Harlan Ellison

Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934) is an American science fiction writer.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ellison is a prolific speculative fiction writer of short stories and novellas. His stories are influenced by a number of literary genres, especially science-fiction, fantasy, horror and psychological drama.

Ellison has written for several science fiction television series, including the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone, the original Outer Limits series, and Star Trek. He has received many awards for both his fiction and television work. He served as creative consultants to the science fiction TV series The Twilight Zone (1980s version) and Babylon 5. The screenplay for his projected television series The Starlost was given a Writers Guild Award[?], though the actual series was so altered by the producers that Ellison had his name removed from the credits.

One of his most famous stories is '"Repent, Harlequin!" said the Ticktockman', a celebration of civil disobedience against repressive authority. He has also written large amounts of non-fiction, including a book about his experience joining a gang (as research for a novel) in the late 1950s, Memos from Purgatory (that was adapted as an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour in the early 1960s), and several collections of essays about the TV and film industries. For many years media studies classes have used The Glass Teat[?] in television criticism classes.

He also edited the extremely influential science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions (1967), which collected stories commissioned by Ellison, accompanied by commentary-filled biographical sketches of the authors. He challenged the authors to write stories at the edge of the genre, and Dangerous Visions is widely considered the greatest and most influential SF anthology of all time. Many of the stories broke past the traditional Campbellian form, influenced and inspired by the experimentations in the popular literature of the time, such as the Beats[?]. This was followed up by Again Dangerous Visions (1972).

Ellison has a reputation for being outspoken, and has rubbed some people the wrong way. Friend Isaac Asimov said "he has no sense of tact whatsoever." Indeed, there are many stories of confrontations with Ellison, sometimes even bordering on violence. His reputation got him a spot on the fledgeling Sci-Fi Network[?] where he was given a soapbox on international television to express his views on (presumably) whatever he wanted. It was eventually dropped. (does anyone know why?)

He is active in the science-fiction community (fandom), sometimes appearing at science-fiction conventions

Ellison recently gained attention for his April 24, 2000 lawsuit against Stephen Robertson for posting four of his stories to the Usenet newsgroup alt.binaries.e-book without authorization. Included as defendants in the lawsuit were AOL and RemarQ[?], ISPs whose involvement was running Usenet servers carrying the group in question and for failing to stop the alleged copyright infringers in accordance with the "Notice and Takedown Procedure" outlined in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The case is currently being tried in US Circuit Court.

Table of contents 1 Books of Short Stories 2 Novels 3 Published screenplays and teleplays 4 Nonfiction 5 Anthologies edited 6 Short Stories 7 Awards won 7.1 Bradbury award[?] 7.2 Bram Stoker Award[?] 7.3 Hugo award 7.4 Locus poll award[?] 7.5 Nebula award 7.6 Additional reading

Books of Short Stories

• Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation[?]
• Deathbird stories[?]
• The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World[?]
• Approaching Oblivion[?]
• Love Ain't Nothing but Sex Misspelled[?] (fiction and nonfiction)
• Strange Wine[?]
• Shatterday[?]
• Stalking the Nightmare[?]
• Angry Candy[?]
• Slippage[?]

Novels

• Spider Kiss[?]
• Rumble[?] (also titled Web of the City)

Published screenplays and teleplays

• I, Robot (with Isaac Asimov)
• City on the Edge of Forever[?] (Star Trek episode, original screenplay, with commentary)

See also Phoenix without Ashes, the novelization by Edward Bryant[?] of the screenplay for the pilot episode of The Starlost, which includes a lengthy afterword by Ellison describing what happened in the production of that series.

Nonfiction

• Memos from Purgatory[?]
• The Glass Teat[?] (essays on television, 1968-1970)
• The Other Glass Teat[?] (essays on television, 1970-1972)
• Harlan Ellison's Watching[?]

Anthologies edited

• Dangerous Visions (1968; ISBN 0425061760)
• Dangerous Visions 3[?] (1971; ISBN 0722132999)
• Again Dangerous Visions[?] (1972; ISBN 0425061825)
• Medea: Harlan's World[?] (1985; ISBN 0932096360): an experiment in collaborative science-fictional world-building, featuring contributions by Hal Clement, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. LeGuin and others

Short Stories

• A Boy and his Dog (made into a film)
• Soldier - filmed as a Twilight Zone episode. The film The Terminator had sufficient story element similarities Ellison filed a lawuit against Cameron. Later prints of the film acknowledge the debt to Ellison.

Awards won

Bradbury award[?]

The Bradbury Award in 2000 went to Harlan Ellison and Yuri Rasovsky.

Bram Stoker Award[?]

• The Essential Ellison (best collection, 1987)
• Harlan Ellison's Watching[?] (best non-fiction, 1989 - tie)
• Mefisto in Onyx[?] (best novella, 1993 - tie)
• Chatting With Anubis[?] (best short story, 1995)
• Life achievement award, 1995
• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream[?] (best other media - audio, 1999)

Hugo award

• [["Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman]] (best short fiction, 1966)
• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream[?] (best short story, 1968)
• City on the Edge of Forever[?] (best dramatic presentation, 1968)
• Dangerous Visions (special award, 1968)
• The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World[?] (best short story, 1969)
• Again, Dangerous Visions[?] (special award for excellence in anthologizing, 1972)
• The Deathbird[?] (best novelette, 1974)
• Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans[?]: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W (best novelette, 1975)
• Jeffty is Five[?] (best short story, 1978)
• Paladin of the Lost Hour[?] (best novellette, 1986)

Locus poll award[?]

• The Region Between[?] (best short fiction, 1970)
• Basilisk (best short fiction, 1972)
• Again, Dangersous Visions[?] (best anthology, 1972)
• The Deathbird[?] (best short fiction. 1974)
• Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans[?]: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W (best novelette, 1975)
• Croatoan[?] (best short story, 1976)
• Jeffty is Five[?] (best short story, 1978)
• Count the Clock That Tells the Time[?] (best short story, 1979)
• Djinn, No Chaser[?] (best novellette, 1983)
• Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed[?] (best related non-fiction, 1985)
• Medea: Harlan's World[?] (best anthology, 1986)
• Paladin of the Lost Hour[?] (best novelette, 1986)
• With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole[?] (best short story, 1986)
• Angry Candy[?] (best collection, 1989)
• The Function of Dream Sleep[?] (best novellette, 1989)
• Eidolons[?] (best short story, 1989)
• Mefisto in Onyx[?] (best novella, 1994)
• Slippage[?] (best collection, 1998)

Nebula award

• [["Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman]] (best short story, 1965)
• A Boy and His Dog (best novella, 1969)
• Jeffty is Five[?] (best short story, 1977)

Additional reading

• California Sorcery, edited by William F. Nolan and William Schafer[?]