Another collection of early Ellison. Not really a forgotten book(this edition is just out), but some of his early work published under the name Paul Merchant and a few other pseudonyms.
These stories were all published over a ten year period, mid-fifties to mid-sixties, in men’s magazines of the era. Considered risque at the time, they are rather mild compared to today’s fiction.
But they are Harlan Ellison’s work as a young man trying to put food on the table for his family. And a harbinger of things to come. The collection starts off with one of Mr. Ellison’s fine introductions where he speaks of the collection, how it came to be, and a few other things.
The stories herein:
1: THIS IS JACKIE SPINNING
2: DEAD WIVES DON’T CHEAT(as by John Magus)
3: PRIDE IN THE PROFESSION
4: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A ZILCH WRITER(as by Paul Merchant)
5: GOD BLESS THE UGLY VIRGIN
6: A BLUE NOTE FOR BAYOU BETTY(as by Derry Tiger)
7: GANG GIRL
8: THE GIRL WITH THE HORIZONTAL MIND(as by Price Curtis)
9: AN EPISODE OF SUNBATHERS
10: CARRION FLESH(as by Paul Merchant)
11: THE SILENCE OF INFIDELITY
Worth a look.
For more forgotten books, as always, drop in on Patti Abbott every Friday at her blog, PATTINASE.
I first became aware of Harlan Ellison because of Star Trek(give me a break, i was only fifteen at the time; I learned). His one episode was a favorite for years until I learned that it was rewritten against his will and he was unhappy with the results. The first time I read his script was in Six Science Fiction Plays edited by Roger Elwood. Recommended is Harlan’s book, CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER, for the script and a long introduction by him on circumstances around the rewrite and his history with Gene Roddenberry.
While all this was going on, I had begun to seek out earlier, original works by Harlan and was rewarded every time out. One thing one can say about Harlan Ellison, he puts his all into his works. Each collection of his stories has an introduction, usually a long one, that I look forward to almost as much as the stories themselves. He never fails to give you value for your money.
As pointed out, it’s not his best work. A young writer learning his craft, recently married, they were for the money. But they have that Ellison energy and make them worthwhile. My favorite was BOTH ENDS OF THE CANDLE, a humorous story of a young college football player named Asimov(certainly no coincidence) that was seeing a pair of women, a mother and daughter named Candle, on the sly from each other and the effects it was having on him.
There’s a second book from that era coming. I’m keeping a lookout for it.
Harlan Ellison’s First Novel —
Returning to Bookstores After 30 Years!
HARD CASE CRIME to publish definitive edition of WEB OF THE CITY
New York, NY; London, UK (June 11, 2012) – Acclaimed author Harlan Ellison has authorized the publication of a new edition of his first novel, Web of the City, by Hard Case Crime, the award-winning line of mystery novels from editor Charles Ardai and publisher Titan Books. The new edition, which will feature not just the definitive text of the book but also three thematically related short stories Ellison wrote for the pulp crime magazines of the 1950s, will mark the book’s first appearance in stores in three decades.
Harlan Ellison is one of the most renowned authors of the past 60 years. Although best known for his fantasy and science fiction and his always controversial essays, Ellison has also won the Edgar Allan Poe Award twice for his crime fiction. Other honors he has received include a record 10 Hugo Awards, 5 Nebulas (including the lifetime Grand Master Award), 6 Bram Stoker Awards (including their lifetime Grand Master Award), 4 Writers Guild of America Awards, and 2 World Fantasy Awards, as well as multiple other lifetime achievement awards. He has also been a finalist for the Emmy and twice for the Grammy. The film made of his life, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, starring Ellison, took 21 years to make, and is one of the most award-winning documentaries of the past five years.
Written in 1957 while Ellison was enduring Army Ranger basic training in Georgia, Web of the City tells the story of a teenager who sets out to leave the New York City street gang he runs with, putting his family in grave danger. Ellison wrote the book after going undercover for ten weeks as a member of an actual Brooklyn street gang, the Barons, an experience that also inspired him to write the famous “Memo From Purgatory” episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour starring James Caan (The Godfather) and Walter Koenig (Star Trek).
Hard Case Crime will bring the book out in April 2013, in paperback and e-book editions, with a new cover painting in the classic pulp style by Glen Orbik.
About Hard Case Crime
Called “the best new American publisher to appear in the last decade” by Neal Pollack in The Stranger, Hard Case Crime has been nominated for or won numerous honors since its inception including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Anthony, the Barry, and the Spinetingler Award. The series’ books have been adapted for television and film, with two features currently in development at Universal Pictures and the TV series “Haven” going into its third season this fall on SyFy. Upcoming titles include new novels by Stephen King and James M. Cain. Hard Case Crime is published through a collaboration between Winterfall LLC and Titan Publishing Group.
