Harlan Ellison Popular Books

Harlan Ellison Biography & Facts

Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Some of his best-known works include the 1967 Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", considered by some to be the single greatest episode of the Star Trek franchise (he subsequently wrote a book about the experience that includes his original teleplay), his A Boy and His Dog cycle (which was made into a film), and his short stories "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". He was also editor and anthologist for Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison won numerous awards, including multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Edgars. Biography Early life and career Ellison was born to a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 27, 1934, the son of Serita (née Rosenthal) and Louis Laverne Ellison, a dentist and jeweler. He had an older sister, Beverly (Rabnick), who was born in 1926. She died in 2010 without having spoken to him since their mother's funeral in 1976. His family subsequently moved to Painesville, Ohio, but returned to Cleveland in 1949, following his father's death. Ellison frequently ran away from home (in an interview with Tom Snyder he would later claim it was due to discrimination by his high school peers), taking an array of odd jobs—including, by age 18, "tuna fisherman off the coast of Galveston, itinerant crop-picker down in New Orleans, hired gun for a wealthy neurotic, nitroglycerine truck driver in North Carolina, short-order cook, cab driver, lithographer, book salesman, floorwalker in a department store, door-to-door brush salesman, and as a youngster, an actor in several productions at the Cleveland Play House". In 1947, a fan letter he wrote to Real Fact Comics became his first published writing.Ellison attended Ohio State University for 18 months (1951–53) before being expelled. He said the expulsion was for hitting a professor who had denigrated his writing ability, and over the next 20 or so years he sent that professor a copy of every story that he published.Ellison published two serialized stories in the Cleveland News during 1949, and he sold a story to EC Comics early in the 1950s. During this period, Ellison was an active and visible member of science fiction fandom, and published his own science fiction fanzines, such as Dimensions (which had previously been the Bulletin of the Cleveland Science Fantasy Society for the Cleveland Science Fantasy Society, and later Science Fantasy Bulletin.) Ellison moved to New York City in 1955 to pursue a writing career, primarily in science fiction. Over the next two years, he published more than 100 short stories and articles. The short stories collected as Sex Gang — which Ellison described in a 2012 interview as "mainstream erotica" — date from this period.He served in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1959. His first novel, Web of the City, was published during his military service in 1958, and he said that he had written the bulk of it while undergoing basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. After leaving the army, he relocated to Chicago, where he edited Rogue magazine. Hollywood and beyond Ellison moved to California in 1962 and began selling his writing to Hollywood. He co-wrote the screenplay for The Oscar (1966), starring Stephen Boyd and Elke Sommer. Ellison also sold scripts to many television shows: The Loretta Young Show (using the name Harlan Ellis),The Flying Nun, Burke's Law, Route 66, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Cimarron Strip, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Ellison's screenplay for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" has been considered the best of the 79 episodes in the series.In 1965, he participated in the second and third Selma to Montgomery marches, led by Martin Luther King Jr.In 1966, in an article that Esquire magazine later named as the best magazine piece ever written, the journalist Gay Talese wrote a profile of Frank Sinatra. The article, entitled "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", briefly describes a clash between Sinatra and a young Harlan Ellison, in which the crooner took exception to Ellison's boots during a billiards game.Ellison was hired as a writer for Walt Disney Studios, but was fired on his first day after Roy O. Disney overheard him in the studio commissary joking about making a pornographic animated film featuring Disney characters.Ellison continued to publish short fiction and nonfiction pieces in various publications, including some of his best known stories. "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (1965) is a celebration of civil disobedience against repressive authority. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967) is a story where five humans are tormented by an all-knowing computer throughout eternity. The story was the basis of a 1995 computer game; Ellison participated in the game's design and provided the voice of the god-computer AM. Another story, "A Boy and His Dog", examines the nature of friendship and love in a violent, post-apocalyptic world and was made into the 1975 film of the same name, starring Don Johnson.In 1967, Ellison edited the Dangerous Visions collection, which attracted 'special citation at the 26th World SF Convention for editing "the most significant and controversial SF book published in 1967."' In his introduction Isaac Asimov described it epitomising a 'second revolution' in Science Fiction as 'science receded and modern fictional techniques came to the fore.' From 1968 to 1970, Ellison wrote a regular column on television for the Los Angeles Free Press. Titled "The Glass Teat", Ellison's column examined television's impact on the politics and culture of the time, including its presentations of sex, politics, race, the Vietnam War, and violence. The essays were collected in two anthologies, The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on Television followed by The Other Glass Teat. Ellison served as creative consultant to the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone science fiction TV series and Babylon 5. As a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), he had voice-over credits for shows, including The Pirates of Dark Water, Mother Goose and Grimm, Space Cases, Phantom 2040, and Babylon 5, as well as making an onscreen appearance in the Babylon 5 episode "The Face of the Enemy". A frequent guest on the Los Angeles science fiction / fantasy culture radio show Hour 25, hosted by Mike Hodel, Ellison took over as host when Hodel died. Ellison's tenure was from May 1986 to June 1987.Ellison's short story "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" (1992) was selected for inclusion in the 1993 edition of The Best American Short.... Discover the Harlan Ellison popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Harlan Ellison books.

