Most Popular Books by Harlan Ellison

Eight timeless tales from the master of speculative fiction, featuring the Nebula and Hugo Award–winning story “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman.” Robert Heinlein says, “This book is raw corn liquor—you should serve a whiskbroom with each shot so the customer can brush the sawdust off after he gets up from the floor.” Perhaps a mooring cable might also be added as necessary equipment for reading these eight wonderful stories. They not only knock you down . . . they raise you to the stars. Passion is the keynote as you encounter the Harlequin and his nemesis, the dreaded Tictockman, in one of the most reprinted and widely taught stories in the English language; a pyretic who creates fire merely by willing it; the last surgeon in a world of robot physicians; a spaceship filled with hideous mutants rejected by the world that gave them birth. Touching, gentle, and shocking stories from an incomparable master of impossible dreams and troubling truths.

A remarkably trenchant collection of early stories by “the dark prince of American letters” exploring the injustice and desperation of a forgotten America (Pete Hamill, author of A Drinking Life). Bold and uncompromising, Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-up Generation is a watershed moment in Harlan Ellison’s early writing career. Rather than dealing in speculative fiction, these twenty-five short stories directly tackle issues of discrimination, injustice, bigotry, and oppression by the police. Pulling from his own experience, Ellison paints vivid portraits of the helpless and downtrodden, blazing forth with the kind of unblinking honesty that would define his career. Reviewing this collection, Dorothy Parker called Ellison “a good, honest, clean writer, putting down what he has seen and known, and no sensationalism about it.”

An irreverent, brilliant, and outspoken collection of essays by the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of Strange Wine. At the beginning of the 1980s, Harlan Ellison agreed to write a regular column for the L.A. Weekly on the condition that they published whatever he wrote with no revisions and no suggestions for rewrites. What resulted was impassioned, persuasive, abusive, and hilarious. Part essay, part conversation, all Ellison—these pieces provide a glimpse into a great mind, at ease in tackling both grand ideas and the minutiae of the day to day. Collected here in An Edge in My Voice, these works also open a window to a decade when a newspaper would accept such a risky venture from such a powerful voice,

When he''s down, kick for the head and groin. Avoid cops. Play it cool There aren''t many rules in the primer for gang kids, but they all count. They''re all easily understood because they use a simple and sound philosophy it''s a stinking life, so get your kicks while you can. The gang is home, take what you want, tell them nothing and don''t get caught. Two gangs of juvenile delinquents run riot in New York City. They constantly try to outdo each other with their clothes, weapons, language and lack of morals. They are not just kids playing at war they mean business. The only person who can infiltrate the gang is someone they can trust, someone like themselves. Someone who knows how to handle a knife and a gun

The republication of Harlan Ellison''s Movie, the full-length feature film he created when a producer at 20th Century-Fox said to him, "If we gave you the money, and no interference, what sort of movie would you write?" Well, that producer is no longer at 20th, he left the whole entire venue of moviemaking after Harlan Ellison''s Movie was seen by the Suits at the studio. There''s no use even trying to describe what the film is about, except to confirm the long-standing rumor that it contaims a scene in which a 70-foot-tall boll weevil chews and swallows an entire farmhouse and silo on-camera. (It''s Scene 33C.)

“A dynamite piece of storytelling”—the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author turns to musical fiction in a novel of a rock star’s tumultuous career (AllReaders.com). If you thought the only thing Ellison writes is speculative fiction, craziness about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit, or invaders from space who look like pink eggplant and smell like chicken soup, this dynamite novel of the emergent days of rock and roll will turn you around at least three times. No spaceships, no robots, just a nice kid from Louisville named Stag Preston with a voice like an angel, seductive moves like the devil, and an invisible monkey named Success riding him straight to hell . . .

The final act of Harlan Ellison''s Hugo and WGA Award-winning Star Trek teleplay! Is James T. Kirk willing to sacrifice the woman he loves, to save the universe as he knows it?! You may have seen the episode, but you only think you know how it ends! From the mind of literary legend Harlan Ellison!

