The Last Person to Marry a Duck Lived 300 Years Ago: Pointed Essays

by Harlan Ellison

Genres: Essays

250 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2016

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, 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 as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of essays by the great Harlan Ellison.

[Bill Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Ellison uses language in the way a Cirque du Soleil performer uses their body to entertain, educate, ruffle feathers, and basically try to move humanity to do their best. These collected essays are funny, interesting, angry, passionate, and persuading. Well worth seeking out and reading. It may even become available again soon, if memory serves correctly.

[Steve Klemz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who doesn’t want to read Harlan unloading on…Essays on many topics collected here. I miss Harlan.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the book's title there is no information whatsoever proffered in this volume concerning Anatidaen nuptials, neither historical nor current, not to fish or other fowls, much less any humans who were extant three centuries ago. Despite that obvious oversight, the volume does contain close to thirty previously uncollected essays and columns on a wide variety of subjects, all written with considerable passion and skill and obvious love of the English language. Some of the topics didn't seem to have much relevance to the current world (such as the state of the publishing industry in the late-'80s/early-'90s), and some of the references to celebrities of those many years ago escaped me completely (and I suppose that was exactly the point in the first place), but even when I didn't completely agree with the conclusions he reached, or couldn't figure out why he felt some situation or another was worth getting angry about, or found myself not really engaged with an obscure point, I still enjoyed reading the prose just to experience the wash of the words. I particularly enjoyed his humorous anecdotes and reminiscences (often with Hollywood producers), and reflections on other writers such as Theodore Sturgeon, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Sheckley, etc. It's a fun roller-coaster of a book, often thought-provoking and challenging, and I enjoy reading Ellison as much today as I did... well, it's been almost five decades now. (But if he had only explained about that marriage...)

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of essays by Harlan Elliosn, covering such topics as advice to writers, the state of Arizona and its refusals to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and to recognize Martin Luther King Day as a legal holiday, science fiction vs. "sci-fi" (a term that Ellison despises), "The X-Files," Bettie Page, other writes (Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith), Charles Keating, 9/11 (in which he skewers Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and their comments on that national horror), the time he met Whitey Bulger -- I could go on and on, but you get the idea. This really is a treasure trove!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you haven't read Harlan Ellison, you haven't read." ~ Richard Halasz