STORIES FOR BEDTIME, left in the hotel room at The Phoenician, AZ for guest enjoyment $27.00

July 5, 2010 9:11 PM

Is it possible to have too many books? Legendary Sci-Fi Author and Crankypants Harlan Ellison thinks so (or maybe his wife) so it's time for the Third Harlan Ellison Book Purge Sale! 289 items of varying levels of collectability, ranging in price from US$4 to US$1200. The eBay-averse Ellisons are only accepting mail orders (mailing deadline already past, sorry) or phone orders via a dedicated phone number at specified times, starting July 6th (today for most of you) at 9:00AM Pacific Time, your timezone will vary. All the offerings and instructions are in this pdf (also in semi-readable webpage form here). Mrs. Ellison is standing by!
posted by oneswellfoop (61 comments total)

It's certainly very easy to have too many Harlan Ellison books, by which I mean one, and it pleases me to see that he agrees and is actually getting rid of copies of his own works.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:32 PM on July 5, 2010 [9 favorites]

It must be awfully sad to be so old when your whole entire complete schtick is being an angry young man.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 9:33 PM on July 5, 2010 [12 favorites]

If I wasn't buying a house I'd be all over this.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:40 PM on July 5, 2010

It's certainly very easy to have too many Harlan Ellison books, by which I mean one,...

Comeon, Boy and His Dog was good, not great but I liked it anyway, and Dangerous Visions was great, because he only wrote one story and the dumb introductions.

So Elison isn't a bibliophibian; that proves... something, not sure what, but I always suspected it was so.
posted by Some1 at 9:42 PM on July 5, 2010

If I was buying a house I might be I interested. As is no room for collecting things.
posted by grobstein at 9:42 PM on July 5, 2010

I thought Mind Fields was exceptional, as uses for a square yard of space go.
posted by kid ichorous at 9:50 PM on July 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

It must be awfully sad to be so old when your whole entire complete schtick is being an angry young man.

Don't forget litigious!
posted by zarq at 9:59 PM on July 5, 2010

I liked that documentary about him.
posted by mecran01 at 10:11 PM on July 5, 2010

If you're Neil Gaiman and you've just heard this news, are you thinking, "that's the last time I go out of my way to give nice gifts to Harlan Ellison"?
posted by ShawnStruck at 10:25 PM on July 5, 2010 [10 favorites]

Wow. I have many of these books. I was a huge Ellison fan when I was 18 or so. I actually had a radio show (just music) Friday nights from midnight to six called Approaching Oblivion. I met Ellison once at a book signing. There was a limit of 2 books per person and a huge turnout. He signed my first book and then looked at the second and said, "What do you want for it?" and then explained that it was one of the only books of his that he didn't have a copy of--said someone had stolen it from his house. I looked at his table of books for sale but I had them all so I said he could have the book (I actually had another copy) if I could come back with all my books and he'd sign them all. He agreed. I returned with probably 50 books of various editions and true to his word he signed every damn one of them. That was almost 25 years ago and I think I still have them all. They're boxed up with an equal qty of Dick first editions. Weird to look at that page of covers.
posted by dobbs at 10:44 PM on July 5, 2010 [27 favorites]

Ellison is married again? How many is this, 7?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:47 PM on July 5, 2010

I met him, and went to his house. He has a lot of stuff. He was cranky, and didn't bother to put on a shirt.
posted by joelf at 11:12 PM on July 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

I met him, and went to his house. He has a lot of stuff. He was cranky, and didn't bother to put on a shirt.

Fuck, this actually makes me like him more than I did. Why am I having visions of pairing him with Danny Devito and getting shithammered? Man, I bet that would be more fun then a barrel of sodium and a lake.
posted by loquacious at 11:18 PM on July 5, 2010 [3 favorites]

In 1996 or so, Ellison stood me up for Thanksgiving dinner, pleading exhaustion after returning from a cross-country trip. (It was supposed to be Harlan, Robert Bloch, Julius Schwartz, a couple of other writers whose names escape me, and a number of hangers on, including me.) No, no, too tired, couldn't possibly, &c.

On the day of, we saw him at the same restaurant we were at, eating with J. Michael Straczynski.