Designed as both an introduction to Harlan Ellison''s vast body of work and as a manual for would-be writers, Harlan 101 collects the best of the author''s short fiction, seven essays on the craft of writing, and a collection of rarely seen oddities from Ellison''s extensive archives. This 400-page paperback features: An introduction by New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman, author of the Hugo Award-winning novels American Gods and The Graveyard Book, and creator of Vertigo Comics'' Sandman series. The first appearance in a widely available Ellison collection of his newest short story-the 2011 Nebula Award-winning "How Interesting: A Tiny Man." Five Hugo Award-winning short stories, including "''Repent, Harlequin '' Said the Ticktockman," "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," "The Deathbird," "Jeffty Is Five," and "Paladin of the Lost Hour." "Snake in the Crypt"-The never-before-republished story that Ellison rewrote to become "The Deathbird." See how this average tale was re-worked into a Hugo Award-winning novelette. The lost ending to "Paladin of the Lost Hour"-This ending only appeared in the very first publication of the short story in the 1985 anthology Universe 15; it has never been reprinted. A disturbing and, as-yet, unfinished short story titled "Pet." Seven informative, yet entertaining essays on the craft of writing (four which have never appeared in an Ellison collection). Plus sixteen other stories-some subtly revised for this publication-spanning Ellison''s career. From the 1950s comes "The Sky is Burning." The 1960s are represented by "All the Sounds of Fear" and "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes." The Ellison of the 1970s appears in "At the Mouse Circus," "Basilisk," "Hindsight: 480 Seconds," "The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge," "Shatterday," "Shoppe Keeper," and "Strange Wine." The 1980s offerings include "Broken Glass," "Grail," "On the Slab," and "Prince Myshkin, and Hold the Relish," while the 1990s bring forth "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" and "Sensible City."

A revolutionary classic from one of science fiction''s most highly regarded authors, this collection of 16 brilliant stories remains as scathing and influential today as it was when it was first published more than 20 years ago. These category-defying stories combine science fiction, horror, and fantasy with ironic humor, sardonic social criticism, and intense self-revelation. From "Jeffty is Five," the tragedy of an innocent child wrenched out of an idyllic past, to humanity''s encounter with dangerously seductive aliens in "How''s the Night Life on Cissalda?" and "Shatterday," the dark allegory of an identity-stealing doppelgänger replacing his inferior twin, this incendiary collection re-establishes its legendary author''s place at the cutting edge of the short story form.

Presents a screenplay of Asimov''s classic where the development of robot technology to a state of perfection by future civilizations is explored.

Terrifying tales of teenage gangs and life on the mean streets from the multiple award-winning author of A Boy and His Dog. Remember Charles Bronson stalking the streets of New York blowing holes in muggers in Death Wish? Remember Glenn Ford standing off the vicious juvenile delinquents in Blackboard Jungle? Well, it is more than fifty years and two different worlds from 1955 to now. And something the author of these stories knows that you are scared to admit is that reality and fantasy have flip‐flopped. They have switched places. The stories that scare you today are the ones about rapists and thugs, psychos who will carve you for a dollar and hypes who will bust your head to get fixed. Glenn Ford’s world was yesterday, and Bronson’s is today. And in the stalking midnight of this book, one of America’s top writers, Harlan Ellison, invades the shadows of both!

Harlan Ellison is surely one of the most creative thinkers of our time -- his stories of the fantastic have captured the imaginations of millions of people over the last four decades. In this trade paperback, some of the comics industry''s wildest and most original talents adapt Ellison''s greatest stories to the comic-book format.

For the first time ever, a visual presentation of the much-discussed, unrevised, unadulterated version of Harlan Ellison''s award-winning Star Trek teleplay script, ''''The City on the Edge of Forever!'''' This Hugo- and Writer''s Guild of America Award-winning teleplay has been much discussed for decades but only here can you see the story as Mr. Ellison originally intended!

"It crouches near the center of creation. There is no night where it waits. Only the riddle of which terrible dream will set it loose. It beheaded mercy to take possession of that place. It feasts on darkness from the minds of men. No one has ever seen its eyeless face. When it sleeps we know a few moments of peace. But when it breathes again we go down in fire and mate with jackals. It knows our fear. It has our number. It waited for our coming and it will abide long after we have become congealed smoke. It has never heard music, and shows its fangs when we panic. It is the beast of our savage past, hungering today, and waiting patiently for the mortal meal of all our golden tomorrows. It lies waiting." - Harlan Ellison

Includes a chronology of books by Harlan Ellison, 1958-2014.

