American writer and editor, considered one of the best living American short story writers, whose 49-year career has included 73 books he has written or edited, more than 1,700 stories, essays, articles and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays and a dozen motion pictures. He has won the Hugo award 8-l/2 times, the Nebula award three times, and the Bram Stoker award, presented by the Horror Writers Association.
After graduating from Ohio State he went into various occupations from carnival to department store floorwalker to logger and truck driver. From 1954 he published over 50 stories and articles for little magazines and worked as an editor himself. Bombastic, irreverent and abrasive, he was the publisher of Dimensions magazine, and was also a creative consultant to CBS’ “The Twilight Zone.”
The son of a family jewelry store manager and his wife, Harlan was a troublemaker as a child, and smaller than the smallest girl in his school. Despite shots to make him grow, he remained small, and un-athletic. He enjoyed comic book and radio heroes that goaded his fantasy and helped him deal with the anti-Semitic bigotry in his hometown. At 13, he ran away and joined a carnival before being retrieved by a detective hired by his parents to find him. At age 15, his father dropped dead of a heart attack in front of him.
He entered Ohio State where he was booted out as a sophomore for decking an English professor who didn’t think highly of his writing talent. Moving to Greenwich Village, he churned out pulp magazine stories under various pen names. He wrote “Gentleman Junkie” a critically acclaimed story of the ten weeks he spent with a street gang. After selling a story to “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” he worked on other television series including “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and “Star Trek.” By the mid-‘70s, he was writing books, working in TV, and had edited two anthologies, “Dangerous Visions” and “Again, Dangerous Visions.” He developed a following of sci-fi fans and was welcomed on the college lecture circuit.
His first marriage, at 21, lasted three years. His second marriage lasted about two years. His third marriage lasted 45 days to a woman who told him he was her third husband, though he was her seventh. His fourth marriage, at age 41 to a 19-year-old girl lasted eight months. Ellison lived in Los Angeles with Susan, his fifth wife, whom he married in 1986.
Harlan Ellison died at his home in Los Angeles on the evening of 27 June 2018.
Link to Wikipedia biography