About Titan Publishing Group
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981, comprising three divisions: Titan Books, Titan Magazines/Comics and Titan Merchandise. Titan Books, recently nominated as Independent Publisher of the Year 2011, has a rapidly growing fiction list encompassing original fiction and reissues, primarily in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, horror, steampunk and crime. Recent crime and thriller acquisitions include Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins’ all-new Mike Hammer novels, the Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton and the entire backlist of the Queen of Spy Writers, Helen MacInnes. Titan Books also has an extensive line of media and pop culture-related non-fiction, graphic novels, art and music books. The company is based at offices in London, but operates worldwide, with sales and distribution in the US and Canada being handled by Random House. www.titanbooks.com
I’ve read this one, years ago of course, and remember liking it.
I‘m cheating a bit this week. An injury to the ring finger of my right hand will make my life a bit hard for a while, never mind writing. I likely will ease off for a bit on the posting. The finger is swollen, won’t bend, can’t grasp anything, reading is even hard, and I’m beginning to learn just how much I use it every time I feel that twinge.
A BOY AND HIS DOG was a film based on a Harlan Ellison novella. Actor L. Q. Jones, known mostly as a western actor, wrote the script and directed. Here's the link to my original post. It starred a very young Don Johnson(twenty-five at the time) and is one of my all time favorite movies, but hardly overlooked. At least by older generations. I’m not sure what the younger folks might think. Quaint probably.
I remember one amusing story back when it was released to theaters. I saw it with friends and a co-worker mentioned taking his young son to see it. He thought it was a Disney film with that title.
Here’s a link to the movie, however long it may stay up. It’s worth watching. At least check out the first few minutes. You might get hooked.
For more overlooked films, and related matters, as always, check out Todd Mason over at SWEET FREEDOM.,
Phoenix Without Ashes, published in 1975, was the novelization of Harlan Ellison’s award winning script, the pilot for a television series called The Starlost. Not the one that aired, which was an unholy mess rewritten against Mr. Ellison’s wishes, causing him to walk away at a large financial loss in order to preserve his integrity. Always fiercely protective of his work, he would not allow his name to be used and, instead, put in the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird to let fans know that what they were about to see was not his work.
At the beginning, there is a forward by Mr. Ellison that puts forth the story of how a decent idea for a new science fiction series was destroyed by the “money” people who were more interested in trading on the writer’s name than putting out anything worth watching. It details how every short cut was used, from cheap writers who didn’t know science fiction to special effects work that was lame even for the times. First he walked away, then Ben Bova, technical consultant, after viewing the first episode.
What eventually emerged last only some sixteen or so episodes before fading into irrelevance and history.
Here’s the plot.
It’s hundreds of years in the future. Way back when, Earth was going to die and a generational ship was built consisting of a number of connected biospheres a hundred kilometers wide. The stars winking in the sky are artificial. Each biosphere has a different culture preserved from Earth, the intent to seed planets and preserve the human race.
Sometime in the distant past, an accident had killed the crew and sent the ship off-course. In the hundreds of years since then, generations had grown and died. It was forgotten that they were on a ship. Each was a self-contained world, which was all theinhabitants knew these days.
Cypress Corners is an Amish type world, the inhabitants very pious, praying for up to eight hours a day. Devon is a dreamer and an outcast. He imagines about stars and space, not satisfied with his small world. This doesn’t sit well with the Elders who have banished him to the hills, believing he can repent when severe conditions will test him.
He survives with help from his only friends, Garth and Rachel, the young woman he loves. They want to marry, but marriages are arranged by genetic manipulation to ensure diversity and Rachel has been promised to Garth, though neither of them are happy about it either.
Devon learns the Elder Micah has manipulated the genetic data and goes with proof to his father. Religious man that he is, dad turns him in and he’s scheduled for death by stoning. Escaping, he flees to the hills and stumbles onto an iris that opens, swallowing him up, falling down a long tube to another biosphere.
In exploring and learning to adapt, Devon finds the control room and learns the horrible truth. In five years, the generational ship will plunge into a sun! Now they will have to listen to him! Yea, right.
Once again, he runs, this time taking Rachel with him to look for help somewhere in the giant ship. The Elders won’t follow down the tube, but send Garth to bring them back.
The idea was each episode would visit a different culture as the young people look for anybody that knows anything about ship operations. Originally it was to be a miniseries, a dozen or so episodes(Mr. Ellison believed it the maximum to sustain the series), but before he knew it, it had been turned into a weekly show.
