The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Harlan Ellison has died. Initial reports are that Ellison died unexpectedly in his sleep.
Ellison was a much loved and much loathed figure in the science fiction and fantasy field. I’ll not try to list all of his award-winning work. Others will do that far better than I can.
I met Harlan only once, at an Aggiecon in the early 2000s. He was everything I’d heard he was.
Harlan had pretty much stopped writing after he had a stroke a few years ago. A Kickstarter last year (which I pledged) is going to be bringing a lot of his work back into print.
Adventures Fantastic would like to extend condolences to Harlan’s widow Susan as well Harlan’s many friends and fans.
I really don’t know what else to say. Harlan’s life was too big to be summed up in a blog post. I picked up duplicate copies of several of his books last week when I was in Dallas. I’ll read one this evening and raise a glass in his memory.
Terrible shame. I knew he wasn’t doing very well. I still remember reading “Repent Harlequin” as a teenager and being blown away.
I read that one as a teenager as well. It was amazing.
The best thing I remember reading by him was the foreword to ANGRY CANDY. It was a catalogue of all the friends he had lost in recent years. It’s been a long time since I read it but it was heart rending.
I’ve always loved and hated his fiction and his public persona. The Book on the Edge of Forever by Christopher Priest about the never-published last DANGEROUS VISIONS book is one of the funniest and most infuriating things I’ve ever read.
That said, his is a joyous/angry/enraging voice sci-fi could use by the bushelful today. I will miss it.
I remember that foreword. It’s been on my mind a lot since I learned of Harlan’s death. I may reread it today.
I always enjoyed his essays more than his fiction (although I enjoyed much of that, too) even if I didn’t agree with many of his positions on politics. Ellison’s antics often turned me off. Like you, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with his work and public persona. I’m glad Priest wrote The Book on the Edge of Forever and pulled the curtain back on that boondoggle. When I met Harlan in the early 2000’s, he was still staying the book would be published. I think in the last few years, he finally admitted it wouldn’t see the light of day.
Ah, sad news. Last night I raised a bit of Irish to his memory, and watched The Outer Limit episode “Demon With A Glass Hand”.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that episode. If so, it was decades ago.
‘Demon With A Glass Hand” was the first episode of OUTER LIMITS I ever watched. (My older brother gifted me the VHS.) I still love the episode – it’s excellent.
I’ll look it up.
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