CLEVELAND, Ohio — The late, legendary speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison changed the shape of science fiction — and he’s poised to do it again, with the publication of anthology that’s been anticipated since the early 1970s.
“The Last Dangerous Visions” ($27.99, Blackstone Publishing), the third and final installment of Ellison’s seminal anthology series finally published this fall. That, along with three additional new Ellison-related books, have made this fall a new Ellison wonderland.
Readers can thank TV producer and writer J. Michael Straczynski (”Bablylon 5″). As the executor of Ellison’s estate, Straczynski put his own career on hold to bring his friend and Cleveland native back into the cultural conversation.
And in an essay in “Last Dangerous Visions,” Straczynski discusses how Ellison’s charm, high energy and combativeness were symptoms of undiagnosed mental health struggles.
His mental health struggles also explained, Straczyski writes, why Ellison’s writing dried up in the mid-1980s.
“Toward the end of his life, he finally understood what was going on,” Straczynski said. “It took a long time — almost too late to make a difference. But at least we got him the care that he needed and he had a couple of good years there. But it was it was hard, just knowing what was wrong with him and just trying to tell him you need to see someone and just him being impervious, which is part of the disorder itself.”
Ellison was born in Cleveland. The family moved to Painesville when he was young and he attended elementary school there. They moved back to Cleveland when his father died. Ellison attended Cleveland’s East High School. Ellison died in 2018 at age 84.
Straczynski described Ellison as “an iconoclast, a troublemaker, a rabble rouser, and a force of nature.”
A prolific writer before being struck with writer’s block, Ellison’s oeuvre includes short stories, comic book scripts, essays, screenplays and critical essays on film, television and literature. The Washington Post hailed Ellison as “one of the great living American short story writers.”
He wrote the highly regarded 1967 Star Trek episode “The City of the Edge of Forever.” Some of his best-known stories, such as “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” and “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman,” appear in the new collection, “Greatest Hits” ($19.99, Union Square and Co.). The collection, edited by Straczynski, was published in March.
Writer Harlan Ellison speaks on stage during the 13th annual Star Trek convention at the Rio Hotel & Casino on August 3, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A collection of his short stories, and a three-volume anthology that he edited, were published posthumously this year. Eillson was a Cleveland native.FilmMagic
Ellison won the most prestigious prizes for science fiction and mystery writing multiple times. He also fought for civil rights in the ‘60s and the intellectual rights of writers in the internet era. One of his proudest moments was marching in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Famously outspoken and frequently combative during personal appearances, Ellison gleefully billed his April 2003 talk at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as “A Hellishly Annoying Evening With Harlan Ellison.”
To set the table for “Last Dangerous Visions,” the previous anthologies “Dangerous Visions” (1967) and “Again, Dangerous Visions” (1972) were republished this year from Blackstone Publishing. The groundbreaking anthologies present stories that that took the genre to a new level and ushered in the genre’s New Wave.
“The Last Dangerous Visions” presents never-before-published short stories, poems and essays by authors such as David Brin, A.E. Van Vogt, James S.A. Corey (the novel series “The Expanse”), Mildred Downey Broxon and Cory Doctorow (“Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom”).
All three installments contain stories that Ellison selected. He would be pleased that his work is now in front of a new audience, Straczynski said.
“Harlan had a deep mortal dread of being forgotten,” Straczynski said in a recent interview. “He wrote for posterity, he wanted to be remembered, he wanted the work to go on.”
In that interview, Straczynski also discussed the reason why a disclaimer was added to “Greatest Hits,” the effect that the first “Dangerous Vision” anthologies had on the science fiction genre, how the genre has become more diverse, and more. Answers were edited for brevity and clarity.
Cleveland native and speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison’s “The Last Dangerous Visions” has been published in 2024 after having been first announced in the 1970s. The book includes stories selected by Ellison and J. Michael Straczynski.Blackstone Publishing
Q: How do you think fans will react to your raw, brutally honest essay about Ellison’s mental health struggles? That part of his life wasn’t generally known.
