The Essential Ellison

by Harlan Ellison

In April of 1949, Harlan Ellison was a lonely little kid living in Painesville, Ohio. A time traveler, observing him from within an invisible bubble, would not have marked him as anything more interesting than an undersized fourteen-year-old, seemingly always in hot water. Lively blue eyes, but basically just another kid." "But something was stirring, something was wakening in that nexus of energy. And in The Cleveland News of June 7th, little more than a week after he turned fifteen, Harlan Ellison's first professional writing appeared in the initial installment of a five-part adventure serial (liberally cribbed from Sir Walter Scott) titled "The Sword of Parmagon."" "Now, in a retrospective, 50 years of the best of Harlan Ellison has been assembled in a volume exceeding 1200 pages, encompassing fiction, essays, personal reminiscences, reviews and (published for the first time anywhere) a complete teleplay. Eighty-six complete and (with one exception) unabridged examples of the nonpareil writings of the man The Los Angeles Times labels "the 20th Century Lewis Carroll."



1 · Sublime Rebel · Terry Dowling · in
5 · Beginnings · Misc. Material · si
11 · The Sword of Parmagon · ss The Cleveland News, 1949
17 · The Gloconda · ss The Cleveland News, 1949
23 · The Wilder One · vi Sundial Jan ’55
25 · The Saga of Machine Gun Joe · vi Sundial Jan ’55
27 · Introduction to Glowworm · is Unearth Win ’77
30 · Glowworm · ss Infinity Science Fiction Feb ’56; slightly revised and expanded
41 · Life Hutch [Kyben] · ss If Apr ’56
53 · S.R.O. [as by Ellis Hart] · ss Amazing Mar ’57
63 · Worlds of Terror · Misc. Material · si
67 · Lonelyache · ss Knight Jul ’64
83 · Punky & the Yale Man · nv Knight Jan ’66
107 · A Prayer for No One’s Enemy · nv Cad Mar ’66
125 · Worlds of Love · Misc. Material · si
129 · In Lonely Lands · ss Fantastic Universe Jan ’59
135 · The Time of the Eye · ss The Saint Detective Magazine May ’59
143 · Grail · nv Twilight Zone Apr ’81
163 · That New Old-Time Religion · Misc. Material · si
167 · I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream · ss If Mar ’67
181 · Corpse · ss F&SF Jan ’72
189 · The Whimper of Whipped Dogs · ss Bad Moon Rising, ed. Thomas M. Disch, Harper & Row, 1973
205 · A Stab of Merriment · Misc. Material · si
209 · The Voice in the Garden · vi Lighthouse Jun ’67
211 · Erotophobia · ss Penthouse Aug ’71
217 · Mom · nv Silver Foxes Aug ’76
229 · Ecowareness · ss Sideshow Sep ’74
231 · The Outpost Undiscovered By Tourists · ss F&SF Jan ’82
235 · Dept. of “What Was the Question?” Dept. · ms *
237 · From Competition 4: Story Leads from the Year’s Worst Fantasy and SF · ms F&SF Apr ’73
238 · From Competition 8: Near-Miss SF Titles · ms F&SF Sep ’74
239 · From Competition 23: Unwieldy SF Titles · ms F&SF Feb ’80
239 · From Competition 26: Imaginary Collaborations · ms F&SF Mar ’81
240 · From Competition 39: Complete the Following Sentence... · ms F&SF Mar ’86
241 · Trouble with Women · Misc. Material · si
245 · The Very Last Day of a Good Woman [“The Last Day”] · ss Rogue Nov ’58
253 · A True Memoir · ar Los Angeles Free Press Nov 3-24 ’72
267 · The Other Eye of Polyphemus · ss Cosmos SF&F Magazine Nov ’77
275 · All the Birds Come Home to Roost · ss Playboy Mar ’79
287 · To the Mattresses with Mean Demons · Misc. Material · si
293 · The An Excerpt from Memos from Purgatory · ar Memos from Purgatory, Harlan Ellison, Regency, 1961
333 · “Our Little Miss” · ar Los Angeles Free Press, 1970
341 · A Love Song for Jerry Falwell · ar, 1984
347 · Telltale Tics and Tremors · ar Unearth Fll ’77
357 · True Groping for the Holy Grail [“How I Survived the Great Videotape Matchmaker”] · ar Los Angeles Magazine, 1978
377 · Adrift Just Off the Islets of Latitude 38° 54’ N, Longitude 77° 00’ 13" W · nv F&SF Oct ’74
407 · Rococo Technology · Misc. Material · si
413 · The Sky Is Burning · ss If Aug ’58
421 · The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World · nv Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, Doubleday, 1967
439 · Along the Scenic Route [“Dogfight on 101”] · ss Adam Aug ’69; Amazing Sep ’69
449 · The Song the Zombie Sang · Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg · ss Cosmopolitan Dec ’70
461 · Knox · ss Crawdaddy Mar ’74
475 · Heart’s Blood · Misc. Material · si
481 · From Alabamy, with Hate [“March to Montgomery”] · ar Knight Sep ’65
493 · My Father · ar Los Angeles Free Press, 1972
499 · My Mother · ar Saint Louis Literary Supplement, 1976
507 · Tired Old Man · ss Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine Jan ’76
517 · Gopher in the Gilly · ss Stalking the Nightmare, Phantasia, 1982
523 · Strange Wine · ss Amazing Jun ’76
531 · Nights & Days in Good Old Hollyweird · Misc. Material · si
537 · The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie · na Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled, Trident, 1968
607 · An Unproduced Tele...

