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Harlan Ellison

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Harlan Ellison <tr><th style="text-align: right;">Pseudonym(s):</th><td>Cordwainer Bird, Nalrah Nosille</td></tr>
Born: May 27, 1934
Cleveland, Ohio
Occupation(s): Author, screenwriter

<tr><th style="text-align: right;">Nationality:</th><td>American</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align: right;">Genre(s):</th><td>Science fiction, fantasy</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align: right;">Literary movement:</th><td>New Wave</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align: right;">Website:</th><td>Ellison Webderland</td></tr>

Harlan Jay Ellison (born May 27, 1934) is a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, essays, and criticism. His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Ellison's most famous stories were published within the science fiction genre, and he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards. He was also very active in the science fiction community (he was a founder of the Cleveland Science Fiction Society and edited its fanzine as a teenager), and gives colorful and confrontational talks at science fiction conventions. He served as the Science Fiction Writers of America's first vice president, in the 1960s. He prefers not to place his works in a genre, but will use the term "speculative fiction" to describe his work.

Ellison's fantasy work, however, is generally better aligned with surrealism or magical realism than space opera-type science fiction. There is also a strong ethical current that runs through his work, half of which is nonfiction, including social activism and criticism of the arts.

He is fiercely protective of his work and has sought (and won) legal action against copyright infringements. He occasionally uses the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird for reasons explained in the "Controversy" section, below.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Ellison was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His Jewish-American family subsequently moved to Painesville, Ohio, but returned to Cleveland in 1949, following the death of his father. As a child, he had a brief career performing in minstrel shows. He frequently ran away from home, taking an array of odd jobs — including, by the time he was eighteen (by his own account), "tuna fisherman off the coast of Galveston, itinerant crop-picker down in New Orleans, hired gun for a wealthy neurotic, dynamite truck driver in North Carolina, short order cook, cab driver, lithographer, book salesman, floorwalker in a department store, door-to-door brush salesman, and spent ten years as an actor (off and on) with the Cleveland Play House".[citation needed]

Ellison briefly attended Ohio State University before dropping out. According to Ellison, a professor had told him that he would never become a writer, and that all lovers of "real" literature would ignore his pitiful efforts at scribbling; Ellison told him he could "go fuck himself". Ellison has said that for the next forty-and-some years, he sent this man a copy of every article, story, and book he turned out.[citation needed]

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. In 1957, Ellison decided to write about youth gangs. To research the issue, he joined a street gang in the Red Hook, Brooklyn area, under the name "Cheech Beldone". His subsequent writings on the subject include the novel, Web of the City/Rumble, and the collection, The Deadly Streets, and also comprise part of his memoir, Memos from Purgatory.

Ellison was drafted into the army, serving from 1957 to 1959. Afterwards, while living in Chicago, Ellison wrote for William Hamling's Rogue magazine. As a book editor at Hamling's Regency Books, he published novels and anthologies by such writers as B. Traven, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Bloch and Philip José Farmer.

In addition, in the late 1950s Ellison wrote a number of soft porn stories, such as "God Bless the Ugly Virgin" and "Tramp", which were later reprinted in Los Angeles-based girlie mags. That was the beginning of his use of the name Cordwainer Bird as a pseudonym. The name was later used in July and August of 1957, in two journals, each of which had accepted two of his stories. In each journal, one story was published under the name Harlan Ellison, and the other under Cordwainer Bird. Later, as discussed in the Controversy section below, he used the pseudonym on material when he disagreed with its use or editing.

[edit] Hollywood and beyond

Ellison moved to California in 1962, and subsequently began to sell scripts to such television shows as "Burke's Law", Route 66, The Outer Limits, Star Trek and Cimarron Strip. His "Memos from Purgatory" was adapted into an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Ellison's scripts "Demon with a Glass Hand" (for The Outer Limits) and "The City on the Edge of Forever" (for Star Trek) won Best Original Teleplay awards from the Writers Guild of America; both are often cited as one of the best of their respective series.

During the late 1960s, Ellison wrote a column about television for the Los Angeles Free Press. Titled "The Glass Teat", the column addressed political and social issues and their portrayal on television at the time. The columns have been reprinted in two collections, The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat.