The second in the ongoing Brain Movies series collects six more of Harlan Ellison''s teleplays. Once again, the scripts are reproduced from Ellison''s private files, exactly as he typed them. This 476-page paperback features: A new introduction by Patton Oswalt, the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, Grammy-nominated comedian, and author of the New York Times bestseller Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. "Killing Bernstein"-The unproduced teleplay adaptation of Ellison''s chilling short story originally intended for the short-lived ABC anthology series Darkroom. Appearing in an Ellison collection for the first time. "Deeper Than the Darkness" - Ellison''s 90-minute Cimarron Strip teleplay, featuring Jack the Ripper in the Old West, that was famously ruined by the director''s poor grasp of logic. "Mealtime"-The episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea that resulted in an ABC censor having his pelvis broken by a model of the Seaview. After 47 years, Ellison''s original script finally sees the light of day without the tampering that led to the first appearance of his derogatory Writers Guild pseudonym: "Cordwainer Bird." "The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Affair" and "The Pieces of Fate Affair"-Two teleplays from The Man From U.N.C.L.E., featuring Ellison''s original storylines before they were revised for production. These scripts include an editor''s note explaining the scandal that kept the latter episode out of circulation for years. "Phoenix Without Ashes" - The Writers Guild Award-winning pilot script for Ellison''s legendarily bowdlerized science fiction series, The Starlost. See Ellison''s original teleplay - the source of the recent New York Times-bestselling graphic novel - appearing for the first time in an Ellison collection. And a beautiful new cover by World Fantasy Award-nominated artist Jill Bauman.

Hemingway said, "A man should never write what he doesn''t know." In the mid-fifties, Harlan Ellison--kicked out of college and hungry to write--went to New York to start his writing career. It was a time of street gangs, rumbles, kids with switchblades and zip guns made from car radio antennas. Ellison was barely out of his teens himself, but he took a phony name, moved into Brooklyn''s dangerous Red Hook section and managed to con his way into a "bopping club." What he experienced (and the time he spent in jail as a result) was the basis for the violent story that Alfred Hitchcock filmed as the first of his hour-long TV dramas...This autobiography is a book whose message you won''t be able to ignore or forget. "Harlan Ellison is the dark prince of American letters, cutting through our corrupted midnight fog with a switchblade prose. He simply must be read." --Pete Hamill "Ellison writes with sensitivity as well as guts--a rare combination." --Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint

"A major collection of his incomparable, troublemaking, uncompromising, confrontational essays."--V. 3, cover.

In these stories Harlan Ellison outdoes himself, rampaging like a mad thing through love, hate, lost childhood, and into such bizarre subjects as the problems of blue-skinned, eleven-armed Yiddish aliens, what it''s like to witness the end of the world and what happens on the day the planet Earth swallows Barbra Streisand. Oh yeah, this one''s a doozy!

Disenchanted attorney Lee Kraiter travels to the roof of the world, where he discovers the secrets of The Dark Forces in an unfilmed pilot created by Harlan Ellison in 1972. "It steals righteously from Lost Horizon and the marvelous works of H.P. Lovecraft and the caveats of Charles Fort and even the Dr. Strange comics (with a nod to Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, and the old wizard Shazam)," exclaimed Ellison in his NBC-TV pitch. And if Kraiter''s magical exploits don''t satisfy your crime-fighting desires, checkout Ellison''s unproduced Batman outline pitting the dynamic duo against Two-Face. Still not enough? How about an episode of The Rat Patrol guest starring der Fuhrer? Maybe Ellison''s original outline for "Crypt" from Logan''s Run? Still not satisfied? Why not discover "Who Killed Andy Zygmunt?" in Ellison''s third script for Burke''s Law? Or, you could plunge back to the beginning of Ellison''s tv career with his first-ever teleplay: an installment of the skydiving series Ripcord, Ellison''s heartfelt homage to a Hemingway who had just suicided. The scripts in this book were reproduced from Harlan Ellison''s file copies. The pages originated on a manual typewriter, hence the idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the sanitized, word-processed pages of today.

