Harlan Ellison
Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:40 pm
It’s generally accepted that the three greatest names in science fiction’s pre-history are H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Rice Burroughs; Its also usually taken as a given that the three greatest names of sci-fi’s Golden Age are Bradbury, Asimov, and Clarke... But, in my lifetime, I think the pantheon of the greatest was joined by three more men: Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Harlan Ellison.
The man’s list of work is staggering. Every obituary is going to mention his Star Trek script for ‘The City on the Edge of Forever,’ but he actually disliked the final product (which is still one of Trek’s best!). I can’t even begin to summarize the guy’s contributions to the SF literatary canon.
The man was infamous for being both a taciturn asshole and an intensely loyal friend.
“Harlan is a giant among men in courage, pugnacity, loquacity, wit, charm, intelligence — indeed in everything but height.” — Isaac Asimov in the introduction to Dangerous Visions (1967)
“My work is foursquare for chaos. I spend my life personally, and my work professionally, keeping the soup boiling. Gadfly is what they call you when you are no longer dangerous; I much prefer troublemaker, malcontent, desperado. I see myself as a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket. My stories go out from here and raise hell. From time to time some denigrater or critic with umbrage will say of my work, 'He only wrote that to shock.' I smile and nod. Precisely.” —Harlan Ellison, describing himself, as quoted by Stephen King Danse Macabre (1981)
The man’s list of work is staggering. Every obituary is going to mention his Star Trek script for ‘The City on the Edge of Forever,’ but he actually disliked the final product (which is still one of Trek’s best!). I can’t even begin to summarize the guy’s contributions to the SF literatary canon.
The man was infamous for being both a taciturn asshole and an intensely loyal friend.
“Harlan is a giant among men in courage, pugnacity, loquacity, wit, charm, intelligence — indeed in everything but height.” — Isaac Asimov in the introduction to Dangerous Visions (1967)
“My work is foursquare for chaos. I spend my life personally, and my work professionally, keeping the soup boiling. Gadfly is what they call you when you are no longer dangerous; I much prefer troublemaker, malcontent, desperado. I see myself as a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket. My stories go out from here and raise hell. From time to time some denigrater or critic with umbrage will say of my work, 'He only wrote that to shock.' I smile and nod. Precisely.” —Harlan Ellison, describing himself, as quoted by Stephen King Danse Macabre (1981)