He continued to publish short pieces, fiction and nonfiction, in various publications, and some of his most famous stories were written in this period. ""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" is a celebration of civil disobedience against repressive authority. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is an allegory of Hell, where five humans are tormented by an all-knowing computer throughout eternity. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" was the basis of a 1995 computer game, with Ellison participating in the game's design and providing the voice of the god-computer AM. "A Boy and his Dog" examines the nature of friendship and love in a violent, post-apocalyptic world. It was made into the film A Boy and His Dog in 1975 starring Don Johnson.

Ellison has won ten Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and five Bram Stoker Awards (presented by the Horror Writers Association) including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

He has also been honored with the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America twice, the Georges Méliès fantasy film award twice, and the Silver Pen for Journalism by International PEN, the international writers' union. He was presented with the first Living Legend Award by the International Horror Guild at the 1995 World Horror Convention. He is also the only author in Hollywood ever to win the Writers' Guild of America Award for Most Outstanding Teleplay (solo work) four times, most recently for "Paladin of the Lost Hour" in 1987.

In March 1998, the National Women's Committee of Brandeis University honored him with their 1998 Words, Wit, Wisdom award. In 1990, Ellison was honored by International PEN for continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship.

The story for a rather famous and popular film can also be credited to Ellison, though he had to go to court to get the credit. Some aspects of the story for The Terminator were sufficiently similar to two episodes ("Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand") of the TV series The Outer Limits — both written by Ellison — that Ellison sued James Cameron. Ellison settled for several hundred thousand dollars, and the film's end credits now include the simple statement: "Acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison."

He also edited the influential science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions (1967), which collected stories commissioned by Ellison, accompanied by his commentary-laden biographical sketches of the authors. He challenged the authors to write stories at the edge of the genre. Many of the stories went beyond the traditional boundaries of science fiction pioneered by respected old school editors such as John W. Campbell, Jr. As an editor, Ellison was influenced and inspired by experimentation in the popular literature of the time, such as the beats. A sequel, Again Dangerous Visions, was published in 1972. A third volume, The Last Dangerous Visions, has been repeatedly postponed (see Controversy).

The screenplay for his projected television series The Starlost was also given a Writers Guild Award, though the actual series, produced in 1972-73, was so altered by the producers that Ellison had his name removed from the credits. Ellison was the first writer to win this award three times.

Ellison served as creative consultant to the science fiction TV series The Twilight Zone (1980s version) and Babylon 5. As a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), he has voiceover 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".

For two years, beginning in 1986, Ellison took over as host of the Friday-night radio program Hour 25 on KPFK-FM, Los Angeles, after the death of Mike Hodel, the show's founder and original host. Ellison had been a frequent guest on the long-running program. It has been reported that his inadvertent use of an expletive while on-air caused his departure from the show.[citation needed]

Ellison's 1992 novelette "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" was selected for inclusion in the 1993 edition of The Best American Short Stories.

Ellison was hired as a writer for Walt Disney Studios, but was fired on his first day after being overheard by Roy O. Disney in the studio commissary joking about making a pornographic animated film featuring Disney characters. He recounted this incident in his book Stalking the Nightmare, as part 3 of an essay titled "The 3 Most Important Things in Life".

He does all his writing on a manual Olympia typewriter, and has a substantial distaste for personal computers and most of the internet.

Harlan Ellison has provided vocal narration to numerous Audiobooks, both of his own writing and others. Ellison has helped narrate books by authors such as Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, and Terry Pratchett.

Ellison lives in Los Angeles, California with Susan, his fifth wife. In 1994 he suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery.

In 2006, Harlan Ellison received the title of SFWA Grand Master from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Board of Directors and past Presidents of SFWA inducted Ellison as the newest Grand Master at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May of that year.