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Horror, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction

1019 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1974

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

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A suicidal but immortal werewolf... a secretive Information Agency... a high-tech scientific facility... A Fantastic Voyage-style journey... And a large heaping dollop of self-referential metaphysics. Interesting, but possibly just a bit too much for one story.

[James Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this collection purely to read A Boy and His Dog. Figured I’d read more of him while I was at it, as he did write The City on the Edge of Forever (ST:TOS), so Harlan Ellison must be worth a deeper look.

67 stories, and only one of them takes place from a woman’s point of view. I enjoyed 42 out of 67, and most of the good stories are in the latter half of the collection (probably bad luck as a result of sorting by category rather than publication year). I’m glad I read him, but this collection was more of an endurance test than an enjoyable read.

Too many stories in here to review them all within Goodreads’ character limit, so here are the highlights.

_____
The Sword of Parmagon: Not much to say. Ellison was 15 when he wrote this fantasy-esque story about a hapless man who finds a sword and then uses it to vanquish a tyrannical ruler.

The Gloconda: Expedition to Africa to find a giant snake, written in 1949. Witch-doctors, cannibals, every cliché from a 1940s safari movie... Who thought this was worth printing now?

Glowworm: The last man on earth after the Bombs fell. He was part of a military program to adapt the human body to the atomic bomb. It worked, but just for him. Now he glows. As he prepares to leave Earth, he learns of other ways he is no longer human. The narration is rough, but this is wholesome. Sold for $40 in 1955. In 2021, that is worth over $400, and this was considered a small sale to a pro-market in the 50s. These days, even pro-market rates aren’t that high. Writing is not so valued anymore. I used to get inspired reading about the successes of the past. Now I mourn the loss of the years I was born too late to experience. The years my parents raised me to be part of that are gone forever.

Life Hutch: A wounded space pilot finds a safe-house on a lonely world when his ship is damaged in battle. The facility is also broken, and Terrance is now in a staring contest with a killer robot. A suspenseful tale with good action and visuals.


In Lonely Lands: A Martian becomes a helper to an old blind man. A thoughtful story that manages to be emotional with very little context.

Grail: A search for the Holy Grail is actually a search for True Love. Those who find it are never the same, and not just because of the demon summoning. I enjoyed this just for the demonic forces. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Grail story that involved them. Should’ve been the focus of the story: if you need to summon demons to find True Love/The Holy Grail, what does that say about the quest? We don’t get more information on this, so I do think the story goes the wrong way with its concept, but it’s still a gripping read and would make one hell of a feature film. More interesting than The Da Vinci Code, for example.


I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: An intelligent AI is holding the last surviving human beings hostage just to torture them. The less said the better. It’s the author’s best work. Must be experienced to be appreciated, as the nonlinear narrative becomes its source of incoherent logic. There’s a reason it’s the most reprinted story in English. If you read only one story by Harlan Ellison, let it be this one. Go seek it out right now. It’s easy to find.

The Whimper of Whipped Dogs: An apartment complex witnesses a murder, and yet nobody does anything. The story’s internal logic for why nobody did anything is murky. Apparently the God of NYC demands sacrifice. It’s a harsh city and only the strong avoid being blood victims for this NYC god? 200 pages into this collection and this is the first story to take place from a woman’s POV, and she is nearly raped and murdered by a black man (ahem) I don’t see the connections between anything here. This had a good start, a potential to do something interesting and meaningful with the setup, and Ellison does very little with it.

Erotophobia: Nate has a strange problem in how every woman he’s alone with desires him. He’s afraid of being loved to death. Even his psychiatrist can’t resist taking off her clothes after being alone with him for just a few minutes. There’s only one person the protagonist can trust being alone with, and that’s... himself. This one is lighthearted and has a cute ending.

Ecowareness: Earth itself decides to take action against pollution. Earth opens up and swallows some oil refineries, strikes Ralf Nader’s office with lightning for twenty minutes (ok I giggled at that part), and in various other ways sends a message to humanity to knock it off. Then the story ends with the author telling the reader to fuck off. Maybe this went far in the 70s, but these days it doesn’t go far enough, so fuck you right back, Mr. Ellison.


Valerie: Remember that time you trusted someone and got ripped off? Some woman ran off with Harlan Ellison’s credit cards. It took him a week to notice his cards were missing, and another month before the bills started arriving. Things happened much slower in the 60s. In the end, Ellison says Valerie was just one of a long series of bad relationships that left him cynical and calloused (married and divorced 4 times, at this point). Perhaps he evolved later in life (his final marriage lasted thirty years), but that doesn’t help moments like these, probably written when he was still bitter.

All The Birds Come Home to Roost: Fate seems to be arranging for Mike to meet every woman he’s ever been with. At the end is his first wife, the woman he beat and eventually left just before she was committed to a mental hospital. Does a reckoning loom in this man’s future? The story ends without any resolution. Setup with no payoff. Just as well. I didn’t give a shit about this guy or his exes.


Our Little Miss: Mr. Ellison’s critique of a beauty pageant for little girls which aired in 1970. No doubt the OLM pageant deserved to be ripped apart for placing underage girls up for judgment based on how cute they look in a dress, or in sportswear. Ellison is genuinely appalled at the display, not to mention the commercialization that may as well be indoctrination of the youth. One might even think he agrees with the feminists on this one. (Our Little Miss is still going.)