Best Seller Harlan Ellison Books of 2024

  • Die Stadt am Rande der Welt synopsis, comments

    Die Stadt am Rande der Welt

    Harlan Ellison

    Treffen Sie Jack the Ripper!Jack the Ripper findet sich plötzlich in einer sterilen Metropole in der Zukunft wieder, ohne die geringste Ahnung, wie er dort hingekommen ist. Jeder k...

  • Shadow Show synopsis, comments

    Shadow Show

    Sam Weller & Mort Castle

    “Ray Bradbury is without a doubt, one of this, or any century’s greatest and most imaginative writers. Shadow Show, a book of truly great stories, is the perfect tribute to America...

  • Ein Junge und sein Hund synopsis, comments

    Ein Junge und sein Hund

    Harlan Ellison

    Weißt du, was Liebe ist? Vic tut alles, um in seiner postapokalyptischen, nuklear verseuchten Welt zu überleben. Ihm zur Seite steht sein treuer Gefährte Blood, ein telepathisch be...

  • Cthulhu 2000 synopsis, comments

    Cthulhu 2000

    Jim Turner, Harlan Ellison, Thomas Ligotti, Poppy Z. Brite & F. Paul Wilson

    A host of horror and fantasy’s top authors captures the spirit of supreme supernatural storyteller H. P. Lovecraft with eighteen chilling contemporary tales that would have made th...

  • Ich muss schreien und habe keinen Mund synopsis, comments

    Ich muss schreien und habe keinen Mund

    Harlan Ellison

    Ich denke, also bin ich!Der Weltuntergang liegt bereits über einhundert Jahre zurück, ausgelöst durch einen verheerenden Weltkrieg von intelligenten Supercomputern. Die Überlebende...

  • The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders synopsis, comments

    The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders

    Lord Dunsany

    An inspiration to many for his style and prose, Lord Dunsany was a pioneer for fantasy fiction, inspiring such famous writers as H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Neil Gaiman ...

  • Limbo synopsis, comments

    Limbo

    Bernard Wolfe

    In the aftermath of an atomic war, a new international movement of pacifism has arisen. Multitudes of young men have chosen to curb their aggressive instincts through voluntary amp...

  • In the Company of Sherlock Holmes synopsis, comments

    In the Company of Sherlock Holmes

    Leslie S. Klinger & Laurie R. King

     In the followup to the nationally bestselling A Study in Sherlock, a stunning new volume of original stories from awardwinning Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. ...

  • Die bessere Welt synopsis, comments

    Die bessere Welt

    Harlan Ellison

    Wie viel Leid kann ein Mensch ertragen?Willis Kaw stellt sich diese Frage immer und immer wieder: Als er feststellt, dass seine Frau ihn nicht liebt und er sie auch nicht; als sei...

  • Future Crime synopsis, comments

    Future Crime

    Ben Bova

    Future Crime is a collection of six short stories and two novels by reknowned science fiction author Ben Bova!From the Foreword: "Will crime always be with us? Yes, in the sense th...

  • Ich muss schreien und habe keinen Mund synopsis, comments

    Ich muss schreien und habe keinen Mund

    Harlan Ellison

    Ich denke, also bin ich109 Jahre nach dem Ende des Dritten Weltkriegs leben nur noch fünf Menschen. Sie hausen in unterirdischen Stollen, immer am Rande des Verhungerns, und werden...

  • Croatoan synopsis, comments

    Croatoan

    Harlan Ellison

    Die Welt unter der WeltGabe, ein junger Anwalt, wird von seiner Freundin Carol in die Kanalisation geschickt. Carol hatte gerade eine Abtreibung – illegal, auf dem Küchentisch , un...

  • Ich suche Kadak synopsis, comments

    Ich suche Kadak

    Harlan Ellison

    Eine spirituelle Suche der dritten ArtDer Planet Zsouchmuhn wird von Juden bevölkert – keinen Menschen, sondern Aliens jüdischen Glaubens. Der Planet muss jedoch evakuiert werden, ...

  • Das Nachtleben auf Cissalda synopsis, comments

    Das Nachtleben auf Cissalda

    Harlan Ellison

    Wie ist das Nachtleben auf Cissalda? Temponaut Enoch Mirren kehrt von seiner Zeitreise zurück – und als die Wissenschaftler auf der Erde die Zeitkapsel öffnen, macht er unsittliche...

  • Zauberhafte Maggie Moneyeyes synopsis, comments

    Zauberhafte Maggie Moneyeyes

    Harlan Ellison

    Viel Glück!Kostner hat am BlackjackTisch in Vegas alles verspielt – bis auf seinen letzten Dollar. Weil sein Leben ohnehin keinen Sinn mehr hat, seit ihn die Liebe seines Lebens ve...