[edit] Controversies

Ellison has a reputation for being excessively abrasive and argumentative, and both fans and detractors alike have agreed that it is this reputation that he may be more remembered for than his actual literary works. He has generally agreed with this assessment at times, and a dust jacket from one of Ellison's own books includes a passage which described him as "possibly the most contentious person on Earth". Ellison has also become somewhat infamous for his penchant towards being fiercely litigious, and his numerous grievance filings and lawsuit attempts, both justifiable and frivolous, have become examples of both positive and negative actions with regards to how writers should protect their interests. These traits have attracted some controversy, especially among science fiction and fantasy fans. His friend Isaac Asimov noted that, "Harlan uses his gifts for colorful and variegated invective on those who irritate him—intrusive fans, obdurate editors, callous publishers, offensive strangers."

His outspoken reputation earned him frequent appearances as a panelist on Politically Incorrect, and a regular spot on the fledgling Sci-Fi Channel where he was given an opportunity to express his views on whatever he chose to talk about. Ellison's segments, of which some transcripts are available, were broadcast from 1994 to 1997. Some found this ironic, as Ellison has derided the term "sci-fi" as a "hideous neologism" that "sounds like crickets fucking." (Forrest J. Ackerman, who coined the term, responded by producing buttons bearing the slogan, "I love the sound of crickets making love.")

Harlan is also sometimes credited for inventing the phrase "Bugfuck!", which is used to describe somebody being or acting totally bouncing-off-rubber-walls crazy. [citation needed]


[edit] Equal Rights Amendment

As Guest of Honor at the 1978 WorldCon (Iguanacon) in Phoenix, Arizona, Ellison vowed that he would not spend a penny in a state which had not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (interestingly, he is also said to have declared at another convention that he did not believe Mensa had any women members <ref>Personal correspondence with anonymous convention organizer, August 18, 2000)</ref>). During the convention, he used a recreational vehicle instead of staying in a convention hotel. He was also a participant in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

[edit] The Last Dangerous Visions

"The Last Dangerous Visions", the third volume of the anthology series, has become something of a legend in science fiction as the genre's most famous unpublished book. It was originally announced for publication in 1973, but other work demanded Ellison's attention and the anthology has not seen print to date. He has come under criticism for his treatment of some writers who submitted their stories to him, of which some estimate to be nearly 150 (many of the authors have died in the subsequent three decades since the anthology was first announced). See main article for The Last Dangerous Visions. In 1993 Ellison threatened to sue New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) for publishing "Himself in Anachron", a short story written by Cordwainer Smith and sold to Ellison for the book by his widow,<ref> (November 1993) "ConFrancisco Continued". Ansible 76. ISSN 0265-9816.</ref> but later reached an amicable settlement.<ref> (December 1993) "Infinitely Improbable". Ansible 77. ISSN 0265-9816.</ref> Noted British SF author Christopher Priest has critiqued Ellison's editorial practices in a widely-disseminated article titled The Book on the Edge of Forever.<ref>Priest, Christopher. THE LAST DEADLOSS VISIONS (TXT). Retrieved on 2006-03-11.</ref> Priest documented a half-dozen instances in which Ellison promised TLDV would appear within a year of the statement, but did not fulfill those promises. Ellison has claimed that Priest himself submitted a story for the anthology, but it was rejected[citation needed]; however, Priest claims he submitted a story at Ellison's request which Ellison retained for several months until Priest himself withdrew the story and demanded that Ellison return the manuscript.<ref>Priest, Christopher. THE LAST DEADLOSS VISIONS (TXT). Retrieved on 2006-03-11.</ref> Ellison has a record of fulfilling obligations in other instances (though sometimes, as with Harlan Ellison's Hornbook for Mirage Press, several decades after the contract was signed), including to writers whose stories he solicited, and has expressed outrage at other editors who have acted unprofessionally.

