# Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945 "2018-06-28T19:32:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/21 "2018-06-28T21:11:55Z")
A little something I threw together. [![](https://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd396/EmsleyWyatt/prototype/Guardian%20of%20Ellison_zpsizpos5op.jpg) ](https://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd396/EmsleyWyatt/prototype/Guardian%20of%20Ellison_zpsizpos5op.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/22 "2018-06-28T21:13:41Z")
A truly sad day, even if he could be a bit of a caustic ass. His short stories are truly without parallel in my opinion. And I don’t care how messed up “City on the Edge of Forever” got in his opinion; the basic premise was fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/23 "2018-06-28T21:24:11Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I have a button he autographed at Comic-Con in San Diego for me in the '80s. > > I wonder how much my signed Easton Press copy of _Deathbird Stories_ can sell for now? 😛 (Hey, he’d appreciate it.) I have signed Firsts of _Deathbird_ and _Strange Wine_ and a signed Second of _Shatterday_. Plus a few signed paperbacks like _Web of the City_ and _Spider Kiss_ that Harlan gifted me after I did a favor for him. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/24 "2018-06-28T21:28:52Z")
I talked to his wife briefly on the phone…like… god, a decade ago?..when he was doing a personal memorabilia sale. You literally had to call the house and tell Suzanne (Susan?) want you wanted to buy. She was very nice. I wrote a letter to him shortly afterward… I was hoping to get to meet him someday. He was honestly my last living hero. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/25 "2018-06-28T21:30:01Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > A little something I threw together. > > [http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd396/EmsleyWyatt/prototype/Guardian%20of%20Ellison\_zpsizpos5op.jpg](http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd396/EmsleyWyatt/prototype/Guardian%20of%20Ellison_zpsizpos5op.jpg) Is it alright to use this on social media? Accrediting you of course. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/26 "2018-06-28T21:31:10Z")
I have an autographed copy of [The Illustrated Harlan Ellison](https://smile.amazon.com/Illustrated-Harlan-Ellison/dp/0894370383/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530221269&sr=8-1&keywords=the+illustrated+harlan+ellison), a French-produced graphic novel-ish anthology; I was lucky Mr. Ellison didn’t confiscate it. He claimed he had never seen it before and was dubious that he had been properly paid for it, but he signed it anyway. Then he signed it again with my Sharpie when I went back because his felt tip pen hadn’t penetrated the paper’s finish and had just evaporated away. Yeah, I had brought up the phone call after he first signed it. I was already double lucky and then I pushed it a 3rd time by going back for another signature. 😃 My great-grandfather taught me: I’d rather be lucky than good! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/27 "2018-06-28T21:38:59Z")
1980: My best friend shot a super-8 film of was Ellison’s _Deal From The Bottom_. I wrote the screenplay and did the cinematography, and my friend directed and did cinematography. My friend wrote to Ellison to ask permission to enter it into film fests. Ellison called him on the phone and reamed him a new one. ‘How _dare_ you use my work without permission!’ Ellison wrote him a letter later that started, ‘Dear M\_\_\_, I’m sorry for being such a dick on the phone.’ He gave his permission for the film to be submitted to festivals. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/28 "2018-06-28T21:48:26Z")
The first book of his I read was _The Glass Teat_, a collection of columns from The LA Free Press dealing with television reviews and life in LA, written from the late '60s to the early '70s. He was never a _tame_ lion. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/29 "2018-06-28T22:10:57Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 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. 😃 > > RIP, Mr. Ellison; you done fucking fantastic. Holy Hell, my wife and I met him at the same CC. He gave Laura the one-over and was very charming to her, which amused me to no end. RIP Harlan. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/30 "2018-06-28T22:54:40Z")
Damn it. I guess it had to happen Someday. Or Moansday, Duesday, Woundsday, Thornsday, Freeday, Shatterday. RIP Harlan. “For a brief time I lived. For a brief time I mattered.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/31 "2018-06-28T23:13:56Z")
The first sf book I ever bought was _Ellison Wonderland_. I had no idea who the author was but the title was irresistible. Harlan was H_A_R_L_A\*N, always neon lit, for better or worse. He was the only person I got to spend time with I can truly describe as larger than life. First Le Guin, then Ellison. I have to assume Silverberg is next. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/32 "2018-06-29T00:26:15Z")
