FORGOTTEN BOOKS #357: THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: A 35-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON
My sister in Arizona found a copy of THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: A 35-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE edited by Terry Dowling with Richard Delap and Gil Lamont and sent it to me as a Christmas present. This 1200+ page tome presents the best of Ellison’s work. And, as usual, Ellison’s introductions and notes on his work grip you with their intensity. Harlan Ellison dominated the science fiction awards for years. The range of these stories is impressive. And the portrait of a young struggling writer slowly developing into a legendary figure will remain memorable. I came away from reading THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON wit renewed respect for the man and his work.
Table of Contents
Introduction : sublime rebel 1
Lagniappe 5
The sword of Parmagon 15
The Gloconda 21
The wilder one 27
The saga of Machine Gun Joe 29
Introduction to Glowworm 31
Glowworm 35
Life hutch 47
S.R.O. 59
Lonelyache 73
Punky and the Yale men 89
A prayer for no one’s enemy 113
Pulling hard time 131
In lonely lands 139
The time of the eye 145
Grail 153
I have no mouth, and I must scream 177
Corpse 191
The whimper of whipped dogs 199
The voice in the garden 219
Erotophobia 221
Mom 227
Ecowareness 239
The outpost undiscovered by tourists 241
Dept. of “what was the question?” dept 245
Dept. of “Trivial Pursuit” dept 247
Prince Myshkin, and hold the relish 251
The very last day of a good woman 261
Valerie : A true memoir 269
The other eye of Polyphemus 283
All the birds come home to roost 291
The tombs : an excerpt from Memos from purgatory 307
“Our little miss” 347
A love song for Jerry Falwell 355
Telltale tics and tremors 361
True love : groping for the Holy Grail 371
Adrift just off the Islets of Langerhans : latitude 38[degrees] 54’N, longitude 77[degrees] 00′ 13″W 391
The function of dream sleep 419
The sky is burning 447
The prowler in the city at the edge of the world 455
Along the scenic route 473
The song the zombie sang 483
Knox 495
With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole 509
From Alabamy, with hate 531
My father 543
My mother 549
Tired old man 557
Gopher in the gilly 567
Strange wine 573
The resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie 585
Flintlock : An unproduced teleplay 655
The man on the mushroom 735
Somehow, I don’t think we’re in Kansas, Toto 739
Face-down in Gloria Swanson’s swimming pool 755
Soldier 763
The night of delicate terrors 781
Shattered like a glass goblin 789
At the mouse circus 797
Free with this box! 809
Final shtick 817
One life, furnished in early poverty 827
Jeffty is five 841
Daniel White for the greater good 863
Neither your Jenny nor mine 873
Alive and well and on a friendless voyage 907
“Repent, harlequin!” said the Ticktockman 923
Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes 933
A boy and his dog 951
The deathbird 985
Paladin of the lost hour 1011
Soft monkey 1031
Mefisto in onyx 1043
Where I shall dwell in the next world 1089
The museum on Cyclops Avenue 1099
Objects of desire in the mirror are closer than they appear 1109
Man on spikes 1119
Introduction to “Tired old man” 1127
The man who rowed Christopher Columbus ashore 1131
The thick red moment 1151
The man who was heavily into revenge 1169
Driving in the spikes 1181
An edge in my voice, installment 55 1191
The streets, installment 1 1195
Xenogenesis 1199
Afterword 1237

20 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN BOOKS #357: THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: A 35-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

  1. Wolf Böhrendt

    George, Harlan is in a class of his own!
    I also tremendously enjoyed his stories – and of course the collections he edited

    Just the titles ar enough to give you the creeps sometimes – like ” I have no mouth, and I must scream”

    On the other hand – a book with 1200 pages?

    A bit OT:
    My wife has now taken to reading ebooks – luckily her son is a computer whizz and “finds” many books in Hungarian to copy …

    The last books made from dead tres she read were the George Martin titles – and I had to cut these paperbacks into three parts for her to hold …

    Btw the books and the tv-series are big hits here in Hungary and my wife is waiting for the next – seems that the tv series will appear before the books.

    Reply
  2. Wolf Böhrendt

    Here’s my list of Harlan’s books:
    1 are novels
    3 collections
    5 is code for editor
    9 I don’t own or am not sure about the title, maybe a reprint

    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

    Reply
  3. Jerry House

    The book was expanded at the beginning of the milennium as THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON: A 50-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE. Both make fascinating reading.

    Reply
  4. Jeff Meyerson

    I have to agree with Wolf – 1200 pages, even of Harlan, is a lot. I do like reading his introductions and the rest. I think I prefer him in smaller bites, however.

    Reply
  5. Richard R.

    As Wolf said, “Harlan is in a class of his own”. However it’s a class I don’t wish to attend. I read Dangerous Visions back in the day, and it was enough. His bad boy attitude puts me off.

    Reply
  6. Matt Paust

    I’m sorta with Richard on this. I downloaded Dangerous Visions recently and have been dipping into it now and again. I find Ellison intriguing, probably a genius, but a tad off-putting. The heart in his writing voice seems enclosed in an impenetrable shell. His reputation in personal encounters is that of a mad dog. Philip K. Dick recounts in a published journal entry that Ellison accosted him once–I recall in a bar, probably at a Bouchercon, and “tore me up one side and down the other.” Dick didn’t say what was at issue, but he indicated they remained friends. Had I been Dick in that situation, I can’t imagine remaining friends with someone who pulled something like that on me. One of us might even have ended up on the floor.

    Reply
  7. Denny Lien

    To Wolf: Three of the four Ellison books you noted “as not sure about” are indeed short story collections by him, while MEDEA is a shared-world anthology set up and edited by Ellison (and including one Ellison story).

    Reply
    1. Wolf Böhrendt

      Thanks, Denny!

      I had to give up being a “completist” when I found that some books are just too difficult/expensive to get, but I tried to list them all – of course not all the special editions, I’m not that crazy …
      Still I got more books than I’ll ever be able to read – unless I get to a hundred years!

      Reply
  8. Cap'n Bob

    Sounds like something I’d like! Was Ellison ever at a Bouchercon? I can’t remember his being announced as a guest! Maybe Worldcon was what he meant!

    Reply

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