Judith Merril was a pioneer of twentieth-century science fiction, a prolific author, and editor. She was also a passionate social and political activist. In fact, her life was a constant adventure within the alternative and experimental worlds of science fiction, left politics, and Canadian literature. Better to Have Loved is illustrated with original art works, covers from classic science fiction magazines, period illustrations, and striking photography.

Remembered as one of science fiction's best editors, Judith Merril (1923-1997) also wrote prolifically and stands as one of the genre's central figures in the United States and Canada. This work offers a much-needed literary biography and critical commentary on Merril's groundbreaking science fiction, anthologies, reviews, memoir and other endeavors. A thorough account of Merril's 50-year career, it is a valuable source for students of science fiction, women's life writing, women's contributions to frontier mythology and women's activism.

"They" worried about the impression she'd make. Who could imagine that she'd fall in love, passionately, the way others of her blood must have done? Who was this strange girl who had been born in this place—and still it wasn't her home?...

Johnny Wendt is the sole survivor of an ill-fated expedition to Mars. He doesn't know why he survived or why the mission was so deadly. He has no clue that he has may have brought the reason back to Earth with him!

"Although Judith Merril is best known for her short fiction and her novels (in collaboration with C. M. Kornbluth), she wrote a great deal of nonfiction. She wrote about SF fandom. She wrote about space and space exploration. And she wrote about science fiction. This volume collects Merril's nonfiction from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Extrapolation, and her Year's Best anthologies. In these collected pieces, Merril works through and develops her definition of S-F and what makes S-F good. She chronicles changes within the genre, including the emergence of the New Wave. And she provides a history of the genre: its writers, its publishers, and its magazines"--