Inimitable, infuriating, uncompromising, unbearable in the way only someone who knows when he’s right can be, but why should it be otherwise? When you have an informed opinion, you stand by it. Not long ago I re-read the collection of TV/Film/Media commentary/reviews, _Harlan Ellison’s Watching_, and even in the ones I thought he was full of it, he was so with style and conviction and _thorough knowledge of the matter at hand_, you knew he was not just talking out his fundament. And just how like him to check out and leave us stuck in a world that has become \*The Teddy!! Crazy!! Show!! \* ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/33 "2018-06-29T00:43:33Z")
He was a tremendous rider when he was on. He wrote a ton of classic stories and a much larger percentage of completely forgettable stuff, IMHO. That said, the memorable staff is pure gold. Some of the best science fiction ever written. However his sexual assault of Connie Willis, which Ellison described as “puckish behavior“ is inexcusable and unforgivable and has badly tainted my ability to reread anything he’s written now. > **[Connie Willis, Harlan Ellison, and the Inside Scoop](https://scendan.livejournal.com/586135.html)** > > Here’s the thing. When Harlan Ellison took it upon himself to grab the spotlight at the Hugo Awards by grabbing the breast of the Guest of Honor, Connie Willis, it wasn’t funny. Nor was it clever. Nor was it satirical. Nor was it a joke... ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/34 "2018-06-29T01:44:24Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > Is it alright to use this on social media? Accrediting you of course. Go ahead. Just as long as it’s not traceable back my photobucket acct. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/35 "2018-06-29T02:55:51Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The first book of his I read was _The Glass Teat_, a collection of columns from The LA Free Press dealing with television reviews and life in LA, written from the late '60s to the early '70s. > He was never a _tame_ lion. I enjoyed the hell out of those books. What’s funny, is that I didn’t discover them until the early 80s and even then it was amazing how entertaining they were despite him being objectively wrong any number of things - Laugh In wasn’t revolutionary at all, it was largely a dead end. The Smothers Brothers show was not groundbreaking, it’s totally forgotten. And yet, they are some of the most entertaining books I’ve ever read ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/36 "2018-06-29T03:20:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > 1980: My best friend shot a super-8 film of was Ellison’s _Deal From The Bottom_. I wrote the screenplay and did the cinematography, and my friend directed and did cinematography. My friend wrote to Ellison to ask permission to enter it into film fests. Ellison called him on the phone and reamed him a new one. ‘How _dare_ you use my work without permission!’ Ellison wrote him a letter later that started, ‘Dear M\_\_\_, I’m sorry for being such a dick on the phone.’ He gave his permission for the film to be submitted to festivals. **Errata:** I believe the work he used was ‘prick’, not ‘dick’. ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/37 "2018-06-29T03:21:26Z")
A touching [story](https://www.facebook.com/139652459402959/posts/1999083533459833/) about Ellison, by JMS. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/38 "2018-06-29T03:57:28Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > So, how does this impact the release date of _The Last Dangerous Visions_? Adversely? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/39 "2018-06-29T04:09:13Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Adversely? I was thinking that his death might actually make it’s release sometime soon _more likely_ rather than less. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945/40 "2018-06-29T11:22:58Z")
When “Harlequin Ellis” was a character in DC comics: [https://twitter.com/Joe\_A\_Blevins/status/1012419661999165441?s=19](https://twitter.com/Joe_A_Blevins/status/1012419661999165441?s=19) Cavorting with some porn stars in 1972: [https://twitter.com/Boilerplate1893/status/1012446255845236736?s=19](https://twitter.com/Boilerplate1893/status/1012446255845236736?s=19) Barnes & Noble published a retrospective about HE last year: [Harlan Ellison: He’s Not Dead Yet, and He’s Not Done Either](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/harlan-ellison-hes-not-dead-and-hes-not-done-yet-either/) A video interview from a few years ago: [Archon 39: Interview with Harlan Ellison | Critical Blast](http://www.criticalblast.com/articles/2015/10/03/archon-39-interview-harlan-ellison) When he was raided by NYPD for narcotics: [https://twitter.com/uh\_\_Bob/status/1012598426750636032?s=19](https://twitter.com/uh__Bob/status/1012598426750636032?s=19) When he would write stories in bookshop windows: [https://twitter.com/PatrickZircher/status/1012418804805226499?s=19](https://twitter.com/PatrickZircher/status/1012418804805226499?s=19) I did not know that Demon with a Glass Hand and the film Blade Runner was shot in the same building: [https://twitter.com/PatrickZircher/status/1012640066487881728?s=19](https://twitter.com/PatrickZircher/status/1012640066487881728?s=19) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/816945.md?page=3)