It’s hard to believe I’ve contributed 350 Friday’s Forgotten Books posts to Patti Abbott. I wanted to do something a little special to celebrate the occasion so I’ve chosen a book that electrified me the first time I read it. Harlan Ellison’s Ellison Woderland thrilled me in 1962. I was 14 years old and by that time I was reading a book a day. But none of the books I read were as different as Ellison Wonderland. The short stories in this collection were completely original and astonishing for their time. Years later, I read the Bluejay edition of Ellison Wonderland. Harlan Ellison prefers this edition of his stories (he “tweaked” some of them). In the Introduction to this later edition, Ellison writes about the impact Ellison Wonderland had on his writing career. It allowed Ellison to move to L.A. and begin writing for television programs like Burke’s Law and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. So Ellison Wonderland impacted Ellison’s life and my life. If you haven’t read Ellison Wonderland, you’re missing a classic!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: The Man on the Mushroom
Commuter’s Problem
Do-it-yourself
The Silver Corridor
All the Sounds of Fear
Gnomebody
The Sky is Burning
Mealtime
The Very Last Day of a Good Woman
Battlefield
Deal from the Bottom
The Wind Beyond the Mountains
Back to the Drawing Boards
Nothing for My Noon Meal
Hadj
Rain, Rain, Go Away
In Lonely Lands
The early stories are as wild as his later ones – of course he would be as famous if he had written only “A boy and his dog”.
And then of course the anthologies …
Wolf, Harlan Ellison’s stories thrilled me as a kid. As you point out, he went on to write astonishing work!
Great choice Geirge and congrats on your amazing run – 350? Amazing! I have the Bluejay edition, but only read the book in the 80s but fell in love with it. Ellison is a master.
Sergio, Ellison states in the Bluejay edition of ELLISON WONDERLAND that this is his preferred form of these stories. I really like the covers, too!
Here’s my list of Ellison’s books:
0ELLISON HARLAN (SEE I ASIMOV)
%THE FINAL DANGEROUS VISIONS (ED) (NEVER PUBLISHED)
1THE DEADLY STREETS (NO SF)
1GENTLEMAN JUNKIE
1LOVE AIN’T NOTHING BUT SEX MISSPELLED
1THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES
1MEMOS FROM PURGATORY
1SPIDER KISS = ROCKABILLY (NO SF)
1THE TIME OF THE EYE
1WEB OF THE CITY = RUMBLE
3A TOUCH OF INFINITY
3APPROACHING OBLIVION
3THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD
3DEATHBIRD STORIES
3ELLISON WONDERLAND = DER SILBERNE KORRIDOR
3I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM = DIE PUPPE MAGGIE MONEYEYES
3THE ILLUSTRATED HARLAN ELLISON
3NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS
3OVER THE EDGE
3PAINGOD AND OTHER DELUSIONS
3PARTNERS IN WONDER
3SHATTERDAY
3STALKING THE NIGHTMARE (STORIES)
3FROM THE LAND OF FEAR
5AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS 1
5AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS 2
5DANGEROUS VISIONS 1
5DANGEROUS VISIONS 2
5DANGEROUS VISIONS 3
5ALL THE SOUNDS OF FEAR
7THE GLASS TEAT (ESSAYS ON TV)
9ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW
9ANGRY CANDY (STORIES)
9MEDEA :HARLAN’S WORLD
9STRANGE WINE
The numbers mean:
1 novel
3 story collection
5 book edited by him
7 non fiction
9 don’t have or don’t know
His essays on tv are interesting and important too.
Wolf, wow!
Wolf, ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW was (essentially) his choice of his best among his early stories. STRANGE WINE and ANGRY CANDY are collections more like ELLISON WONDERLAND: These are the stories I’ve been writing recently. MEDEA was a shared-world anthology, where a number of scientifically-inclined sf writers devised a planet and ecosystem and intelligent species for that planet, and an interesting mix of writers wrote stories set on Medea–these stories were largely being published in sf magazines just as I was beginning to read the new issues I could pick up, and it was an impressive range that way, even more impressive when assembled. You’ll probably need such books as THE OTHER GLASS TEAT, AN EDGE IN MY VOICE and HARLAN ELLISON’S WATCHING if you’re fond of his nonfiction and critical writing.
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2012/11/ffb-harlan-ellison-4-collections-1.html
Oh, and ALL THE SOUNDS OF FEAR is simply a skimpy UK selection from ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW…more another story collection than an anthology edited by Ellison…
Thanks, Todd!
Wish I had more time to read all those books – actually I haven’t even read all of those then thousand that I bought over the years …
Wolf, whatever Ellison books you lack, you might be able to find in ebook format.