Telltale Tics and Tremors: Advice to writers about the necessity of writing memorable characters. I disagree with his assertion that “people are the only things worth writing about,” but good characters certainly are important in helping the reader connect with the events. I can think of some high-concept fiction that has stood the test of time despite weak characters: Jurassic Park, Rendezvous with Rama, 1984, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, and so forth. Sorry, Harlan, but I think you’re full of yourself, and your own characters aren’t especially memorable.

True Love: Groping for the Holy Grail: Harlan Ellison tried a video-dating service for his syndicated newspaper column, The Glass Teat. I didn’t know those really existed, but now a few scenes from movies and TV shows make sense. (And yes, there’s an app for that now.) If Dave Barry had done this, he would have had something witty and insightful to write on the subject. Ellison’s take is bland, and his takeaway isn’t all that observant.


The Sky is Burning: Alien creatures have appeared in the atmospheres of many planets in the solar system. They seem to be burning up and dying. The reason is so disappointing no one wants to face it. This one is thoughtful and has good imagery. Any story that creates a telepathic alien species resembling the Egyptian sun god Ra is a winner in my estimation.

The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World: This one is worthy of a Philip K. Dick award in that it takes place in the distant future and the author doesn’t build the world, rather lets the visuals and the events stand on their own. In a future city completely machine-run and sterile and free of crime, some people apparently want to experience crime as a vicarious thrill, so the people bring Jack the Ripper from the year 1888 to 3177, riding his emotions, creating dummy people for him to slaughter (mostly women... ahem). A weird read but it does a good job building a future that may or may not be better than the reality Jack the Ripper inhabited.

Along the Scenic Route: When a car cuts him off on the freeway (expressway, highway?), George challenges the other driver to a duel. Imagine 1950s automobiles morphing into hovercars and firing lasers at one another on a Sunday drive along the interstate. (For you younger readers: we used to take “drives,” which meant a casual roadtrip for fun with no destination in mind, just point the car somewhere and go wherever the road took us, back when gas was cheap enough to justify such outings.) These road rage battles are so common they’re sanctioned by law, and car dealers sell these laser and projectile weapons and corresponding defense systems as “options.” In this future, no one has to be content giving tailgaters or slowpokes the finger and driving on. Now you can challenge them on the road to a fight to the death. This is fun. It’s a delightful highway revenge fantasy, Mad Max in suburbia! Why hasn’t it been made into a movie? (Only downside is George’s wife as passenger, as she does nothing but whimper and nag the whole time until she finally faints under the strain. Ellison’s portrayal of women is a pattern by now.)

The Song the Zombie Sang: A concert musician is being kept alive to continue performing. Dead fifteen years, he’s being reanimated for new performances of his old work. He may be an automaton now, but he’s fully aware of it, and he doesn’t like what he’s become any more than his fans have. Though the dialogue is overdone and theatrical, the overtones make up for it. Hugely symbolic (maybe prophetic) of what the entertainment industry was becoming, and this story even features a positive portrayal of a woman, taking place partially from her point of view! ...and then I noticed this story has a co-writer, Robert Silverberg, a science fiction author mostly during the 50s and 60s. This explains the dialogue, too, as it’s nowhere near Ellison’s style. Having just read Along the Scenic Route, the story about road rage revenge and the nagging wife in the passenger seat who faints when the battle gets too rough, here’s a strong-willed woman speaking truth to power and helping a dead musician rest in peace and dignity. This stands out as unlikely to be Ellison’s idea. Makes me want to check out Robert Silverberg. [I did: Goodreads book report]


From Albamy, with Hate: Ellison went to the march on Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. This is what he saw: Southerns being anything but sugary and welcoming. The racism and poverty of the South that the US once dismissed as a problem of foreign countries, right here in the USA. That poor white Southerners hated being poor but nonetheless took pride in being above the negro. This leaves me confused, after reading a few of the stories earlier in this collection. Maybe Ellison isn’t racist after all. It’s a vivid first-person account that isn’t trying to be profound or insightful, just honest about this “other” America.

Gopher in the Gilly: Ellison ran away from home as a teenager. He joined a traveling carnival in the early 1940s. It wasn’t the freaks on display that disturbed him. It was the audience who sat enraptured by the freaks on display. Looking back on his descriptions now, these were people with serious medical conditions being paraded in front of audiences to gawk at. Thank God we have more medical knowledge now. We’re still in the dark ages when it comes to mental health, but science has rescued so many people with addiction and physical deformities and depression/anxiety conditions from lives as sideshow attractions. These last few stories give me some respect for Ellison. I feel I know him much better now.


The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie: A story about Hollywood and how a group of producers bring an actress back for a comeback role purely for the publicity, not even factoring in whether or not she might be up to returning to filmmaking. Ellison writes a sympathetic woman who left Hollywood to get away from the fake people and fake events but is still clinging to the fantasy of her youth. I really felt for her, a washout actor who had a career in a different time but can’t live up to the expectations other people have placed on her for her big return. Everyone clings to fantasy, but what if you missed the glory days hoping for it, and what if the glory days weren’t as good as you remember? Nostalgia is fantasy, especially in Hollywood. The prose is much more purple than the other stories in this collection, and it works.

