A Case of Conscience
| Title | A Case of Conscience |
| Year for Search | 1958 |
| Authors | Blish, James [Benjamin](1921-75) |
| Date Published | 1958 |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Place Published | New York |
| Keywords | Male author, US author |
| Annotation | Two societies are presented, Lithia, a eutopia, and earth, a dystopia. Earth, which is called the Shelter Society because it emerged from entire cities moving underground as bomb shelters is stratified and hedonistic but with considerable alienation. Lithia is a eutopia that is entirely rational. The novel’s primary protagonist is a Jesuit who concludes that Lithia is a creation of Satan. |
| Additional Publishers | U.K. ed. London: Faber & Faber, 1959. Rpt. New York: Walker & Co., 1969; Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1963; in The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels. Comp. Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Arbor House, 1980), 492-547; London: Millennium, 1999; and in American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-1958. Ed. Gary K. Wolfe (New York: Library of America, 2012), 373-553, with a “Biographical Note” (809-10), a “Note on the Text” (815-16), and “Notes” (823-29) and additional material on line at loa.org/sciencefiction. An illus. 300-copy edition has been published Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2021. Originally published abridged in If 2.4 (September 1953): 4-51, 116-17. |
| Holding Institutions | L, Merril, NjR, PSt, SFF, UC-Riv |
| Author Note | (1921-75) |
| Full Text | 1958 Blish, James [Benjamin] (1921-75). A Case of Conscience. New York: Ballantine Books, 1958. U.K. ed. London: Faber & Faber, 1959. Rpt. New York: Walker & Co., 1969; Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1963; in The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels. Comp. Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Arbor House, 1980), 492-547; London: Millennium, 1999; and in American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-1958. Ed. Gary K. Wolfe (New York: Library of America, 2012), 373-553, with a “Biographical Note” (809-10), a “Note on the Text” (815-16), and “Notes” (823-29) and additional material online at loa.org/sciencefiction. An illus. 300-copy edition has been published Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2021. Originally published abridged in If 2.4 (September 1953): 4-51, 116-17. L, Merril, NjR, PSt, SFF, UC-Riv Two societies are presented, Lithia, a eutopia, and earth, a dystopia. Earth, which is called the Shelter Society because it emerged from entire cities moving underground as bomb shelters is stratified and hedonistic but with considerable alienation. Lithia is a eutopia that is entirely rational. The novel’s primary protagonist is a Jesuit who concludes that Lithia is a creation of Satan. |
