J. A. Lawrence

Judith Ann Blish (née Lawrence; born December 14, 1934) is an American sketch artist and short fiction writer, known professionally as Judith L. Blish, Judy Blish, and J. A. Lawrence. From 1967 to 1978, she co-wrote a sequence of short story adaptations based on episodes of Star Trek with her husband, James Blish.

Since 1975, Lawrence has been active in preserving and promoting her husband's work.

Early life

Lawrence was born on December 14, 1934, to pulp-fiction writers Jack Lawrence and Muriel Bodkin.

She and James Blish met sometime after his divorce from Virginia Kidd, in 1963. Lawrence and Blish married in November 1964. In 1968, she and Blish moved to Oxford, England. Her mother followed sometime later.

After her husband's death, in 1975, Lawrence spent considerable time in Athens, Greece. She settled there permanently in 1977.

Career

Lawrence illustrated the covers to editions of Black Easter and The Day After Judgment. She also sketched the cover of Fugue for a Darkening Island by Christopher Priest. She contributed two covers to the Kalki: Studies in James Branch Cabell fanzine, for which she served as Art Director from 1967 to 1971. Lawrence created the cover for the April 1972 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Lawrence's short fiction was regularly published by Galaxy Science Fiction, and was included in several short-fiction anthologies.

In 1975, James Blish was unable to complete his commission to adapt Star Trek episodes for Bantam Books. Lawrence completed the adaptations which were published in 1977. Lawrence and her mother, Muriel, had contributed to Blish's Star Trek adaptations since 1972. However, Lawrence was not credited until Star Trek 12 (1977). The last volume in the series, Mudd's Angels, was released in 1978. It included two episode adaptations credited to James Blish that featured the popular Harry Mudd character. Included was an original novella by Lawrence, The Business, as Usual, During Altercations. In the introduction to Mudd's Angels, it is stated Blish left the adaptations incomplete and Lawrence "finished them."