FFB: MIND FIELDS by Harlan Ellison and Jacek Yerka (Morpheus International 1994)

Jacek Yerka is a Polish painter who was influenced first and foremost, we're told, by the Flemish school of representational art, and one can see that; the degree to which he was also influenced by Rene Magritte among the other Surrealists is also hard to miss, though there's a softness to the lines of some of his paintings not much like Magritte at all, and a sharp clarity in some that outdoes the playful elder master.  Harlan Ellison, a writer mostly but by no means exclusively of fantasy fiction and popular-culture criticism, was unsurprisingly drawn to Yerka's paintings, and with this project took to writing vignettes in response to individual paintings, sometimes little anecdotes or jokes or musings, sometime fully-fleshed if brief short stories. Not the first time Ellison would write stories around paintings, a common commissioning practice in the fiction magazines of the 1940s, when Ellison began reading them, and the 1950s, when he began his career writing for them; and not an uncommon means of creation of fiction in any era; I've done it...there's no little chance that you've done it. Further, collections of vignettes is an approach Ellison had used fruitfully before, in such literary portfolios as "From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet" and, perhaps less obviously, in working around a common theme in some of his best work, such as "The Deathbird". This book is, so far, the last collection of predominantly new work Ellison has published, aside from the comics adaptations, mostly of older stories, for the magazine project (and collected reprints in book form) Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor.

The stories in this volume have only infrequently been seen elsewhere, and are for the most part not Ellison's best work, but are still engaging examples of his approach, each taking its title as well as inspiration at least in part from the painting it's paired with. As a nice package deal, illustration and story together, three were published in magazines before or alongside the book's appearance in 1994:

from the Locus Index:  
Mind Fields: The Art of Jacek Yerka; The Fiction of Harlan Ellison Jacek Yerka & Harlan Ellison (Morpheus International 0-9623447-9-6, Mar ’94, $24.95, 71pp, tp, cover by Jacek Yerka) Art book, a collection of 33 full-color paintings, each paired with an accompanying original short-short or prose poem by Harlan Ellison based on the painting. With notes by Ellison. A 1,000-copy hardcover edition (-03-7, $45.00 — already sold out) and a signed, slipcased, leatherbound 475-copy limited edition (-00-2, $95.00) were announced but not seen. Available from Morpheus International, 200 North Robertson Blvd., Suite 326, Beverly Hills CA 90211.

• 5 · The Creation of Water · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 6 · Twilight in the Cupboard · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 8 · Amok Harvest · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 10 · Theory of Tension · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 12 · Back to Nature · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 14 · Internal Inspection · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 16 · Metropolis II · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 18 · In the Oligocenskie Gardens · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 20 · Europe · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 22 · Fever · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 24 · Attack at Dawn · Harlan Ellison · vi Tomorrow Speculative Fiction Apr '94
• 26 · Susan · Harlan Ellison · vi The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Dec ’93
• 28 · Between Heaven and Hell · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 30 · Shed of Rebellion · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 32 · To Each His Own · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 34 · Eruption · Harlan Ellison · vi Science Fiction Age Nov ’93
• 36 · The Inquisition · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 38 · Beneath the Dunes · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 40 · The Silence · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 41 · Darkness Falls on the River · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 42 · Paradise · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 44 · Express Delivery · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 46 · The Agitators · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 48 · Truancy at the Pond · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 50 · Ammonite · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 52 · Base · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 54 · Foraging in the Field · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 56 · Traffic Prohibited · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 58 · Afternoon with the Bros. Grimm · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 60 · The Cosmic Barnyard · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 62 · Under the Landscape · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 64 · Ellison Wonderland · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 66 · Please Don’t Slam the Door · Harlan Ellison · vi *
• 68 · Author’s Notes · Harlan Ellison · aw *

Yerka's painting trimmed for the cover format

Two of the stories, "Susan" and "Fever", were reprinted in Datlow and Windling's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror volumes for 1994 and '95, respectively; otherwise, the prose items have in some cases been included in Ellison's retrospective collections published since, but only a few of them...they do work best, for the most part, not divorced from the paintings, even if the better ones can stand on their own. Ellison is usually better at longer forms of short fiction, giving himself room to dig in and explore the psyches of his characters in greater detail, but the charm of much of his mature work is in evidence here...the notes help make clear, as do the dedications from both Yerka and Ellison, that this book was assembled in stressful times for nearly everyone involved: Ellison had several heart attacks in the period, his wife Susan, for whom he describes "Susan" as a valentine of a story, had spinal disc problems, Jacek Yerka's young son died, not living to see the advice he gave to his father on the last painting in the book come to fruition, and even the publisher at Morpheus, James Cowan, was afflicted with motility problems that looked at first as if they would require extensive surgery (Yerka dedicates the book to the memory of his son; Ellison to the memories of the then recently-dead friends Isaac Asimov, Fritz Leiber and Avram Davidson). Added to this, Ellison is particularly disturbed  by the early '90s resurgence of Nazism and similar fascist tendencies, including Pat Buchann's new prominence as both presidential candidate (I suspected then and continue to suspect, in part to deflect David Duke from having as much influence on the GOP's contest as he might, as the less-well-known Trump wildcard of 1992) and Holocaust skeptic, however partially. Certain things never go out of style. Ellison deals with this most explicitly in "Twilight in the Cupboard".

It's a lovely book, though the semi-gloss pages in large format make it easier to look at than to read (the reproduction of the paintings looks to be excellent)...not the book to start with for Ellison, which would probably be one of the versions of Deathbird Stories, but worthy of one's time and effort to obtain it...very reasonably priced copies of the paperback edition are available from the Usual Sources.