The Man on the Mushroom: Harlan tells of when he drove cross-country in the early 60s, nearly broke, to try to make it in Hollywood. With only a dime in his pocket, somehow his almost ex-wife moved into a small house and he stayed in a hotel room, getting by on odd-jobs writing. What saved his ass? He got another book published, and some reviewer actually noticed him. Guess it wasn’t all smooth-sailing from his first short story sale after all. Stories like these should have been placed at the beginning of the collection, as knowing the writer helps me understand his writing that much better.

Somehow, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas, Toto: Ellison was hired to create a sci-fi TV series in the 1970s called The Starlost. From the very beginning it was doomed to failure, first selling the series concept to a producer who didn’t understand science fiction, and a production crew (including writing staff) who also didn’t understand science fiction. Nobody understood the concept of the series, and yet production moved forward anyway. With no visionary in charge keeping the series focused, the show went in all the wrong directions. Ellison tried to be the visionary, but he didn’t have the clout to steer the show. He left the project before it began airing simply because nobody in charge was listening to him, and his material kept being rewritten. Not much has changed in Hollywood. I watched the first episode. It’s hard to watch, physically and mentally. I think Star Trek had a bigger budget. I would like to read the original script, the one Harlan himself wrote, before the entertainment industry gutted it.


Soldier: A soldier from the future is somehow transported back in time. The stories he tells 1950s humanity about war in the far future are so terrifying nations agree to end conflict so it can’t get that bad. I think I saw this Outer Limits episode. This is a decent if predictable read. Might’ve been more profound in the 1950s, when WWII was still a recent memory, but its point is just as sharp today.


Jeffty is Five: Donald Horton made a friend when he was five, named Jeffty. Don grows up. Jeffty does not. Even at age 22, he is still five years old. Something mental. Something else. Don still likes Jeffty and doesn’t understand why no one else does, but one day Don realizes Jeffty still lives in his own world. He’s still receiving radio broadcasts of old programs they both listened to when they were little. He’s still getting comic books that haven’t been current in twenty years. For a little while, Don lives in this world again, the childhood he craves. Until it is taken away from him and he is forced to grow up. This hits home in all the right ways. If you are ever nostalgic for your childhood, read this. It brought me to tears more than once. Ellison was nostalgic for the 40s. I’m nostalgic for the 90s. We are the same.


“Repent, Harlequin!” said the Ticktockman: in a machine-ruled, orderly society, one man dressed as a clown plays practical jokes and throws off the perfect schedule of the city. Surprisingly playful and cute.

A Boy and His Dog: I wrote a book/movie comparison on my blog. The story is better than its movie adaptation, but only marginally. It’s a darkly funny and absurdly bleak post-nuclear story about a young man and his telepathic dog as they scrape together a subsistence life in the ruins of human civilization. Ellison shows how bad he is at writing women, perhaps more so than in any other story in this collection, but within this context of a civilization gone to hell, it kinda works. Sorta.

_____
When Ellison was firing on all cylinders, he was good, maybe to the point of possessing deep insights into the human condition and all that. The rest are as outdated and dubious as the episodes of Star Trek we don’t talk about. This collection was hard to read, but I’m happy to report there are more good stories than bad. It’s probably just poor planning that most of the underwhelming pieces are at the beginning of the book.

Half this collection convinces me that if he’d had to make his way as a writer today, he’d likely be on twitter constantly defending his hot takes on women’s issues while being somewhat friendly to presidents who happen to be anti-trans and openly homophobic, passing his comments off as being neutral and fair but he is totally not neutral on any issue. The latter half of the collection convinces me he was anti-racist and would have been an ally of any group opposing fascism and would even side with feminists on quite a few issues while mourning his lost childhood and how happy he was back then and how miserable he is now having to eke out a living as a writer in a country which increasingly doesn’t appreciate the craft because Hollywood producers control our entertainment and only understand what was successful in the past and can’t comprehend something new and profound.

Perhaps he evolved later in life, as his fifth marriage began in the mid-1980s and lasted 30 years, and the stories here predate the 1990s, so maybe when he wasn’t blowing steam about his many breakups and bad relationships, he wrote good stories and was conscious of social issues. At the risk of sounding like an apologist, I do get Ellison The Misogynist Asshole vibes in the first half, and Ellison The Insightful Progressive vibes in the second half. I’m tempted to suggest the lousy portrayal of women is him venting about his exes and not meant to be all women, but even if true, it’s still petty and does detract from his stories. No way to ignore that or apologize for it.

The first half of this anthology is generally unpleasant (exceptions noted) while the stories in the second half are surprisingly, consistently good. Seek out the stories mentioned above, as they’ve aged the best. Skip the others.

[Jay Magidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

From sex to sci-fi this volume (if you can find it) has it all. Ellison is a man of imagination and ideas. Some extremely weird, like "The Function of Dream Sleep" were the protagonist exhales his pain through a secret mouth on the side of his body. Or one of my all time favorite short stories: "I have no mouth and I must scream" where the remaining 3 or 4 human beings on earth are tortured for centuries in the belly of a computer. It is a giant book, and sometimes I wonder if the spine will give out from the number of times I've read it, but so far so good. Ellison is nasty, irreverent, angry, shocking and always brilliant. Oh yeah, don't forget to read "A Boy and his Dog." A post apocalyptic tale where dogs can speak telepathically to their masters. The boy (man really) is drawn underground to a seeming paradise of an endless supply of young woman. Well, I won't spoil it, but with Ellison, you will always have a twist. Great story. Fun movie with Don Johnson if you are so inclined. The intro by Ellison is worth the price of the book.

