Editing Harlan Ellison (section)

===Temperament===
Ellison had a reputation for being abrasive and argumentative.{{efn|In his Introduction to "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream", [[Theodore Sturgeon]] describes Ellison as: "...a man on the move, and he is moving fast. He is, on these pages and everywhere else he goes, colorful, intrusive, ABRASIVE ... and one hell of a writer."<ref>{{cite book | last1=Ellison | first1=Harlan | last2=Sturgeon | first2=Theodore | title=I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream | publisher=Pyramid Books | publication-place=New York | year=1972 | oclc=317877184}}</ref>}} He generally agreed with this assessment, and a [[dust jacket]] from one of his books described him as "possibly the most contentious person on Earth." 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]].<ref name="Rogers">{{cite news |last1=Rogers |first1=John |title=Harlan Ellison, science fiction master, dies at age 84 |url=https://www.times-standard.com/2018/06/28/harlan-ellison-science-fiction-master-dies-at-age-84/ |work=Times-Standard |agency=The Associated Press |date=June 28, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Criss">{{cite web |last1=Criss |first1=Robert |title=Neil Gaiman Confirms Harlan Ellison's 'Dead Gopher' Story Really Happened |url=https://www.cbr.com/neil-gaiman-confirms-harlan-ellisons-dead-gopher-story/ |website=CBR |access-date=March 7, 2023 |language=en |date=November 30, 2020}}</ref> In an October 2017 piece in [[Wired (magazine)|''Wired'']], Ellison was dubbed "Sci-Fi's Most Controversial Figure."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Adams |first1=John Joseph |last2=Kirtley |first2=David Barr |date=October 21, 2017 |title=Harlan Ellison Is Sci-Fi's Most Controversial Figure |url=https://www.wired.com/2017/10/geeks-guide-harlan-ellison/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=September 18, 2019 |archive-date=June 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614081307/https://www.wired.com/2017/10/geeks-guide-harlan-ellison/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

At [[Stephen King]]'s request, Ellison provided a description of himself and his writing in ''[[Danse Macabre (King book)|Danse Macabre]]'' (1981): "My work is foursquare for chaos. I spend my life personally, and my work professionally, keeping the soup boiling. [[wikt:gadfly|Gadfly]] is what they call you when you are no longer dangerous; I much prefer troublemaker, malcontent, desperado. I see myself as a combination of [[Zorro]] and [[Jiminy Cricket]]. My stories go out from here and raise hell. From time to time some denigrater or critic with umbrage will say of my work, 'He only wrote that to shock.' I smile and nod. Precisely."<ref>{{Cite news |last=King |first=Stephen |title=Chapter 9: Horror Fiction |work=Danse Macabre}}</ref>

====Health issues====

Ellison suffered from health issues regularly through his life, including severe depression toward the end,<ref>[https://www.vulture.com/2013/07/harlan-ellison-isnt-dead-yet.html "Harlan Ellison Isn’t Dead Yet"], Jaime Lowe 2013</ref> some of which he believed was [[Epstein Barr]]/[[Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]].<ref name="cfs">J. Michael Straczynski 2024-09-10, [https://www.facebook.com/groups/4586629500/posts/10161513542804501/ Facebook]</ref> 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.”<ref>[https://lamag.com/books/harlan-ellison-last-words-dangerous-visions-sci-fi-writer-posthumous-comeback "Harlan Ellison’s Last Words: The Ambitious Plan for Sci-Fi Writer's Posthumous Comeback"], Steve Appleford 2024-03-29</ref> The treatment "had a salutary effect for a while, until the stroke hit".<ref name="cfs"/> Straczynski wrote a more detailed account of Ellison's struggles with mental illness, published in the posthumous ''Last Dangerous Visions''.<ref>"Ellison Exegesis", ''Last Dangerous Visions'' 2024</ref>