A collection of twenty thought-provoking essays from “one of the most brilliant, innovative, and eloquent writers on earth” (Publishers Weekly). Harlan Ellison—master essayist, gadfly, literary myth figure, and viewer of dark portent—has been, for the greater part of his life, a burr under the saddle of complacency. In this collection, his former assistant and confidante, Marty Clark, has culled from hundreds of rare and un-reprinted works to select twenty wide-ranging essays—nonfiction writings ranging from travelogue to media criticism, literary exploration to personal musing—that demonstrate why the monstre sacre of imaginative literature won the prestigious Silver Pen award from PEN International for his journalistic forays.

Harlan Ellison introduced you to Vic and Blood in 1969''s Nebula Award-winning novella, "A Boy and His Dog." You thrilled to their on-screen adventures in the 1975 Hugo Award-winning feature film adaptation billed as "a kinky tale of survival." 1977 and 1980 brought brief reunions in "Eggsucker" and "Run, Spot, Run," and the promise of another story-and a third solo, Spike, to make the Dystopian Duo a Tribulation Trio-but only audiobooks and comics followed, revisiting the same tales.Now, nearly fifty years after they first set off across the blasted wasteland, Vic and Blood are back.Harlan Ellison and his editor, Jason Davis, have painstakingly assembled the whole story of Vic and Blood and Spike from the author''s files, using revised-and-expanded versions of the novella and short stories, interstitial material developed for Richard Corben''s graphic adaptation, and-for the first time-never-before-published material from the aborted 1977 NBC television series Blood''s a Rover to tell the complete story of A Boy and His Dog, and a Girl who is tougher than the other two combined.And let''s not forget...the wit and wisdom of Blood.

Harlan Ellison''s Hugo and WGA Award-winning teleplay, visualized for the first time! Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Yeoman Rand return to the Enterprise following their first encounter with the Guardians of Forever, only to find a darker, more vicious crew of renegades awaiting them! Can they return the timestream to its proper state? And will they even survive long enough to try?

An anthology more than half a century in the making, The Last Dangerous Visions is the third and final installment of the legendary science fiction anthology series. In 1973, celebrated writer and editor Harlan Ellison announced the third and final volume of his unprecedented anthology series, which began with Dangerous Visions and continued with Again Dangerous Visions. But for reasons undisclosed, The Last Dangerous Visions was never completed. Now, six years after Ellison’s passing, science fiction’s most famous unpublished book is here. And with it, the heartbreaking true story of the troubled genius behind it. Provocative and controversial, socially conscious and politically charged, wildly imaginative yet deeply grounded, the thirty-two never-before published stories, essays, and poems in The Last Dangerous Visions stand as a testament to Ellison’s lifelong pursuit of art, representing voices both well-known and entirely new, including David Brin, Max Brooks, Cory Doctorow, Dan Simmons, AE van Vogt, Edward Bryant, and Robert Sheckley, among others. With an introduction and exegesis by J. Michael Straczynski, and a story introduction by Ellison himself, The Last Dangerous Visions is an extraordinary addition to an incredible literary legacy.

Science fiction-noveller.

Harlan Ellison''s Hugo- and WGA Award-winning teleplay adaptation continues! As Kirk and Spock bide their time in 1930s New York, Kirk finds himself doing the unthinkable-- falling in love with a woman of the past! And all the while, a murderer from their own era draws ever closer, threatening to alter the very fabric of history! Harlan Ellison''s Hugo and WGA Award-winning teleplay, visualized for the first time!

Presents the complete script for one of the most popular episodes of "Star Trek" as it was originally written--before it was radically altered for filming--and includes commentary by the author on the transformation of his story and his decades-long feud with Gene Roddenberry over the story''s presentation.

With this, his bestselling and most critically acclaimed collection, Ellison celebrates four decades of brilliant, outrageous writing. "Hums with a relentless narrative drive".--"New York Times Book Review". Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.