[Lino Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Essential Ellison
Edited and introduced by Terry Dowling
1991 (1987)

Think this will be mostly a scan, peek and peck job as it is a thick book, much to read and limited time!
Did not do this book justice so we will have to revisit it when one has days to spend with it.
But it was a worthwhile experience

Started 5 weeks ago or so....



Page 1: In Egyptian mythology, Iai is a fascinating character. He is the rebel, the tester, the stubborn resisting force of intellect and insight….
Harlan Ellison. This book is a portrait of one artist as sublime Rebel.
2: He cannot – will not – suffer fools gladly.
Jiminy Cricket and Zorro are Harlans’s role models….
7: I will not apologize for the less-than-graceful prose, not for the less than successful plots, not for the grammatical errors. ~ Harlan Ellison
62: They were artists without a doubt. And up to a point, they had starved for their art.
65: I want people’s hair to stand on end when they read my work, whether it’s a love story, or a gentle childhood story, or a story of drama and violence.
III Worlds of Love
127: Friends are those into whose souls you’ve looked, and therein glimpsed a oneness with yourself. They are a part of you, and you a part of them. They own a piece of you.
Love and death, and love and suffering – combinations that have fascinated the world’s greatest writers, giving us a legacy of reality and fantasy that is the essence of the human spirit.
IV That new Old-Time Religion
188: I am a religious man. I have always been a religious man – and one would think that should count for something. Apparently, it does not.
V A stab of Merriment
>>>quick scan
207: I see myself as a cross between Jiminy Cricket and Zorro
237: Dept. of ‘Trivial Pursuit” Dept.
VI: Trouble with women
So either the writer avoids writing any damned thing that might affront, or gets past a kind of universal knee-jerk Liberalism and cops to the truth that we are all pretty much alike, male and female, black and white, young and old, ugly and lovely. Pretty much alike in our ownership of human emotions, needs, drives, failings”
Valerie: A True Memoir
289: The great lizards owned the planet for something like 130,000,000 years, but they didn’t have slant-well drilling, pesticides, pollution, fast breeders, defoliants, demagogues, thermonuclear warheads, non-biodegradable plastics, The Pentagon, The Kremlin, The General Staff of the People’s Army, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and the FBI (…) Had they not been so culturally deprived, they might have sunk into the swamps in a mere three thousand years. ~ Reaping the Whirlwind
409: There are writers who like being called science fiction writers…They’re entitled to call themselves or their work whatever they please. By the same token, I should be permitted to call what I write what I choose to call it, which is Harlan Ellison stories
412: Speculative fiction in modern times really got born with Walt Disney in his classic animated film, Steamboat Willie, in 1928. Sure it did. I mean: a mouse that can operate a paddle-wheeler?
477: The search is as important as the discovery.
533: Without a solid script, the director and his/her players can have all the charisma and verve in the universe, and they’ll wind up standing around the sound stage with fingers up their noses (1976)
536: Without recourse to the remark crude, I have been known to point out that TV sucks (1975)
761: AS the Past is always there, if you learn from it; treasure the treasures and let the dross go without remorse.
816: I think that’s the obligation of the strong to assist the weak. Not leaners, you understand; no people…who aren’t willing to fight down to the last breathe. But for those people who have determination and courage, and simply need a little more hand…
873: …a writer may have a message, an emotion, a philosophy to impart in his fiction, and there are the most marvelous kind of serendipity. But his first job is to entertain. To inform comes second. To entertain comes first. (1868)
905: A Boy and His Dog
EN: this is why I got this book; a lot of scanning and reading to get to a 33 page story. But they made a movie that changed my life (ok that is an exaggeration but it did open my mind to a different kind of Science Fiction
938: A boy loves his dog.
1000: No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. ~ S.J. Lac
1003: Driving in the Spokes: An essay on anger and revenge by a master of the form
Rules:
1. Never use the H-bomb first
2. Take your time when getting even
3. If you want revenge against a monolithic business structure, don’t bother with the schleppers on the bottom who are thrown into the fray as cannon-fodder just to delay you and turn your aside from the real culprits.
4. Don’t look like a maniac to outsiders. Cover your berserk activities so they appear sane and considered. Make the final recourse to the Bomb seem an inevitability caused by their intransigence, arrogance and stupidity.
5. Try to have some fun with your revenge. By making it seem antic, it will weigh in your favor when the authorities come for you.
6. Make sure they know you’re capable of anything. Make sure they understand that you are slightly deranged and are incapable of bluffing. Make sure they understand that this is war.
7. Your target will inevitably provide you with the means to get even
8. It’s not enough merely to get even. You have to get a little better. That’s called the ‘vigerish.’
9. An eye for an eye is the best yardstick for revenge
10. There are some people one should never screw with
EN: Prefer the philosophy of being nice to one’s enemies…it will drive them crazy
For a brief time I was here; and for a brief time I mattered


~ Harlan Ellison

#TheEssentialEllison

[Frank Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison's writing has balls (and teeth, and fingernails, and . . .). He is certainly up there in the pantheon of short story writers - maybe not the best ever, but he could probably kick the crap out of the other ones, anyway. His transitional essays in his books are every bit as entertaining and enlightening as his stories. If you cannot collect all of his works, this is a good starting point. (He also has the Best Titles Ever - I have No Mouth and I Must Scream; Shattered Like a Glass Goblin).

