RIP to legendary sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison

[Pcdunn]

Just heard this week that one of my favorite writers has passed away. His short stories and scripts won awards, but he was known for suing others for copyright infringement.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/rip-harlan-ellison-the-legendary-scifi-author-behind-o-1827217877

His fame among Star Trek fans is as the author of the script for the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever"-- which was edited heavily from its original version, due to Gene Roddenberry disapproving of certain scenes.

[c.d.]

I always liked Ellison too. Apparently he had an unbelievable ego. I read once where he was LITERALLY thrown out of every New York publisher's office when he was young.

c.d.

[PaulB]

He wrote a couple of short stories featuring Jack the Ripper and there is even a vinyl album, Blood - The Life and Future Times of Jack the Ripper, on which Ellison reads them, The City at the Edge of the World and A Toy For Juliette. It was released in 1977, I think. He had a fearful reputation at that time and was regarded as having a huge talent and even bigger ego. I named a family guinea pig Harlan after him. Another was called Sheckley.

[Ginger]

I always liked Ellison too. Apparently he had an unbelievable ego.

c.d.

OMG!! Donald Trump is shy by comparison.

[Pcdunn]

20th century science fiction and fantasy writers were never short on egotism (see Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and most others) but Ellison was in a class of his own. Some was warranted, given his talent and creativity. He hated censorship, and viewed normal requests for editorial changes as censorship. He also fought copyright infringement fiercely.

Can you imagine him in this Tweet-filled world? I can't. Good thing they mostly relied on letters and written memos in his heyday.

Still, I'll miss his sharp wit and his pushing the boundaries of fiction.

[Pcdunn]

https://newrepublic.com/article/149489/harlan-ellisons-death-raises-metoo-quandary

Interesting article about Harlan Ellison. I'm not surprised at some of his mentioned misbehavior, the SF world was dominated by male authors and publishers during the Seventies (still mostly is, for that matter), and everyone knew Ellison was temperamental, to say the least.

I haven't thought much about Ellison's stories being considered "superior young adult fiction." Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov were my preferred authors when I was in high school, with Ellison coming to my attention when I started college.