Judith Merrill (legal name Josephine Juliet Grossman) (1923-1997) was born on this date, January 21. She was an author, editor, Futurian, and political activist.

Merrill joined the Futurians, the New York science ficton club whose members included Fred Pohl (to whom she was briefly married in the late 1940s and early 1950s), C. M. Kornbluth (with whom she collaborated on several novels). After her divorce from Pohl, she lived with Walter M. Miller, Jr. for about six months.

Her first published science fiction story was “That Only a Mother” in the June 1948 issue of Astounding. Up unitl this timehe had been writing sports stories. “That Only a Mother” was one of many stories John Campbell published that dealt with the after effects of nuclear  bombs, and one of the best. It’s been reprinted a number of times.

Her most significane contribution as an editor was editing one of the earliest series of year’s best anthologioes. The series had several variations in name and ran for ten years. Merrill went outside the standard genre magazines to include stories from the slicks as well as literary journals. Merrill, along with James Blish and Damon Knight wanted to make science fiction respectable and improve the literary standards of the field. This was met with some resistance.

She eventually left the US for Canada over the Vietnam War.