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Ellison a lot, but this collection is unreadable--a classic case of packing way too much into a suitcase.

[Luke Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

A definitive collection of work from Harlan Ellison, encompassing short fiction, critical essays, and personal memoirs, that effectively showcases the work of one of speculative fiction's most prolific and noteworthy authors.
With so many entries in this book, it is hard to narrow down a few outstanding ones, especially as many of Ellisons' most famous stories are represented here ("I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream," "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs," "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin," "A Boy and His Dog," "The Deathbird," "Pretty Maggy Moneyeyes," "Jeffty Is Five," "Soldier," etc.). As a result, I'll highlight ones I had not heard of/read before that I particularly enjoyed.

"Grail" - A fantasy/horror romp about a many looking for true love distilled into object form.
"A Prayer For No One's Enemy" - A dark, but sadly realistic story on prejudice and its results.
"Mom" - An amusing supernatural tale about a mom who comes back to haunt her still-single son.
"The Tombs" - A non-fiction account of Ellison's brief stay in a NYC jail- incredibly sobering.
"Telltale Tics and Tremors" - Ellison's advice on how to create memorable characters and stories.
"True Love: Groping for the Holy Grail" - Ellison's experience with a 20th precursor to the dating app.
"My Mother" - Ellison's touching elegy for his mother.
"The Resurgence of Miss Ankle Strap Wedgie" - A realistic fiction drama about movie executives attempt to resurrect the career of a has-been movie star.
"Final Schtick" - Semi-autobiographical story about a now-successful man returning to the hometown that disdained him.
"Driving in the Spikes" - Ellison's revenge 101 guide, which contains his (in)famous gopher story.

Very highly recommended for fans of speculative fiction, especially short fiction.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lot of Ellison. It’s divided up into several sections, such as “Beginnings” and “Worlds of Terror” and “Worlds of Love”. Each has an introduction by someone writing about how incredibly awesome Harlan Ellison is, which has a lot of truth to it, but they put the same praise in front of amazing works like “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” as they put in front of really, really bad work such as his proposed script for a third Derek Flint movie. It reads like a bad Star Trek or Outer Limits episode, with very stilted dialogue. Stage directions are extraordinarily detailed, even to which classical pieces should be used as background music—it reads almost more like a novella in script form than a real script.

In an interesting bit of serendipity, he talks about the apparently famous Hollywood hotel the Garden of Allah, which was destroyed, and which I thought Tim Powers had made up for Medusa’s Web.

The retrospective collects both fiction and essays. The essays are fascinating, as Ellison’s introductions (which are usually essays) often are in other collections. Sometimes they also highlight his incredible ego, as when he describes the time he spent in the Tombs because he broke New York City’s gun control laws. Throughout he seems completely oblivious to any sense that breaking the law is still breaking the law even though you’re Harlan Ellison. In the essay, he literally chastises his lawyer for assuming that “I was probably guilty anyhow”. But throughout the essay, his only (and repeated) defense to his lawyer (and us) was, yes, I kept an illegal firearm, but come on, I’m Harlan Ellison! I’m using it for public service! (His essay in favor of extending such laws nationally, “Fear Not Your Enemies” is ironically not included in this collection.)

But, if I avoided writers who write stupidly on areas outside of their expertise, I wouldn’t be reading Stephen King right now, and my own audience would be even smaller than it currently is. Among the interesting essays are ones that describe the cutthroat, ruthless, and brutal underpinnings of Hollywood. It sounds like Hollywood hasn’t really changed much since Ellison took part in it.

The fiction collected appears to be extremely comprehensive. Besides the two Dangerous Visions books, I’d only read Deathbird Stories, which I enjoyed but which didn’t live up to the hype surrounding Ellison. So as I often do when I don’t think I’m seeing the best of a writer or musician, I did a search on what people think is the essential works by them, which, obviously, brought up this as the obvious result.

It is big. The stories that stand out are, in fact, the ones that people know: “I Have No Mouth”, “A Boy and His Dog”, and “Repent Harlequin”. But I was also especially impressed by what are basically ghost stories: “Tired Old Man”, “Jeffty is Five”, and “One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty.” He also does a good send-up of Hollywood, and not a funny one, in “The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie”. It’s a well-done bit in the Hollywood will grind you up genre.

If you’re interested in Harlan Ellison or want to read a wide variety by him, this is a great source.

[Philip Athans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assuming it's still reasonably accurate to call this the "definitive" collection of Harlan Ellison's work across all genres and categories, The Essential Ellison's very completeness (through its publication in 1987) will likely challenge all but the hardest of the hardcore Harlan Ellison fan.

I could argue with the mix of stories and essays and how they were categorized by editor Terry Dowling, and I can struggle with how physically uncomfortable this massive, heavy 1000+-page book was to read in first printing hardcover format, but I'll never argue with the genius displayed in every word.

[William Zupancic · Rating 5 out of 5]

....... ''' FANTASTIC ''' ..... I LOVE ALL OF HARLAN'S WORKS ! ..... I HAVE THIS FINE BOOK ........................ IN '' TRADE PAPERBACK , AND HARDCOVER '' .... . WILLIAM ZUPANCIC

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over a thousand pages of Ellison's best, including stories (both speculative genre and other), autobiographical essays, non-fiction articles, a teleplay, and all kinds of good stuff. Almost all of his most famous stories are included, as well as a good selection of lesser-known works. Love him or hate him, there's no denying that he was one of the best writers of the 20th century.