Ellison was a favorite of mine back when I was reading the SF digests of the ’50s. He doesn’t consider the stories he wrote then to be very good, but I enjoyed just about all of them.
Bill, I’m with you on Ellison’s early SF digest stories. Fun reading!
I’m a big Ellison fan too, George. He’s a major talent and influence on the genre. ELLISON WONDERLAND knocked my socks off when I first read it. He always had a raw talent, but around this time he began displaying a more nuanced, fiercer talent (much like Robert Silverberg did with his career during the same timeframe.) Although his shtick seems (to me, anyway) a little out of step for 2015, Ellison is still as angry, still as powerful, and still sitting on THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS.
Jerry, Ellison’s anger will never fade. I relish his rants! You’re right about the parallels with Silverberg’s career. Very perceptive!
No, I haven’t read this one but I see copies are easily available. By coincidence I just got a copy of his WEB OF THE CITY, which I hadn’t read either. The first book of his I read was I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM, one of the classic titles.
Jeff, once you start reading Harlan Ellison’s work, it’s hard to stop. I remember waiting impatiently for the next volume of Ellison’s work in the early 1970s when Pyramid was publishing a book of his a month. And with great Dillon covers, too!
I’ve never read ellison, not a SF fan, and have only read about 3 SF books in my life. When I was a bookseller, a co-worker asked me to find a book she’d been looking for a long time. I HAVE NO MOUTH, said she’d read it as a teenager, and it was her favorite book. She’d loaned it out and not gotten it back. I recall it took a while to find a pb copy.
I also remember doing the Glendale Bookfair, and Ellison was there. He had a reputation of sometimes being difficult, but I thought he was nice IIRC
Maggie, Ellison wrote some mystery stories, too. He won the Edgar for “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” in 1974 and another Edgar in 1988 for “Soft Monkey.” Ellison is a very versatile writer!
Congrats on 350 George! That’s a lot of great reading! I sure appreciate your dedication to FFB.
Rick, Bill Crider has me beat hands down! He was doing FFBs for a year before Patti Abbott invited me. You’ve done a good number of FFBs yourself!
Seeing the Wonderland cover (guy on the mushroom doesn’t look much like him) reminded me of my ancient Ellison first encounter. I was at home, in Shaker Heights, idly watching, in living black & white, the local talk show hosted by Cleveland icon Dorothy Fuldheim (America’s first news anchorwoman), and here came this young writer plugging his new book in his old home town. It was Harlan, whom I’d never heard of. I’ve always assumed it was this book he was plugging, so I went to the internet to check – 1962 would have been about right. I found a reminiscence on Maggie Thompson’s blog, she also a Clevelander, who saw that show & remembered it well (maybe because Harlan didn’t do or say anything outrageous on air). It was Memos From Purgatory he was plugging, 1961, not Ellison Wonderland. I would have been in junior high at the time.
Art, MEMOS FROM PURGATORY was published by Regency Press in 1961 with a memorable Leo & Diane Dillon cover. Here’s a link with more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memos_from_Purgatory
One
Sorry, that misposted.
I was just going to congratulate you on 350. That’s a monumental achievement, and you’ve certainly given me a ton of good ideas, both here and on your blog.
Jeff, thanks for the kind words! This blog wouldn’t be same without your insightful comments!
I meant on FFB and the blog.
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I was following up Jeff’s comment, but then he slipped in a couple more. Never quick enough when it comes to following up Jeff.
Surprised at how much of his work is available as ebooks. I just now downloaded The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World. Thanks for bringing Ellison to mind.
Matt, Ellison made his work available in ebook formats early in the game. He must have known ebooks would be a rapidly growing technology. Very smart.
Ellison was initially reluctant to allow ebooks, fearing piracy would be made even more easy, but came around eventually.
And, indeed, congrats on 350!
Todd, you commented on almost all my 350 FFBs over the years! Thank you!
Congrats on 350, George. By the way, PS Publishing just published a signed/limited HC of Ellison Wonderland. Interestingly (and for better or worse), “All stories revised and corrected by the author.”
http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/ellison-wonderland-slipcased-hardcover-by-harlan-ellison-2704-p.asp
Ron, thanks for the link! That signed/limited edition of ELLISON WONDERLAND would look great under my tree on Christmas!
You’re 350 ahead of me!
I think my first Ellison was Memos From Purgatory, which knocked my socks off!
Which reminds me, is he still doing podcasts?! I need to check!
Bob, I had the same reaction you did to Ellison’s early work.
Great post. I’ll be getting some of his works in the near future. Why is it that some of his work that was published in some of the earlier Science Fiction magazines has never been re-published?
Ernie, Harlan Ellison doesn’t care for his early work when he was learning how to write. Some other writers are the same way. Dean Koontz doesn’t allow his early work to be reprinted, either.