My dislike for him continues to this day, irrational though it may be.
posted by That's Numberwang! at 11:27 PM on July 5, 2010 [12 favorites]

What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?
— Jerry Seinfeld
posted by uncanny hengeman at 11:46 PM on July 5, 2010

ShawnStruck If you're Neil Gaiman and you've just heard this news, are you thinking, "that's the last time I go out of my way to give nice gifts to Harlan Ellison"?

I hear you. It is always surprising to me when I acquire a book that has been inscribed by the author, especially when it is addressed to a prominent person or another author. Yet such books are routinely on offer at estate sales, auctions and even public library book sales (where I have picked up some).
posted by mlis at 12:21 AM on July 6, 2010

If it was 1996, That's Numberwang!, Ellison and Straczynski were working hard on how to finish Season 4 of Babylon 5, not knowing if it would get a Season 5. Serious business, but considering how it turned out, it's okay to dislike him.

Sidenote: I went to IMDB to double-check the Babylon 5 dates and saw that, in addition to his ONE Star Trek, TWO Outer Limitses, TWO B5s (and all that Consulting) and creating The Starlost, he also wrote FOUR episodes of Burke's Law, TWO of The Man from UNCLE, a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, one ep of Logan's Run: The Series and a freaking FLYING NUN. Television-wise, I think he's suffered enough. Or we have.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:32 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?

I, on the other hand, am deeply uncomfortable in homes where there are not significant numbers of books on display. It's like being in some kind of depressing mausoleum.
posted by Justinian at 2:32 AM on July 6, 2010 [11 favorites]

When I discovered Bookmooch and Amazon marketplace I discovered that shelfspace and minor delay/inconvenience were easy trade-offs.

There are still three bookcases double-stacked in my flat, but they're only full of the *good* stuff.
posted by Molesome at 3:18 AM on July 6, 2010

Ellison threatened my life once. We were dickering over fifty cents at a convention. He said "I could have you killed, you know." I said "Thank you, Mr. Ellison, I feel like I have arrived." Customer service first!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:06 AM on July 6, 2010 [4 favorites]

What do you need it for after you read it?

To read again? To lend to someone else? To have your kids read? And yes, as "trophies" by which I mean "conversation starters and displays of my interest".
posted by DU at 4:18 AM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

He was l'enfant terrible to early sf writers, first as a fan and then as a colleague. I vaguely seem to remember some of his nasty comments or letters in the sf magazines of the sixties. I confess that his first short story that I read was also the last of his writings that I read.
posted by francesca too at 4:19 AM on July 6, 2010

Even as someone who still treasures my old Ellison paperbacks, I'm pretty sure that I'd rank having direct business dealings with Ellison down there with smacking my own balls with a badminton racket.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:37 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can't stand being in a house where there aren't books to look at. If you haven't at least three shelves packed with books, you are not a person. No, as a matter of fact, I don't care that you were backpacking around Europe. Fuck you and get some O'Nan on your shelves instead of fucking around with your god-damned iPhone.
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:21 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd rank having direct business dealings with Ellison down there with smacking my own balls with a badminton racket.

There's an "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" joke in there, somewhere.
posted by Optamystic at 5:23 AM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Deathbird Stories Deatbird Stories Deathbird Stories. A man can do, say or be anything he likes after that. Writing Deathbird Stories trumps everything.
posted by Wrick at 5:47 AM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

I can't stand being in a house where there aren't books to look at. If you haven't at least three shelves packed with books, you are not a person.

I don't keep books in my house. Well, I have the ones I am reading and a few books (like, six) that I can't allow to leave my presence, but otherwise, you wouldn't consider me a person. It's too bad. I discovered the public library. I have more room for art, speakers, and mugs full of pens. Also, if you ever get an infestation of bedbugs or other... actually I don't want to think about it.

I'd buy some of Harlan Ellison's books but I can get them for free at the library. I think he's ok. I couldn't really get into Babylon 5.
posted by fuq at 5:58 AM on July 6, 2010

I'd buy some of Harlan Ellison's books but I can get them for free at the library. I think he's ok. I couldn't really get into Babylon 5.