[edit] Assault on Charles Platt

In the 1980s, there was a widely-publicized incident in which Ellison assaulted author and critic Charles Platt at the Nebula Awards banquet.<ref>Cusack, Richard. BUGFUCK! (TXT). Retrieved on 2006-07-30.</ref> Platt did not pursue legal action against Ellison, and the two men signed a "non-aggression pact" later, promising never to discuss the incident again or have any contact with one another. In the following years, however, Ellison has often publicly boasted about the incident. Ellison has claimed that Platt has also been less than absolute in adhering to the signed agreement,[citation needed] an allegation Platt has denied.<ref> (December 1993) "The Ellison Appreciation Society". Ansible 77. ISSN 0265-9816.</ref>

[edit] Back to the Future

In 1985, Ellison was interviewed for Starlog magazine's 100th issue (spotlighting who they felt were the 100 Most Important People in Science Fiction) and infamously called the popular movie Back to the Future a "piece of shit," which garnered an unprecedented amount of negative fan mail for the magazine. Ellison has commented on a great many movies and television programs, both negatively and positively. He believes that "quality" and "popularity" are not synonomous, and is well-known for his disdain of what he believes is bad.

[edit] Cordwainer Bird

Ellison has on occasion used the pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" to alert members of the public to situations in which he feels his creative contribution to a project has been mangled beyond repair by others, typically Hollywood producers or studios. (See, e.g., Alan Smithee.) The first such work to which he signed the name was "The Price of Doom," an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The "Cordwainer Bird" moniker is a tribute to fellow SF writer Paul M. A. Linebarger, better known by his pen name, Cordwainer Smith. The origin of the word "cordwainer" is shoemaker (from working with cordovan leather for shoes). The term used by Linebarger was meant to imply the industriousness of the pulp author. Ellison has said, in interviews and in his writing, that his version of the pseudonym was meant to mean "a shoemaker for birds". Since he has used the pseudonym mainly for works he wants to distance himself from, it may be understood to mean that "this work is for the birds". Stephen King once said he thought that it meant that Ellison was giving people who mangled his work a literary version of "the bird" (given credence by Ellison himself in his own essay titled "Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto", describing his experience with the Starlost television series).

[edit] alt.binaries.e-book lawsuit

Ellison again came into the public eye with his April 24, 2000 lawsuit against Stephen Robertson for posting four of his stories to the newsgroup "alt.binaries.e-book" without authorization. Included as defendants in the lawsuit were AOL and RemarQ, internet service providers whose only involvement was running Usenet servers carrying the group in question, who Ellison claimed had failed to stop the alleged copyright infringement in accordance with the "Notice and Takedown Procedure" outlined in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Robertson and RemarQ settled the lawsuit with Ellison, though he pressed on with his suit against AOL. The AOL suit was settled in June 2004 under conditions that were not made public.

[edit] Connie Willis Incident

On August 26, 2006, during the 64th World Science Fiction Convention, Ellison grabbed Connie Willis's breast while on stage at the Hugo Awards ceremony.<ref>Sanderson, Larry. Hugo Awards - Harlan and Connie - 2006 (HTM). Retrieved on 2006-09-03.</ref> Ellen Datlow, a Science Fiction editor, described this as "a schtick of Harlan acting like a baby".<ref>http://harlanellison.com/heboard/archive/unca20060901.htm</ref> Patrick Nielsen Hayden, also an editor as well as well-known fan writer, described this as "pathetic and nasty and sad and most of us didn't want to watch it".<ref>http://pnh.livejournal.com/25131.html</ref>

Ellison did not respond until three days later when he wrote on his message board, "I was unaware of any problem proceeding from my intendedly-childlike grabbing of Connie Willis's left breast, as she was exhorting me to behave." He concluded "I'm glad, at last, to have transcended your expectations. I stand naked and defenseless before your absolutely correct chiding."<ref>Ellison, Harlan. Unca Harlan's Art Deco Dining Pavilion (HTM). Retrieved on 2006-09-20.</ref>

[edit] Short stories collections

[edit] Novels

[edit] Published screenplays and teleplays

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.

[edit] Nonfiction

[edit] Anthologies edited

[edit] Selected short stories

[edit] Computer games

[edit] Audio recordings

[edit] Awards won

(Paragraph repeated from above; for accompanying links, see first iteration.)

