Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril

Joseph Jones is a reference librarian in the Koerner Library at the
University of British Columbia.

Closest perhaps to autobiography, this embodiment of Judith Merril’s
notion of memoir has found posthumous realization through her
granddaughter Emily Pohl-Weary. Reproductions of photos, drawings,
documents, and cover art unsettle the boundary between text and generous
margin to make a kind of album out of this almost-square volume.

Readers are most likely to come to the book for a portrayal of the
science-fiction writers’ community of the 1950s, where Judith Merril
stood out among the men. Notably covered are: Theodore Sturgeon, Cyril
Kornbluth, Fritz Leiber, Walter Miller, Mark Clifton, Isaac Asimov. The
proportions of the volume emphasize this period, Merril in her 20s and
30s. Less a narrative than a collection (though managing a chronological
coherence), the work takes shape as memoirs of Merril’s loves
“intertwined with the excitement of ideas.” Many of the loves are
people, including three husbands, two daughters, and a string of
relationships. In some of the latter, writing is
everything—coauthorship with Kornbluth, correspondence with Clifton.

The 26 chapters blend six or so left by Merril, much correspondence,
tape recordings, and at least eight pieces written between 1945 and
1997. Given Merril’s own significant roles as editor and anthologist,
this seems apt. Two paragraphs of Emily’s preface detail consequential
gaps and omissions. The text itself throws up others, such as Merril’s
third husband appearing only in a prominent photograph and its caption.

The book and Merril’s life divide at her 1968 migration to Canada
(Chapter 15, age 45). Much of the Canadian content resolves into
impressions of Toronto, involvement with Rochdale, connections with
Vietnam war resisters, and the legacy of her Spaced Out Library.

Beyond science fiction and encounter with Canada, other thematic
interests stand out: Jewishness, the place of women in postwar America,
the patterns of family dynamics, technological change, the context of
social activism, some sketches of literary Toronto, cultural difference
in London, Japan, and Jamaica.

Enhancing the reference value of the work are a biographical chronology
for Merril, a listing of her publications, a collection of brief
biographical sketches for people significant in her life, and an index.