It makes me sad that Ellison is associated in even a small way with Babylon 5. His career spans decades and B5 was barely even a tiny blip in it.
posted by Justinian at 6:00 AM on July 6, 2010

This is very interestin— ARE THESE TWO MAD MAX MOVIES SHOT BACK TO BACK YESTHEYARE!
posted by ersatz at 6:07 AM on July 6, 2010

I find his non-fiction essays much more entertaining than his fiction.
posted by rfs at 6:42 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

It makes me sad that Ellison is associated in even a small way with Babylon 5. His career spans decades and B5 was barely even a tiny blip in it.

It's not terribly easy to come by Ellison's work. I like his writing, but I've only read his stories one at a time as they turn up in some anthology or other. You kind of have to make an effort to find work by non-novelist writers.

Now on the other hand, stories about Harlan Ellison, those are a dime a dozen.
posted by CaseyB at 6:58 AM on July 6, 2010

I think they should do a Mad Max / Terminator crossover. And they should make an incautious remark about the Outback looking like the ruins near the City On The Edge Of Forever, and have it tied up in litigation forever.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:58 AM on July 6, 2010

I hear you. It is always surprising to me when I acquire a book that has been inscribed by the author, especially when it is addressed to a prominent person or another author. Yet such books are routinely on offer at estate sales, auctions and even public library book sales (where I have picked up some).

It's even more awkward when you go to Half Price Books and find one of your own books, inscribed to the owner of an area shop where you once gave a lecture/workshop. Ask me how I know this... (sigh)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:28 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?
— Jerry Seinfeld

I, on the other hand, am deeply uncomfortable in homes where there are not significant numbers of books on display. It's like being in some kind of depressing mausoleum.

Yeah, it was just a relevant quote I remembered. I'm a book hoarder myself, but I have to agree with Jerry somewhat. They're only on display, rarely do I refer to them again. I've lent a few, and they always come back trashed which irks me no end. I can't have a trashed book as a trophy!

But I like your point, too. I am a renowned bookshelf peruser at other peoples' houses during quiet moments at BBQs and similar gatherings.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 7:35 AM on July 6, 2010

I, on the other hand, am deeply uncomfortable in homes where there are not significant numbers of books on display.

I am such an amazing slacker when it comes to organizing my living space that months after moving into my current apartment, books are pretty much all that is on display. There is also a sledge hammer.
posted by adamdschneider at 7:36 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

A study on having books in the home: Whether rich or poor, residents of the United States or China, illiterate or college graduates, parents who have books in the home increase the level of education their children will attain....
posted by louigi at 7:49 AM on July 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm surprised by the Ellison hate here. My first wife was a friend of his and I met him several times. He was always very pleasant. But that was in the mid- late- 70's so I guess he's had time to personally piss a lot of people off. But personality aside I like his writing and would be all over this if I wasn't poor.
posted by Splunge at 7:57 AM on July 6, 2010

I'm surprised by the Ellison hate here.

I don't know about -here- specifically, but I know anyone who goes to conventions and publicly gropes women, harasses them with unwanted comments, for decades, is someone who has had more than enough time to learn the basic rule of "don't touch people when they don't want to be touched" - and chosen not to learn it.
posted by yeloson at 8:29 AM on July 6, 2010 [5 favorites]

He can be pleasant; he can also be an asshole. (I have met him more than once.) Pleasant behavior tends not to be as memorable as assholery, especially his brand of belligerent and crazed assholery.
posted by languagehat at 8:32 AM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Also, what yeloson said.
posted by languagehat at 8:33 AM on July 6, 2010

It was his belligerence and crazed assholery I always prized most. I loved his Glass Teat political/social rants when I was young - more than his fiction - and admired his eagerness to be arrogant and abrasive and hilarious. Still do.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:40 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

In his writing, yeah, it's exhilarating. Not so much in person.
posted by languagehat at 8:52 AM on July 6, 2010

What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?
— Jerry Seinfeld

Reference. Half our shelf space is medical and or science reference works, papers, journals, and other things you need to create coursework or have easily on hand, the other bit are art reference, workbooks, history and my modest collection of illustrated books which can serve as inspiration or as lovely art objects to have - being able to pull out a reference to say Winny The Pooh and get the exact line I want just simply GETTING UP and WALKING TWO FEET is immense.


