Harlan Ellison

Harlan Jay Ellison (Cleveland, May 27, 1934 - Los Angeles, June 28, 2018) was a prolific and noted writer of novels and short stories specializing in fantasy literature, horror and, above all, science fiction.

Her published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novels, screenplays, and essays in literature, film, television, and print. He was editor and anthologist, highlighting in this area the compilation of the anthology Dangerous Visions (1967), paradigmatic of the movement known as New Wave . Ellison won numerous awards, including several Hugos, Nebula, and Edgar. His best works include the Star Trek episode "The City at Eternity's End", A Boy and His Dog, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and Repent, Harlequin! said Mr. Tic-tac.

He is credited with creating The Terminator having created two scripts for the episodes "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand" (Demon with a Glass Hand 1964) belonging to the series "The Outer Limits" that James Cameron later plagiarized, reaching legal instances with him but only reaching an agreement so that the name of this original author appears in the credits.

Biography

Harlan Jay Ellison was born on May 27, 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio. Ellison was bullied as a child. He entered Ohio State University in 1951, but was expelled in 1953. In 1955 he He moved to New York, where he lived in the same boarding house as Robert Silverberg. Between 1957 and 1959 he served in the United States Army. Later he went to Chicago, where he worked as an editor at Rogue Magazine.In 1962 he moved to southern California and began to have contact with the world of television.

Ellison was married five times: Charlotte B. Stein (1956-60), Billie Joyce Sanders (1960-63), Loretta Patrick (for 7 weeks in 1966), Lori Horowitz (1976-77), and Susan Toth from 1986 until the time of his death.

It should be noted that it is not easy to create a rigorously accurate biography of the author, since there are many different versions of his life, some of them totally absurd, but others very credible. It is difficult to distinguish the real facts from those that are not, because the author liked to joke (on his page web you can even see a compilation of very imaginative fictional biographies).

Literary career

Ellison had discovered science fiction through a story by Jack Williamson in 1946, and by the early 1950s he was already involved in the world of fandom and wrote his own fanzine. In 1949 he managed to publish his first stories (“The Gloconda” and “The Sword of Parmagon”) in his hometown newspaper Cleveland News. In 1956 he began submitting science fiction stories to various magazines (more than a hundred short stories and articles). In 1962 he moved to southern California and began to have contact with the world of television, for which he wrote numerous material for science fiction series such as "The Outer Limits", The Twilight Zone, Star Trek: the original series or Babylon. 5.

Throughout his forty-year career, he won many awards for the large number of books he wrote or edited, as well as for his stories, essays, newspaper articles and columns, and scripts for television series. These awards include the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker awards, the Horror Writers Association award, several Edgar Allan Poe and several Audie.

His most famous stories are The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World), No I have a mouth and I must scream (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream), Repent, Harlequin!, said Mr. Tic-tac ( Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman) and A Boy and His Dog.

Her work has been adapted into other media, including a video game based on I have no mouth and I must scream, in which her voice appeared as a representation of the computer.