David Gerrold is reporting that Harlan Ellison has died.
Harlan was a giant in the field, and one of the greats of the short story. In his prime, he was outstanding. The list of his great stories is very long: “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” “A Boy and His Dog,” “Jeffty is Five,” “‘Repent, Harlequin’ said the Ticktockman.’” (He was as well known for his titles as for his stories himself.
He also worked in TV. It’s no coincidence that some of the best SF shows ever – The Outer Limits, Star Trek, Babylon 5, The Twilight Zone (1985 version) – had him involved.
As an anthologies, he edited the two Dangerous Visions anthology.
Harlan was prickly, a lover of the spotlight, and caustic to enemies. But he was also a loyal and generous friend.
Truly one of the greats, a character like no other. I have an autographed copy of Partners In Wonder that he signed for me at a film festival in San Jose.
Oh dammit! This sucks, now I won’t ever get a chance to have dinner and an argument with the man. Can you imagine being at a dinner with Harlan and Tony Bourdain? Perhaps the afterlife catering crew is already firing up the menu and invitations for that one. Sigh.
I remember an installment of Tom Snyder’s “Tomorrow” talk show, in the early 1980s, on which his guests were Ellison, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury. Much of the show featured a battle of sharpened wits between Ellison and Asimov, which was tremendously entertaining.
The episode is available on YouTube, and I will be watching it again when I get home tonight.
I have met Harlan several times, the first time at a small WhoCon down in Los Angeles back in '79(I think), the second time at a lecture at the Seattle Center back when Stalking The Nightmare was first released, and several times after that at various conventions and book releases. His talks were never boring and almost always over the top, and the stories he told…oh, the stories he told!
The man lived large.
I met Mr. Ellison twice, once by telephone when I called him at home back in 1983 and again in 1995 at Dragon Con in Atlanta. I was grateful on both occasions that he suffered my presence with no great drama, especially in 1995 when I mentioned the phone call from 1983.
For a devout atheist, Ellison was able to conjure up Hell like nobody else on earth. Every single plot twist involving the imprisonment of a human mind inside some non-corporeal entity to suffer forever, from The Jaunt to Black Mirror, is part of his legacy. But he could warm your heart in addition to chilling your blood. He wrote essays and stories about every imaginable topic, and they were always interesting. With Tom Wolfe and now Ellison, the collective writing talent of America has taken some major losses lately.
Can you imagine being at a dinner with Harlan and Tony Bourdain? Perhaps the afterlife catering crew is already firing up the menu and invitations for that one. Sigh.
(Hey, he’d appreciate it.)