Umberto Eco To the Rescue

I liked Angry Candy
posted by The Whelk at 9:10 AM on July 6, 2010

If nothing else, I enjoy the fragments of stories woven into these listings. For example:

8) I, ROBOT. TRUE FIRST EDITION. One of 10 prepared by Harland Ellison and Edward Lewis for initial submission to Warner Bros. SIGNED BY HE. "Revised First Draft July 27, 1978." 197 Xerox pages. [Bound in silver covers, titled in rust-red, this is the real goods. Only the ten ever existed, and over the last quarter century HE has permitted only one or two of the four or five he retained in 1978 to be sold. Since the awful Will Smith movie has nothing to do with this screenplay, it now seems likely HE's vision will never reach the silver screen, so silver covers are the next best thing, perhaps.] (1) $700.00

I feel bad that Will Smith got the brunt of his wrath here, instead of Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman. Also, "HE" got Warner Bros. to allow for a public printing of the script, both serialized in Asimov's Science Fiction and an illustrated screenplay. Save $690 and buy a used copy elsewhere.

Ellison's wiki page has a list of controversies in which he comes across as a dick, an anecdote from the Penny Arcade guys, and Feminist SF has a nice round-up of proof that Harlan Ellison has always been a sexist creep – and he still is.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:36 AM on July 6, 2010 [5 favorites]

I've been a fan of Ellison's writing since rmd1023 lent me I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream back in college. Only a completist should seek out the oldest stories reprinted in Ellison Wonderland, when he was churning out gimmick stories by the yard, but I've admired most everything else.

Bonus Ellisonia link: Jo Walton's retrospective review of The Last Dangerous Visions.
posted by Zed at 10:03 AM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well, Neil Gaiman is apparently not upset that Harlan is reselling books he gifted him. He just tweeted:

For the next 3 days, Harlan Ellison is clearing out archives. http://bit.ly/cDixQh for the list. Cool, rare books etc. Tell Susan I sent you
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:07 AM on July 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm surprised by the Ellison hate here.

In my case, it's really not hate, it's just being chronically tired of the Ellison personality cult and its inability to admit that Ellison could be capable of, let alone have a history of, the same kind of dickery as just about any other celebrity or quasi-celebrity. I've read numerous testimonies from people like Splunge and languagehat that have had nothing but good encounters with him, but there's also a record of bad behavior that predates the Connie Willis incident.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:17 AM on July 6, 2010 [4 favorites]

Ellison hosted a marathon of The Prisoner for the Sci-Fi Channel once back in their bloody awesome period (which it seems all cable channels have for a few years before someone is hired to Turn Them Around and sends them to hell), which is my own personal high plus value for him.

On the other hand, he is a copyright troglodyte.
posted by JHarris at 12:03 PM on July 6, 2010

See, I'm in the camp of "his public assholery is what endeared him to me forever", starting with his rabble-rousing in the civil rights era, through his lambasting of contemporary sci-fi authors who really had no fucking balls when they wrote, nor any imagination when it came to realistic human behavior, all the way up to his very critical dislike of anyone who couldn't tell when he was joking nd playing up his crankiness to make the person go away.

Also, his eye-opening critique of Star Wars back in the early 80's really destroyed my childhood affliction of wishing Star Wars was real. Kind of nice to get out of that time-suck and consumerist sinkhole before the prequels started churning out the total death of my childhood that would come. Sometimes it takes someone talking frankly and smacking you in the face with your idiocy to make you realize how dumb you really are. For that, I will always thank him. Yes, it offended me at the time. But then again, he was also the first writer to really grab me and make me remember a story I read once in the library in a magazine(1) for nearly a decade before finding out that he was the author and then seeking out his other works once I had reread the short story, found in a collection of all his works. I sat down and read everything. And came away realizing that sometimes it takes an asshole to tell you that deep down, we're all animals, and we all suck, but we've got to live with each other anyway.

He also fought tooth and nail and still lost against people making his stories suck when translated from the written word to the small screen, and even the big screen. I'll always appreciate that much as well.

