Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018)[3] was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction[4] and for his outspoken, combative personality.

[5] His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media.

Some of his best-known works include the 1967 Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", considered by some to be the single greatest episode of the Star Trek franchise[6] (he subsequently wrote a book about the experience that includes his original teleplay), his A Boy and His Dog cycle (which was made into a film), and his short stories "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (later adapted by Ellison into a video game) and "'Repent, Harlequin!'

Ellison frequently ran away from home (in an interview with Tom Snyder he would later claim it was due to discrimination by his high school peers), taking an array of odd jobs—including, by age 18, "tuna fisherman off the coast of Galveston, itinerant crop-picker down in New Orleans, hired gun for a wealthy neurotic, nitroglycerine truck driver in North Carolina, short-order cook, cab driver, lithographer, book salesman, floorwalker in a department store, door-to-door brush salesman, and as a youngster, an actor in several productions at the Cleveland Play House".

[17] His first novel, Web of the City, was published during his military service in 1958, and he said that he had written the bulk of it while undergoing basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

[18] He served in the Public Information Office at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he wrote articles and reviews for the post's weekly newspaper.

Ellison sold scripts to many television shows: Burke's Law (4 episodes), Route 66, The Outer Limits,[20] The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

[27] Another story, "A Boy and His Dog", examines the nature of friendship and love in a violent, post-apocalyptic world and was made into the 1975 film of the same name, starring Don Johnson.

[33] In 2014, Ellison made a guest appearance on the album Finding Love in Hell by the stoner rock band Leaving Babylon, reading his piece "The Silence" (originally published in Mind Fields) as an introduction to the song "Dead to Me.

[50] Although his speech and cognition were unimpaired, he suffered paralysis on his right side, for which he was expected to spend several weeks in physical therapy before being released from the hospital.

Ellison on occasion used the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird to alert members of the public to situations in which he felt his creative contribution to a project had been mangled by others, beyond repair, typically Hollywood producers or studios (see also Alan Smithee).

The first such work to which he signed the name was "The Price of Doom", an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (though it was misspelled as Cord Wainer Bird in the credits).

In his 1978 book Strange Wine, Ellison explains the origins of the Bird and goes on to state that Philip José Farmer wrote Cordwainer into the Wold Newton family that the latter writer had developed.

Ellison filed numerous grievances and attempted lawsuits; during a contract dispute with Signet/NAL Books binding cigarette ads into one of his paperbacks, he sent them dozens of bricks postage due, followed by a dead gopher.

"[64] Ellison suffered from health issues regularly through his life, including severe depression toward the end,[65] some of which he believed was Epstein Barr/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

[66] A few years before his death, Straczynski convinced him to seek psychiatric diagnosis for the depression, resulting in a diagnosis & treatment of bipolar disorder; he commented, “Once you know he was bipolar, a lot of things that don’t make sense suddenly make sense.”[67] The treatment "had a salutary effect for a while, until the stroke hit"[66] Straczynski wrote a more detailed account of Ellison's struggles with mental illness, published in the posthumous Last Dangerous Visions.

[68] Ellison repeatedly criticized how Star Trek creator and producer Gene Roddenberry (and others) rewrote his original script for the 1967 episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

[71][72] In 1995, Borderlands Press published The City on the Edge of Forever,[73] with nearly 300 pages, comprising an essay by Ellison, four versions of the teleplay, and eight "Afterwords" contributed by other parties.

Between Ellison's anti-military remarks and a food fight that broke out in the ballroom of the hotel where the gathering was held (although, according to Ellison in 2000, the food fight actually started in a Denny's because the staff disappeared and they could not get their check), the school's administration almost refused to approve the science fiction convention the next year and no guest of honor was invited for the next two AggieCons.

After a change in studio heads, Warner allowed Ellison's script to be serialized in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and published in book form.

[97] Platt did not pursue legal action against Ellison and the two men later signed a "non-aggression pact", promising never to discuss the incident again nor to have any contact with one another.

[110] In a 1980 lawsuit against ABC and Paramount Pictures, Ellison and Ben Bova claimed that the TV series Future Cop was based on their short story "Brillo", winning a $337,000 judgement.

Hemdale, the production company and the distributor Orion Pictures, settled out of court for an undisclosed sum and added a credit to the film which acknowledged Ellison's work.

Three issues later, Marvel put up a letter claiming that Mantlo adapted "Soldier" for use as a Hulk story, but they forgot to credit Ellison and it was pointed out by readers.

In actuality, then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter signed off on the story, not having seen the Outer Limits episode it was based on and not realizing Mantlo copied it wholesale.

Although he could have claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, Ellison only requested the same payment Mantlo got for the story, writer's credit and a lifetime subscription to everything Marvel published.

Since those settlements Ellison initiated legal action or takedown notices against more than 240 people who have allegedly distributed his writings on the Internet, saying, "If you put your hand in my pocket, you'll drag back six inches of bloody stump".

[131] Ellison was named 2002's winner of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal's "Distinguished Skeptic Award", in recognition of his contributions to science and critical thinking.

Occasionally performed at Star Trek conventions, it features an irate writer named "Arlan Hellison" who screams at his producers, "Art defilers!

[150][151] Ellison appeared as himself in an episode of The Simpsons ("Married to the Blob", 2014)[152] in which he meets Bart and Milhouse, and parodies his contention that the film The Terminator used ideas from his stories.