Reading the longish introduction, one gets a glimpse into just how much the television business values writers, which is to say not at all. It doesn’t seem likely that much has changed all these years later. Also, Ben Bova wrote a novel, The Starcrossed, based on what happened.
Harlan Ellison is hardly a forgotten writer, but I’m working under the assumption there are people today that haven’t read him. They should go right out and find anything by the man. He’s a writer worth reading. I’ve written about him before HERE.
My selection for the first edition of Patti Abbott’s Forgotten Short Stories is THE WHIMPER OF WHIPPED DOGS, the story of a woman brutally murdered in a courtyard while residents watched, not one responding to her cries for help, not even calling the police. The story concerns the aftermath and the decision the young woman protagonist, one of the watchers, makes at the end of the story.
It was inspired by the true life murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. A news story two weeks later reported on the non-response of neighbors to the brutalization that went on only a hundred feet from her apartment door. Stabbed twice, the attacker left, only to return ten minutes later to continue the assault.
The report may have been in error, no one knows for sure anymore. Nevertheless, it inspired a powerful story from Mr. Ellison on the general malaise enveloping people living in the city, the constant violence on TV, the mind your own business attitude of to many of us. It won the Edgar for best short story in 1974, one of the many awards(to numerous to list here) his writing has won in a long career.
It’s easily available in numerous editions.
1. Bad Moon Rising, eidted by Tom Disch: first appearance and reasonably priced with a little search
2. Deathbird Stories: good prices
3: Dreams With Sharp Teeth: omnibus containing Deathbird Stories, Shatterday, and I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream. A nice introduction to the man’s stories for anyone new to Mr. Ellison’s work
4. The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective and the expanded 50 Year Retrospective
Harlan Ellison is one of the best writers working today and one of my top five personal favorites. He’s written short stories, novellas, a handful of novels, for television, the movies, and criticism. Whenever he publishes a book of stories, you get almost as much new material as previously published(long introductions and bits between each story). Never boring, he will make you think, may make you mad, and reading his stories is never an easy experience. But definitely worth the effort.
Ellison has a long history of putting his work first, refusing to sell out for top dollar. It has probably cost him a lot of money over the years, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.He even has a pseudonym to let people know if he’s not happy with what’s been done to his work: Cordwainer Bird.
He doesn’t suffer fools easily either, one of his favorite sayings being, “Everyone is NOT entitled to their own opinion! Everyone is entitled to their own INFORMED opinion!” The wording may not be exact, but it’s close.
Below is a trailer for a documentary made about the man.
He still writes with a manual typewriter, which he’s most comfortable doing. People have cracked on him about that. I don’t know why. He has turned out some wonderful work in his life and been rewarded with innumerable awards(Hugos, Nebulas, Edgars, Writer’s Guild Awards, the list goes on and on). If he’s comfortable doing that, more power to the man.
I’m working on an omnibus of his stories now, DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH, that I may do as a forgotten book sometime. I read a story or two between books, so it may take awhile. There are forty-two gems in this book, which is three previous separate volumes.
I just watched A Boy and His Dog again. One of my favorite films. It’s based on a novella by Harlan Ellison, probably the best filmed of his works. It was made back in the mid-seventies and I originally saw it in it’s first theater run.
Vic And Blood travel the wastelands of Phoenix after WW IV. Vic is seventeen and Blood is a genetically engineered dog that’s more intelligent than Vic. Not hard. The boy was born after the war and has had no formal education. Survival is hard enough.
The two speak telepathetically and Blood seems to have a scanning ability that enables him to do, among other things, locate women for the perpetually horny young teenager. It works out well because Blood lost the ability to hunt for sustenance with his intelligence.
In this strange world, Vic is enticed by a pretty young thing to follow her into the underground where the last remnants of civilization live. It’s a strange society, puritanical on some levels, ruthless on others.
It seems, living underground as they do, the males have all become sterile. Once each generation, after careful consideration, they find a clean subject and use him to impregnate the available young women.
Right up young Vic’s alley, right? Things don’t work out as he hopes.
Vic was played by a very young Don Johnson(twenty-five and looking even younger). Actor L.Q. Jones, more known as a western star, wrote the script and directed the film.
A Boy and His Dog is part of a larger story that Ellison plans. Several other parts have appeared over the years. We’ll see it one day when Mr. Ellison decides it’s ready. I look forward to that day. He’s earned our patience with his wonderful stories for forty+ years.
Another collection of early Ellison. Not really a forgotten book(this edition is just out), but some of his early work published under the name Paul Merchant and a few other pseudonyms.
