Editing Harlan Ellison (section)

===Early life and career===
[[File:Amazing stories 195703.jpg|thumb|right|Ellison's 1957 novella "The Savage Swarm", cover-featured in ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', has never been included in an authorized collection or anthology.]]
[[File:Amazing stories 195706.jpg|thumb|right|A few months later, another Ellison novella, "The Steel Napoleon", also took the cover of ''Amazing''. It also remains uncollected.]] [[File:Fantastic 195705.jpg|thumb|right|Another uncollected Ellison novella, "Satan Is My Ally", was the cover story on the May 1957 issue of ''[[Fantastic Science Fiction]]''.]]
[[File:Fantastic 195711.jpg|thumb|right|Ellison wrote "The Wife Factory" for ''Fantastic'' under the [[Pen name#Collective names|house name]] "Clyde Mitchell". It appeared in the November 1957 issue.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?712313 | title=The Internet Speculative Fiction Database | access-date=June 29, 2024 }}</ref> The novella has never been republished.]]
[[File:Fantastic 195810.jpg|thumb|right|Ellison's "Suicide World", the cover story for the October 1958 ''Fantastic'', also remains uncollected.]]
[[File:Fantastic 195904.jpg|thumb|right|Ellison's "The Abnormals", the cover story for the April 1959 ''Fantastic'', appears in Ellison collections as "[[The Discarded]]".]]
Ellison was born to a Jewish family<ref>[http://www.jewishjournal.com/geekheeb/item/top_5_jewish_moments_in_trek_20090507/ ''Jewish Journal'': "Top 5 Jewish moments in 'Trek'" by Adam Wills] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009175458/http://www.jewishjournal.com/geekheeb/item/top_5_jewish_moments_in_trek_20090507 |date=October 9, 2016 }} May 7, 2009</ref> in [[Cleveland]], Ohio, on May 27, 1934, the son of Serita (née Rosenthal) and Louis Laverne Ellison, a dentist and jeweler.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Weil |first1=Ellen |title=Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever |last2=Wolfe |first2=Gary K. |publisher=Ohio State University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8142-0892-2 |location=Columbus, Ohio |page=23 |ref=Weil}}</ref><ref>*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3nPYfqEbfrsC&q=Serita+Rosenthal+Louis+Laverne+Ellison&pg=PA889|title=Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Volume 2|publisher=Wildside Press LLC|date=2010|isbn=9780941028783|access-date=November 11, 2020|archive-date=June 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605010603/https://books.google.com/books?id=3nPYfqEbfrsC&q=Serita+Rosenthal+Louis+Laverne+Ellison&pg=PA889|url-status=live}}</ref> He had an older sister, Beverly (Rabnick), who was born in 1926. She died in 2010 without having spoken to him since their mother's funeral in 1976. Some time after Beverly's birth, his family moved to [[Painesville, Ohio|Painesville]], Ohio, but returned to Cleveland in 1949, following his father's death. 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, Texas|Galveston]], itinerant crop-picker down in New Orleans, hired gun for a wealthy neurotic, [[nitroglycerine]] truck driver in [[North Carolina]], [[wikt:short order|short-order]] cook, cab driver, [[lithographer]], book salesman, [[wikt:floor-walker|floorwalker]] in a department store, door-to-door brush salesman, and as a youngster, an actor in several productions at the [[Cleveland Play House]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellison |first=Harlan |url=http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-mouthmustscream/bio.html |title=Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream": A Study Guide from Gale's "Short Stories for Students" |date=July 23, 2002 |publisher=The Gale Group |page=27 |access-date=January 4, 2007 |archive-date=October 20, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020113212/http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-mouthmustscream/bio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1947, a fan letter he wrote to ''[[Real Fact Comics]]'' became his first published writing.<ref name="OSPG">{{Cite book |last=Overstreet |first=Robert M. |title=Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 41st edition |title-link=Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide |date=2011–2012 |publisher=[[Gemstone Publishing]] |isbn=9781603601337 |location=[[Timonium, Maryland]] |page=808}}</ref>

Ellison attended [[Ohio State University]] for 18 months (1951–53) before being expelled. He said the expulsion was for hitting a professor, a certain Dr. Shedd, who had denigrated his writing ability. Over the next 20 or so years he sent that professor a copy of every story that he published.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levy |first=Michael |date=November 2002 |title=Books in Review, "Of Stories and the Man." |url=http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/birs/bir88.htm |journal=Science Fiction Studies |volume=29 |issue=Part 3 |access-date=January 4, 2007 |archive-date=January 13, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070113223223/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/birs/bir88.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ellison published two serialized stories in the ''[[Cleveland News]]'' during 1949,<ref name=isfdb /> and he sold a story to [[EC Comics]] early in the 1950s. During this period, Ellison was an active and visible member of [[science fiction fandom]], and published his own [[science fiction fanzines]], such as ''Dimensions'' (which had previously been the ''Bulletin of the Cleveland Science Fantasy Society'' for the Cleveland Science Fantasy Society, and later ''Science Fantasy Bulletin''.<ref>''Dimensions'' issue #14 (May–July 1954)</ref>)

Ellison moved to New York City in 1955 to pursue a writing career, primarily in science fiction. Over the next two years, he published more than 100 short stories and articles. The short stories collected as ''Sex Gang'' — which Ellison described in a 2012 interview as "mainstream [[erotica]]"<ref name="larecord">{{Cite web|url=https://larecord.com/interviews/2012/09/24/harlan-ellison-everything-is-awful|title=HARLAN ELLISON: EVERYTHING IS AWFUL|access-date=February 13, 2021|archive-date=February 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211220627/https://larecord.com/interviews/2012/09/24/harlan-ellison-everything-is-awful|url-status=live}}</ref> — date from this period.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.islets.net:80/collections/sexgang.html |title=Ellison / Sex Gang |date=January 6, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106122233/http://www.islets.net/collections/sexgang.html |archive-date=January 6, 2013 |access-date=March 20, 2019 }}</ref>

He served in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] from 1957 to 1959.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harlan-Ellison|title=Harlan Ellison &#124; Biography, Books, TV Shows, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=August 17, 2017|archive-date=April 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403190321/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harlan-Ellison|url-status=live}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellison |first=Harlan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H2G_BgAAQBAJ |title=Web of the City |date=2013 |publisher=Titan Books |isbn=9781781164211 |page=iv |access-date=August 19, 2019 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803081834/https://books.google.com/books?id=H2G_BgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> He served in the Public Information Office at [[Fort Knox]], Kentucky, where he wrote articles and reviews for the post's weekly newspaper.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/29/harlan-ellison-obituary | title=Harlan Ellison obituary | newspaper=The Guardian | date=June 29, 2018 | last1=Holland | first1=Steve }}</ref>

After leaving the army, he relocated to Chicago, where he edited ''[[Rogue (magazine)|Rogue]]'' magazine.<ref name="Locus062018">{{Cite web |url=https://locusmag.com/2018/06/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/ |title=Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) |last=<!--Not stated--> |date=June 28, 2018 |website=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |access-date=June 29, 2018 |archive-date=June 28, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628234128/http://locusmag.com/2018/06/harlan-ellison-1934-2018/ |url-status=live }}</ref>