The Issue at Hand

For many years, hiding under a cloak of anonymity, the most penetrating critic of the field of magazine science fiction was known as "William Atheling, Jr." It soon became a challenge to guess his real identity. And that was no easy game, for Atheling's dissection did not spare even his other ego, the noted science-fiction writer James Blish.

Having shed his protective covering, Mr. Blish has assembled many of the Atheling papers and edited them into the present book. While it covers princip...