He has won the Hugo Award eight and a half times; the Nebula Award three times; the Bram Stoker Award, presented by the Horror Writers Association, five times (including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996); the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America twice; the Georges Méliès fantasy film award twice; and was awarded the Silver Pen for Journalism by International PEN, the international writers' union. He was presented with the first Living Legend Award by the International Horror Guild at the 1995 World Horror Convention. He is also the only author in Hollywood ever to win the Writers' Guild of America Award for Most Outstanding Teleplay (solo work) four times, most recently for "Paladin of the Lost Hour" in 1987. In March 1998, the National Women's Committee of Brandeis University honored him with their 1998 Words, Wit, Wisdom award. In 1990, Ellison was honored by International PEN for continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship. Some of the specific occasions are listed below.

[edit] Bradbury award

The Bradbury Award was given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000 to Harlan Ellison and Yuri Rasovsky.

[edit] Bram Stoker Award

[edit] Hugo Award

[edit] Locus Poll Award

  • The Region Between (best short fiction, 1970)
  • Basilisk (best short fiction, 1972)
  • Again, Dangerous 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|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)

[edit] Nebula Award

[edit] Additional reading

[edit] Parodies and pastiches of Ellison

Ellison's prose style is highly regarded and distinctive; many have tried to mimic or parody it. Ellison himself is such a distinctive personality that many other science-fiction authors have inserted characters into their works who are thinly-disguised parodies of Ellison the man; some of these parodies are good-natured, while others are definitely hostile.

One of the more benevolent parodies of Ellison is the main character in a mystery novel by an author who is better known for science fiction: Murder at the A.B.A. by Isaac Asimov (The title refers to the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association). The novel's main character and narrator is an author named "Darius Just", who finds himself serving as an amateur sleuth to solve the murder of a fellow author at the convention. Asimov intended the name "Darius Just" as a pun on "Dry As Dust", and the protagonist is a slightly exaggerated pastiche of Ellison himself. Ellison has objected to the depiction: Darius Just is only five feet (1.52 m) tall, whereas Ellison is four inches (10 cm) taller at about 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m).

Ben Bova's comic-SF novel The Starcrossed was inspired by Ellison's and Bova's experience on the Canada-produced miniseries The Starlost. In Bova's novel, a 3D television projection system has been developed, and a new show is produced to encourage people to buy the new sets. The producers hire a famous writer named Ron Gabriel to write the show; the character is a thinly-disguised Ellison. Although Bova is a friend of Ellison's, and his portrayal of Gabriel is admiring and sympathetic, the novel is broad comedy, and should not be read as a true roman a clef. Ellison has given his own non-fiction account of his Starlost experience in a lengthy essay titled "Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto".

Ellison was paid a bizarre homage by writer Mike Friedrich and artist Dick Dillin in the May 1971 issue of the comic book Justice League of America. In a hallucinatory story called "The Most Dangerous Dreams of All," the literary efforts of a flashy, insecure writer named Harlequin Ellis somehow become reality for the members of the JLA.

In The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller featured Ellison by name as a television talking head. His only dialogue is elliptical, prophesying a world where "[we'll] be eating our own babies for breakfast." Ellison and Miller are friends, the latter drawing the cover and writing the introduction for the stand-alone publication of Mefisto in Onyx.

In a somewhat less sympathetic vein, Ellison serves as a partial basis for a composite character in Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun. The novel is a satirical look at Science Fiction and Fantasy fandom and Conventions.

David Gerrold, in his 1980 Star Trek novel The Galactic Whirlpool, makes mention of "Ellison's Star," a particularly unpredictable and "angry" White Dwarf star.

In an episode of the animated television show Freakazoid! entitled "And Fanboy is His Name," Freakazoid offers Fanboy "his very own Harlan Ellison" (as a slow, slightly dischordant version of For He's A Jolly Good Fellow plays on the soundtrack) in an attempt to convince Fanboy to stop following him.

In the 1970s, students at the University of Michigan produced a narrated slide show called "The City on the Edge of Whatever," which was a spoof of "The City on the Edge of Forever." Occasionally screened at Star Trek conventions, it featured an irate writer named "Arlan Hellison" who screamed at his producers, "Art defilers! Script assassins!"

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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Persondata
NAME Ellison, Harlan Jay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American science fiction author, screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Preceded by:
Dennis O'Neil 		Daredevil writer
1984
(with Arthur Byron Cover) 		Succeeded by:
Dennis O'Neil
bg:Харлан Елисън

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