[zoagli · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really didn’t enjoy this mega-volume of a book: after one month, I was only 366 pages, i.e. one third of the way in – with meager results: I only liked three of the stories; the others gave me nightmares. I think I’ll stop here.

[Craig Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been familiar with Harlan Ellison as a personality at least since my formative teenage years. He had an editorial segment on a sci-fi pop culture news show I used to watch on Sci-Fi Channel, years back when their programming consisted of three original shows and syndicated reruns. As an angsty teen with a grudge against the world, Ellison's pugnacious, vitriolic yet insightful observations about the world greatly appealed to me. I was nothing if not utterly controlled by my insecurities, so I was naturally drawn to charismatic and rebellious outspoken personalities, such as Harlan Ellison, George Carlin, Hunter S. Thompson, Howard Stern, etc. I aspired to some day attain that "I don't give no fucks" attitude - not necessarily one of cynical resignation (like John Carpenter is famous for having), but just supreme confidence in who I was and no apologies to anyone who didn't like that.

So while I was busy idolizing Ellison for embodying that attitude, I... neglected to read any of his work. I was too busy reading Star Wars books. Cough.

One of my favorite expressions is "better late than never"! I wanted to finally delve into what made Ellison into such an iconic literary figure besides his delightfully acerbic personality - his writing. So I started the best way I knew how - by reading a 1000 page collection of his best works! What an amazing journey it was too. Ellison's imagination is just staggering in scope and I never knew what to expect from piece to piece. This collection has both fiction and non-fiction, but Ellison's life is just as colorful and interesting as the wildest science fiction.

There's only so much I can review about this book, but needless to say, it's excellent and I couldn't recommend it more. Among my favorite entries are his account of participating in a Civil Rights march through Alabama in the 60s (a harrowing adventure and unfortunately still all too relevant); his experience trying a dating service; of course the classic short story I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream; a novella set in 60s Hollywood about an attempt to revitalize the career of a fallen starlet that goes tragically awry; a heartbreaking short story about a middle aged man's tenuous connection to nostalgia via a childhood friend who is mysteriously stuck at the age of 5; and the compendium ends with a wonderful piece where Ellison carefully explains how to properly get revenge on one's enemies. There are so many more that I'm probably forgetting.

[bluentity · Rating 5 out of 5]

This massive tome is the definitive collection of Harlan Ellison's short fiction. Although Ellison doesn't have the name recognition of Asimov, Heinlein, or Bradbury, he is still one of the giants of the science fiction genre. Of those three, Ellison is probably most similar to Ray Bradbury in his focus on the individual human element in his stories over describing how much radiation pressure the sun exerts on an X-square-mile solar sail or in drawing grand space operas, although Ellison is rougher and grittier than Bradbury both in style and subject.

The Essential Ellison isn't a collection of Ellison's best short stories. Abysmal juvenilia and failed later work is included alongside classics like "Repent, Harlequin" and relatively obscure gems like "Grail". This warts-and-all approach, while it has some interesting effects discussed below, does mean you'll occasionally find yourself reading something that's just bad. The reader should feel free to skip ahead when this happens.

Ellison hates (among many, many other things) being a "science fiction" writer, preferring the term "speculative fiction". (This is the point where a heckler can point out that he's best known as a science fiction *editor*) He is right; the fantastical elements of his stories are more about sheer imaginativeness than anything even pretending to be science. Some of these stories are straight realist fiction("Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine") and there are a few autobiographical accounts and diatribes thrown in. The bottom line is that Ellison wasn't a science fiction writer, and his "essential" collection isn't just science fiction stories. As a sci-fi reader myself, I was surprised at the merit of his "mundane" material, and it was probably of more even quality than his "speculative" stories. The anthology by nature will tell you quite a bit about the author. He's talkative, quick-tempered, petty, stubborn, and brilliant. You'll love him even when he pisses you off.

If you've liked some of Ellison's stories, there is more where "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" came from--a lot more. Even if you're not a sci-fi reader, this is the definitive anthology of a great author, and you owe it to yourself to pick this up.

[Nicholas Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison is quite possibly the greatest SF (That's speculative fiction to him) author of all time. If ever an award should have been given to the genre it should have been given to him. This collection has some of the most remarkable stories ever told; futuristic setting or not.

The introductions aren't very interesting but we didn't buy this tome to read about other people - well, okay, we did, but they are the ones Ellison created, not the people that like talking about him.

Within are stories about social strife - real and fake - societal challenges, and the eternal spirit of man. Ellison tackles things just as real as any other great writer and, as a point of fact, better than people much more famous than he.

Someday I'll be teaching Ellison at a college, and hopefully I can make a course all about him. The idea of people ever forgetting this literary giant depresses me terribly.

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is a lover of short stories and who hasn't read Harlan Ellison's work before you're seriously missing out. Harlan Ellison helped to define the contemporary short story as well as what we know today as speculative or science fiction. He worked as a writer on several of the original Star Trek episodes and on the Babylon 5 series. He's had over 1,200 short stories and something like 40 novels published and that's not counting his contribution to television and film.

This is a massive tome of over a thousand pages that you might say is in many ways the definitive Harlan Ellison collection. It starts out with two stories that he wrote as a 15 year old boy and then progresses through the rest of his career and life. This is a fantastic representation of his work and style. Most of these have been published before in one format or another, but because of the sheer volume of his work it's unlikely that anyone but the most devoted fan would have more than a few.