A: I don’t know. Harlan drilled into me that you can’t worry about that. My only job was to be ruthlessly honest, to say, look, no one’s perfect. Here were the flaws. Here were the things that happened to him, here were the problems he faced psychologically. But underneath it all, was a good and decent man who fought on the right side of history and wanted to elevate other writers.
Q: Was Ellison’s bipolar disorder part of his genius?
A: There’s this notion that somehow genius and madness are interrelated. And whether your madness causes genius or genius causes madness is the open question. I think that he would have been as good a writer had he not been manic depressive, probably bipolar. But certainly the energy that he had during the early, more manic bipolar days, propelled him on his career, and gave him a certain sense of invulnerability that’s required to be able to succeed as a writer.
Q: Is Ellison’s work still important to science fiction?
A: To my way of thinking, his stuff is as relevant now as when it was first published. And I wanted to prove that to the world, No. 1, and No. 2, to finish up “The Last Dangerous Visions,” even if it was posthumously.
Q: “Greatest Hits” carries a controversial disclaimer stating that Ellison’s stories “may contain outdated cultural representations and language.” Can you speak to that?
A: Right now, libraries at universities and high schools are very particularly sensitive about what they allow in. Initially I bristled at the idea (of adding the disclaimer). But we put that one paragraph at the front of the book, then suddenly, this book can be in high school and college libraries.
Q: What kind of impact did the first two “Dangerous Visions” anthologies have on science fiction when they were first published?
A: Science fiction (in the 1940s and 1950s) had been very male-oriented, and never touched taboo subjects. Coming into the 1960s, a few writers were trying to take it in a different direction. But they were having a really hard time making the sales.
Science Fiction Writer Harlan Ellison poses for portrait on November 3, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. A collection of his short stories, and a three-volume anthology that he edited, were published posthumously this year. Eillson was a Cleveland native.Beth Gwinn
Harlan went to leading writers, and said, ‘Look, if you could just write what you wanted to write, what would it be?’ And that became the first volume of “Dangerous Visions,” which codified what became known as the New Wave science fiction movement. After “Dangerous Visions,” you’d have books that dealt with relationships, politics, homelessness and sexuality, which you could not do before.
Q: Why republish “Dangerous Visions” and “Again, Dangerous Visions”?
A: You can’t just publish “The Last Dangerous Visions” by itself. You have to lead up to it. So we made a decision to republish the first two “Dangerous Visions” anthologies with new introductions.
Q: There has been criticism that “Dangerous Visions” and “Again Dangerous Visions” are full of white, male authors, and the genre has diversified since the anthologies were first published.
A: They are correct in the sense that, at that time, there were not a lot of women, people of color or diversity in science fiction. We now have more diverse writers.
Q: How did you approach “Last Dangerous Visions,” a project that had been stalled for so many years?
A: It had to be Harlan’s vision. My job was not to do my version of “Last Dangerous Visions,” but to see his vision through. Harlan was buying stories (through the years) to keep the book current as a living document, rather than a thing of nostalgia. Now we have this core of the stories that Harlan chose that are solid.
I reached out to James S.A. Corey, Max Brooks (“World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War”) and Cory Doctorow. And I said what Harlan said, way back when, which is, “If you had the freedom to write whatever you want to write, what would it be?” And in came these stories.
I also went to diverse writers and female writers, and said, bring me stuff. And what came back was really, really very cool.
What I found most interesting is that you would think that the stories written in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s would be different in their concerns than they are right now.
But the thing is, look around the culture. We’re fighting over contraception, we’re fighting over birth control, we’re fighting over abortion, women’s rights and civil rights, and gay rights and transgender rights. It’s the same fights. The monster in front of us is the same monster we had 40 years ago.
Julie Washington covers healthcare for cleveland.com. Read previous stories at this link.
