An Evening of Lively Argument

with Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, and Peter David

7:00 pm in MIT's Main Kresge Auditorium

Saturday, October 6, 2001

About Harlan Ellison

He has drawn attention to the art of writing by performing the remarkable feat of actually creating and executing stories int he windows of bookstores (in Paris, London, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and elsewhere); stories that have gone on to win major awards and literary prizes. To gain background for his first major novel, dealing with juvenile delinquency, he went under an assumed name and ran with a kid gang in Brooklyn's dangerous Red Hook sections for ten weeks. He has covered and written about civil rights marches, riots, antiwar demonstrations and other scenes of civil unrest. His two books of tv essays, THE GLASS TEAT and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT, have sold millions of copies and are currently being taught in media classes in more than 200 American Universities.

Ellison has traveled with rock groups such as The Rolling Stones, and his novel of the scene, SPIDER KISS, is called by music critic Greil Marcus "...the finest novel about the world of rock in the past quarter century."

In a 1980 landmark lawsuit he suit and beat ABC-TV and Paramount pictures for $337,000 when they plagiarized a television series he had created. This was the famous Brillo/Future Cop case. (the genesis of the Terminator films)

Among his most recognized works, translated into 26 languages and selling in the millions of copies, are DEATHBIRD STORIES, STRANGE WINE, APPROACHING OBLIVION, I HAVE NO MOUTH & I MUST SCREAM, WEB OF THE CITY, LOVE AIN'T NOTHING BUT SEX MISSPELLED, ELLISON WONDERLAND, MEMOS FROM PURGATORY, ALL THE LIES THAT ARE MY LIFE, SHATTERDAY, STALKING THE NIGHTMARE; and as creative intelligence and editor of the all-time bestselling DANGEROUS VISIONS anthologies and MEDEA: HARLAN'S WORLD, he has been awarded the prestigious Milford Award for Lifetime Achievement in Editing

His latest publications include: THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON (Nemo Press, 1987; Morpheus, 1991), an enormous 1,000+ page, thirty-five year restrospective of his work; ANGRY CANDY (Houghton Mifflin, 1988), which was awarded the World Fantasy award for best short story collection, 1989, and was listed in the Encyclopedia Americana Annual as one of the major works of American Literature for 1988; HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING (Underwood-Miller, 1988), a compilation of 20 years of film criticism; THE HARLAN ELLISON HORNBOOK (Penzler Books; Mirage Press, 1990); HARLAN ELLISON'S MOVIE (Mirage Press, 1990); DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH (Book-of-the-Month Club, 1991); MEPHISTO IN ONYX (Mark V. Ziesing, 1993); MIND FIELDS (Morpheus, 1994) with Polish artist Jacek Yerka; I, ROBOT: THE ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY (based on Isaac Asimov's story-cycle; Warner Books, 1994); THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER screenplay (Borderlands Press, 1995 and White Wolf, Sept. 1996); SLIPPAGE (Mark V. Ziesing, March 1997 and Houghton Mifflin, August 1997); and the coffee table edition of "REPENT, HARLEQUIN!" SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN (Underwood Books, October 1997) with paintings rendered by Rick Berry.

May (1996) saw the publication, by White Wolf Publishing, of EDGEWORKS: The Collected Ellison (Vol 1). This first of a series of 20 volumes of the collected fiction, essays, teleplays and columns contains the books AN EDGE IN MY VOICE and OVER THE EDGE, with completely revised, updated and expanded manuscripts...the variorum texts! November (1996) saw the publication of the second EDGEWORKS omnibus, containing the books SPIDER KISS and STALKING THE NIGHTMARE. May (1997) marked the third volume of the noted EDGEWORKS series, containing THE HARLAN ELLISON HORNBOOK and HARLAN ELLISON'S MOVIE. EDGEWORKS #4 was published November 1997 and contained the books LOVE AIN'T NOTHING BUT SEX MISSPELLED and THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD. EDGEWORKS #5 (September 1998) will see the first time Ellison's landmark TV columns THE GLASS TEAT and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT will be published in one volume.

Ellison served as Creative Consultant on the revival of the CBS-TV series The Twilight Zone until in late November of 1985, at which time he resigned (to considerable media attention) due to network censorship of a script dealing with racism that he had written and was in the process of directing. Ellison served as Conceptual Consultant for the extremely popular syndicated hit series, Babylon 5, which premiered January 1994. Recently, Ellison adapted his short story "The Face of Helen Bournow" as a teleplay for an upcoming Showtime cable series.

Also a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Ellison has voiceover credits for shows including Pirates of Darkwater, Mother Goose and Grimm, Space Cases, Phantom 2049 and Babylon 5 (in the episode titled "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" Harlan plays the Voice of the B5 Computer, and in the episode "Day of the Dead" you can hear him as "Zooty." ). Ellison's first TV appearance as a fictional character was also on Babylon 5 in the episode "The Face of the Enemy". He played a Psy-Cop opposite Walter Koenig as "Bester." He was also recently a weekly commentator on the USA Networks "Buzz" show.

Harlan Ellison can also be heard as the voice of the insane god-computer AM on the recently-released CD-Rom computer game, the bestselling I HAVE NO MOUTH, AND I MUST SCREAM. Though Mr. Ellison doesn't even own a computer, he has amazed the world of electronic entertainment by creating and implementing a cutting edge "ethical scenario" that one reviewr lauded as "A game that challenges both intelligence and wisdom, and in this longtime gameplayer's experience, it stands practically alone in the gaming landscape."

Harlan Ellison's 1992 novelette "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" was selected from among more than 6,000 short stories published in the U.S. for inclusion in the 1993 edition of THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.

After three years in production, January 1995 saw the debut of Ellison's own ongoing, monthly comic book from Dark Horse called HARLAN ELLISON'S DREAM CORRIDOR. In its first year of publication the graphic narrative magazine garnered such overwhelming and unanimous rave reviews--and the original stories Ellison wrote for each issue won so many awards--the in August of 1996 the magazine was re-launched in bookstore format, with more pages, as HARLAN ELLISON'S DREAM CORRIDOR QUARTERLY.

"Chatting with Anubis", an original short story written especially for HARLAN ELLISON'S DREAM CORRIDOR (#4), won The Deathrealm Award for the Best Short Fiction of 1995 and the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction which was given out by the Horror Writers Association in June 1996. At the same awards ceremony, Harlan Ellison was also given the Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1990, Ellison was honored by P.E.N for continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship. He lives with his wife, Susan, inside the Lost Aztec Temple of Mars, in Los Angeles.

As Tom Snyder said on the NBC Tomorrow show: "An amazing talent; meeting him is an incredible experience."

Isaac Asimov on Ellison

For additional information, please call LSC's Hotline at 617-253-3791 or e-mail lsc@mit.edu.