[Rob Brantseg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read approximately 400 pages of stories selected out of the 1000+ page tome.
Harlan Ellison is often characterized as misanthropic, which may be true, but I think it is rooted in a desire for humanity to be better than it is -- a seething frustration at our species' moral and intellectual failings.
Ellison seems to be annoyed and puzzled at being labeled as a science fiction author; I think it makes sense, as science fiction is the genre which most consistently looks at the big-picture problems of human civilization.

FAVORITE STORIES:
The Deathbird
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
The Song the Zombie Sang
Grail
A Boy and His Dog
Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans
A Prayer for No One's Enemy
"Repend, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison is someone you probably haven't heard of, but you've probably seen or heard of things he's written scripts and screenplays for (Star Trek, The Terminator, Babylon 5). He is a prolific short story writer. I got his anthology of short stories and read a few that were recommended. He's a gritty Sci-Fi writer, and a lot of the stories I hated the characters, but Ellison definitely is an expert writer. Even as I was cringing I was admiring how he was able to make me cringe. Some of my favorites from the Anthology were: "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," "Jeffty Is Five," and the 1984-ish "'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman."

[Jeffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I finished it. Ugh. I didn't enjoy it and I come away from it feeling I have been through a chronic sickness. But I stuck with it because I felt I had put so much time into reading it that I had to tough it out and finish it.

This is "The Essential Ellison." I had thought essential meant something like Ellison's best. Was I ever wrong. In this work essential means the essence of Harlan Ellison the man and while he has some admirable principles his negative qualities as a human being are bent and quite disheartening and more than offset those.

I wish I had never started reading this book.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison is a Renaissance Man - screenplays, essays, short stories, and renowned editor, he's been on the Hollywood and fantasy/science fiction scene for a long time. This huge tome gathers some of his best work for your perusal, and it's a great read. There have been updates since this has come out, so there is also a 50-Year Retrospective - I'll have to get my mitts on that at some point...

[Gnomon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of collected works includes "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman." That alone should prompt a purchase. Ellison's social commentary makes him sound a bit like a high-functioning version of Alexander Portnoy, which only adds to his appeal. The tales in this collection include the hilarious, the annoying, and the horrible.

[Galo · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those familiar or unfamilar with the award-winning short works of Harlan Ellison, this 35 year retrospective is an omnibus collection covering the depth and range of a modern-day master. Ellison's unique and disturbing philosophy blooms in the startling revelations of our own dark nature. Its a must read.

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really need to read this one again, it's been a number of years now... At his best, an amazing storyteller and linguist. A collection of this magnitude, however contains both the best and the not, hence the rating.

[Lin Cava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, don't try to read this as though a novel. Harlan is prolific, and one must often 'catch their breath'. Harlan and Susan are gone now, but Harlan's great body of published works remains behind and one gets to hear his voice in his works. If you've ever seen him in action in person, you know he is unstoppable, and appears hyper. In person, he was very accessible. I had several occasions to meet him, Susan, and dinner all at the same time. I couldn't tell you what we ate - but the conversations were animated. Susan, his wife, was also a writer. She passed 2 yrs and 2 months after Harlan passed.

Like it or not, his prolific works will stand the test of time, and continue to influence writers and readers for years to come. The man was like a whirlwind, both on and off any venue he was part of. He was unique, demonstratively so, and well aware of his talent. I will always miss them.

[Becca Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison was born with a bat-shit crazy imagination, and I love it. He's the kind of author that can keep you spellbound through the whole story. This book is massive so I did a lot of skipping around and didn't love all of them, but my favorites were:

A Boy and His Dog -I'm not ashamed to say my jaw was hanging open when I finished it.
Erotophobia - This made me laugh and I loved the writing style and that ending.
A Prayer For No One's Enemy - So heartfelt, and sadly still so relevant.
Adrift Just Off The Isle... - This one felt like a Gaiman story, therefore I loved it.

Honorable mentions - Knox, Grail, Final Shtick, Mom, and like 10 others.
Put me down as an Ellison fan!

[Timothy Swartout · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a door stopper of a book at 1000 plus pages. It’s full of a whole bunch of highly intriguing short speculative fiction by the author, as well as several essays and articles interspersed throughout. Harlan Ellison was never a straight-up sci-fi or fantasy writer. I would argue his purview entailed the human heart in its various guises and moods, whether it be angry, hateful, loving, sympathetic or downright vengeful. Above all he wrote of our responsibility to be true and ethical and fair to ourselves and others, and the consequences of when we are not. Highly recommended.

[Kelly D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, oh man. 1000+ pages. I'm pooped. This took forever to finish, but I'm glad I did because it's so hard to find Ellison's work. I read one of his short stories in a college class and have been trying to find more ever since. I didn't like all of his work, but I did find them interesting and compelling.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: I didn't read the whole collection, and of the ones I read, I enjoyed "Jeffty is Five" most. In most of the others, I had a very hard time driving past the unremarked sexism of the time, and I stopped altogether when a POV character raped a woman he was with.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of HE in my teens. Subscribed to his ellison webderland newsletter and everything...

He seems overblown and obnoxious to me now. I skipped around to the most popular stories and they're alright. I'll just rate it as a 3 and move on. Just not what I'm interested in reading now.

[Reece · Rating 4 out of 5]

read i have no mouth and i must scream.. a little overhyped, but delivered well what it promised