(1) The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore
posted by daq at 1:23 PM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Living as I do in a town (that used to be) full of used bookstores, whenever I'm in the SciFi section I always wander past the El section. And I've never seen a used HE ... -ever-.

So either HE's never sold any books, OR summa the people claiming to loathe him are closeted.

As for the bad behavior: whatcha want from a Nyawk J.D.? Frickin' curb service?
posted by Twang at 1:28 PM on July 6, 2010

> I've read numerous testimonies from people like Splunge and languagehat that have had nothing but good encounters with him

Whoa there, that's not what I said at all.
posted by languagehat at 1:33 PM on July 6, 2010

@The Whelk: Screw Jerry Seinfeld. When the world has tossed enough Jerry Seinfeld at me, I can go to my bookshelf knowing Life Isn't All Crap.
posted by Twang at 1:43 PM on July 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Living as I do in a town (that used to be) full of used bookstores, whenever I'm in the SciFi section I always wander past the El section. And I've never seen a used HE ... -ever-.

So either HE's never sold any books, OR summa the people claiming to loathe him are closeted.

Or he's such a pain in the ass to deal with on a professional basis that he has a really hard time keeping his books in print. See, for example, this retrospective that mentions his dealings with White Wolf; they were going to publish a 20-volume set of his collected works, and only got up to Vol. 5.

As for the bad behavior: whatcha want from a Nyawk J.D.? Frickin' curb service?

He's from Cleveland.


Whoa there, that's not what I said at all.

Ah, right. (I've read accounts from other people that think he's a prince among men; just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, here.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:42 PM on July 6, 2010

HARLAN ELLISON NONCONSENSUALLY SIGNED MY BREAST AND TRIED TO DECLAW ME
posted by everichon at 3:31 PM on July 6, 2010

I like how oneswellfoop tagged him as "Legendary Crankypants." (A legit read of "Legendary Sci-Fi Author and Crankypants Harlan Ellison.") Very loving, and a non-tool way.

And because everyone is going there - very nice to me, personally; extra extra nice to a friend's kids; totally hosed another friend early in that friend's (now-successful) writing career.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:35 PM on July 6, 2010

The real reason HE is purging his books... He got a nook.
posted by drezdn at 8:29 PM on July 6, 2010

In his writing, yeah, it's exhilarating. Not so much in person.

Actually, I found him just as amusingly acerbic in person. I was prepared to be let down, and was not.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:33 PM on July 6, 2010

I am very glad Harlan Ellison exists and admire a lot of his work. He has been a very positive influence on the field of Science Fiction. He's also undoubtedly a giant asshole who can be unnecessarily rude and obnoxious. Sometimes the folks he is rude or obnoxsious to are very deserving. Sometimes they are very undeserving. And, unfortunately, his outrage meter is pegged at 10 regardless of how deserving the target is.

In this way he is not unlike a bunch of other more current players in the SF field, some of whom have posted to Metafilter. People can do great work and contribute to their fields in a very positive manner while still being raging assholes.
posted by Justinian at 10:26 PM on July 6, 2010

I will chime in to say that I've had nothing but positive encounters with Mr. Ellison. I know he can be a dick, but he can also be kind, generous, and incredibly loyal to his friends.

And I'm glad to know that I am the opposite of Jerry Seinfeld, whom I find nearly as repellent as some people find Ellison.
posted by OolooKitty at 11:18 PM on July 6, 2010

I know he can be a dick, but he can also be kind, generous, and incredibly loyal to his friends.

Virtually nobody is an asshole all the time to everybody. That doesn't mean you're not an asshole.
posted by Justinian at 11:28 PM on July 6, 2010 [4 favorites]

Second-hand Ellison story: my girlfriend was running the mail-order division of a small local company back in the late '80s. She got a very, very nasty letter from someone complaining that their catalog had been sent to him, and if he got another he was GOING TO TEAR YOUR HEART OUT WITH HIS TEETH!!!! OMG IT"S FROM HARLAN ELLISON OMGOMGOMG!!!! (She's an complete fangirl.) So she called him up, apologized profusely, sent him some swag, and he ended up 1) ordering more swag from the catalog, and 2) sending her a signed copy of Angry Candy.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 3:44 PM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]