologies.

She was born in Boston; after her father's suicide during her grade-school years, her mother found a job at Bronx House and moved them to the borough of the Bronx in New York City. In her mid-teens, she pursued Zionism and Marxism.

In 1939, she graduated from Morris High School[1] at 16, and rethought her politics under the influence of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. She married Dan Zissman the next year, less than four months into a relationship that started through Trotskyist activities. Their daughter Merril Zissman was born in December 1942. The couple separated about 1945; in 1946 Frederik Pohl began living with her. After her divorce from Zissman became final, she married Pohl, both during 1948.

She began writing professionally, especially short stories about sports, starting in 1945, before publishing her first science-fiction story in 1948.

Her second child, Ann, was born in 1950; in 1952 she separated from Pohl, and their divorce completed the next year, in which she also lived with Walter Miller for six months. Her third marriage came in 1960, devolving into separation, in 1963, but never a final divorce.

She began editing science fiction short story anthologies in 1950 -- especially a popular "Year's Best" story-anthology series of that ran from 1956 to 1967 -- and published her last in 1985. In her editorial introductions, talks and other writings, she actively argued that science fiction should no longer be isolated but become part of the literary mainstream. Science fiction scholar Rob Latham noted in 2005 that "throughout the 1950s, Merril, along with fellow SF authors James Blish and Damon Knight had taken the lead in promoting higher literary standards and a greater sense of professionalism within the field" (p.203) -- especially by establishing an annual series of writers' conferences in Milford, Pennsylvania, where Merril then lived. Manuscripts were workshopped at these avid gatherings, thus encouraging more care in the planning of stories, and a sense of solidarity was promoted, eventually leading to the formation of the Science Fiction Writers Association" (Latham, 2005, p. 204). However, "disaffected authors began griping about a `Milford Mafia' that was endangering SF's unique virtues by imposing literary standards essentially alien to the field" (Latham, 2005, p. 204).

In the late 1960s, citing what she called undemocratic suppression of anti-war activities by the U.S. government, she moved to Canada.

In 1970 she began an endowment at the Toronto Public Library for the collection of all science fiction published in the English language. She donated all of the unpublished manuscripts in her possession to the library, she received a small annual stipend, and when impoverished, she frequently lived in her office at the library, sleeping on a cot. This was initially named the Spaced Out Library, but renamed in her last years to the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy.

She starred as the introducer ("the UnDoctor") in Canadian broadcasts of Doctor Who, 1978-1981, presenting short (3-7 minute) philosophical commentaries on the show's themes

Merril became a Canadian citizen in 1976. She became active in the Writers' Union. When the Union debated at its annual meeting whether people could write about other genders and ethnic groups, she exclaimed "Who will speak for the aliens?" which closed the debate.

From the mid-1970s until her death, Merrill spent much time in the Canadian peace movement, including traveling to Ottawa dressed as a witch in order to symbolically hex Parliament for allowing American cruise missile testing over Canada.

She also remained active in the SF world as a commentator and mentor. Her lifetime of work was honoured by the International Authors Festival at Harbourfront, Toronto.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (the renamed SFWA) made Merril its Author Emeritus for 1997.

In contemplation of her death, she left a sizeable sum of money to hold a celebratory/memorial party at Toronto's Bamboo Club. An organized editor to the end, she prepared detailed lists of who should call whom when she finally passed away.

[edit] Bibliography (partial)

• Novel: Shadow on the Hearth, 1950
• Novel: Gunner Cade (writing with C. M. Kornbluth as 'Cyril Judd')
• Collection: Daughters of Earth and Other Stories
• Collection: Survival Ship and Other Stories 1973
• Collection: The Best of Judith Merril, 1976 ISBN 0-446-86058-1
• Short story: That Only a Mother, 1948
• Anthology: The Year's Best S-F, 1st-11th, 1956-1966
• Anthology: SF12, 1967
• Collection: Homecalling and Other Stories: The Complete Solo Short SF of Judith Merril, Edited by Elisabeth Carey 2005 NESFA Press ISBN 1-886778-54-X
• Anthology: Tesseracts (editor)

[edit] Reference

Merril, Judith; Emily Pohl-Weary (2002). Better to have loved : the life of Judith Merril (paperback) (in english), Toronto: Between the Lines, 282p. ISBN 1-896357-57-1. 

Latham, Rob. 2005. "The New Wave." Pp. 202-216 in A Companion to Science Fiction, edited by David Seed. Oxford: Blackwell.

What If? A Film about Judith Merril. full-length documentary. Writer/director: Helene Klodawsky. Producer: Imageries, Montreal. First shown on Canadian Space Channel, February 1999.

[edit] External links

• The Merril Collection
• Judithmerril.com - includes detailed biography
• Judith Merril at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database