ABSTRACT
A prominent American science fiction (sf) star in the late 1960s when she left the US and moved to Toronto, Judith Merril's ability to locate and represent her emotional experiences and interactions with urban landscapes was out of the ordinary. Sf writers tend to focus on the environment, to ask What If?' and to work in dialogue with others. This chapter explores Merril as a case study of the ways in which connections between space, time and emotion have come together in the making of a human life. She relocated and moved around in the 1960s and 1970s, curious, energized and optimistic, always in pursuit of excitement of ideas' and seeking new portals for discovery. Merril's involvement with translation of Japanese sf stories into English for a major book project with her as editor began in a typical Merril way, informally.