And one of the best stories, and the painting that, to a degree Ellison found annoying, seemed to catch everyone's eye as the epitome of Yerka's brilliance, the book's cover painting as a result, "Attack at Dawn", was the sample Algis Budrys, a lover of automobiles among other relevant things, took for his magazine Tomorrow, in the same issue that published my first story. As a result, this book has a certain sentimental resonance for me. The 1995 Year's Best Fantasy and Horror which includes Ellison's "Fever" also includes my story "Bedtime" in the "Recommended Reading" longlist.

For more of today's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog.

Mike Doran points us, in comments below, to this interview, from Tom Snyder's CNBC series, in 1994...the tape source it was uploaded from was in pretty rough shape in parts (though the audio is never seriously disrupted), and dates from the days when YT limited uploads to about 7-8 minutes each:

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: PARTNERS IN WONDER by Harlan Ellison in Collaboration

The Contento Index:

Partners in Wonder Harlan Ellison (Walker, 1971, hc)
· Sons of Janus · in
· I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg · Harlan Ellison & Robert Sheckley · nv F&SF Jan ’68
· Brillo · Harlan Ellison & Ben Bova · nv Analog Aug ’70
· A Toy for Juliette · Robert Bloch · ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World · nv Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· Scherzo for Schizoids: Notes on a Collaboration · ms Knight Nov ’65
· Up Christopher to Madness · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ss Knight Nov ’65
· Runesmith · Harlan Ellison & Theodore Sturgeon · ss F&SF May ’70
· Rodney Parish for Hire · Harlan Ellison & Joe L. Hensley · ss Swank May ’62
· The Kong Papers · Harlan Ellison & William Rotsler · ct The Kong Papers, William Rotsler & Harlan Ellison, 1969
· The Human Operators · Harlan Ellison & A. E. van Vogt · ss F&SF Jan ’71
· Survivor No. 1 [“The Man with the Green Nose”] · Harlan Ellison & Henry Slesar · ss Knave Sep ’59
· The Power of the Nail · Harlan Ellison & Samuel R. Delany · ss Amazing Nov ’68
· Wonderbird · Harlan Ellison & Algis Budrys · ss Infinity Science Fiction Sep ’57
· The Song the Zombie Sang · Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg · ss Cosmopolitan Dec ’70
· Street Scene [“Dunderbird”] · Harlan Ellison & Keith Laumer · ss Galaxy Jan ’69; this story has two different endings. The version with the Ellison ending was in Galaxy, the version with the Laumer ending was in Adam Mar ’69 as “Street Scene”.
· Come to Me Not in Winter’s White · Harlan Ellison & Roger Zelazny · ss F&SF Oct ’69

There are certain books which will change your life, though usually only very slightly. This was one of those for me, an a young reader, which more than any other early reading experience brought home the sense of a writer's life and the community of writers. It's available as an e-book, which is the source of the link to the introduction, but I read the Pyramid edition with the Leo and Diane Dillon cover design pictured here, part of the series they did of Ellison paperbacks for the publisher (some reissued by Jove after the purchase). This is almost certainly the only version of an Ellison book to be blurbed with the employment of Jimmie Walker's mid-'70s catchphrase.

The stories here, in what was the first collection of collaborations between one writer and several others that Ellison was aware of (I think there was at least one previous example, but it eludes me at the moment), are a mixed lot (and include a series of cartoons with William Rotsler which struck me as Just OK even when I was ten, not Rotsler's best work in the form, certainly--though I'm still fond of Fay Wray in the clutches of the big ape as he scales the Empire State, and someone shouting up from below, "Trip him, Fay!"). Even the best of them are almost invariably not quite up to the best of either collaborator, but they do have a special flavor...even when, as with the the two stories by Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison individually, the collaboration is more along the lines of nudging inspiration...resulting in a decent Bloch story, since his was merely commissioned for Dangerous Visions, and a rather better sequel to that story by Ellison, who was mildly obsessed with what he was asking Bloch to do (both stories being sequels to Bloch's early story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," one of those stories which follow their creators around for their entire careers, and one of the most widely plagiarized stories written in the last century). The antic comedies, such as the Laumer and Davidson collaborations, are often more successful than the attempts at more serious work, but the darker humor of the Sheckley and Silverberg stories are certainly effective. And, of course, while I'd read a few Davidson stories before this book (in anthologies attributed to Hitchcock), this was the first opportunity I had to read Davidson's delightful nonfiction, in this case an acocunt of an incident that Ellison also recounts, and the comparison of the two versions is telling and extremely entertaining.

And the Bova story, "Brillo," was even ripped off for at least two tv series, though only actionably for one.

Still a valuable read, and the ancillary material might be Ellison at his best at this, at which he is one of the best.

For more "Forgotten" Books, please see Patti Abbott's blog, though updates will be delayed while she Shakespeares.

FFB; Harlan Ellison: 4 collections, 1 anthology: THE BOOK OF ELLISON, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS ON THE PROCRUSTEAN BED, STALKING THE NIGHTMARE, STRANGE WINE, MEDEA: HARLAN'S WORLD

Harlan Ellison's achievements are at least three-fold: he has written excellent work in prose and in scripting comics and a/v work; he has been an inventive and energetic editor, for publishers and of anthologies (and, early on, in fanzines); and he has demonstrated new means and approaches for writers to promote themselves, in an environment in which publishers (and others) certainly have consistently been less than intent on promoting writers who don't seem to be the flavor of the moment...and if he's come off not as grandly as he might in this last on occasion, one might simply point to the public self-promotion of the likes of Norman Mailer to see that there are great depths which Ellison at his most thoughtlessly prankish has not come close to plumbing.  Meanwhile, here are some quick takes on five books, two of which have been out of print for some years, and the other three spottily in and out of print, now available as ebooks and all available in either their original or omnibus forms (from the Edgeworks series).  

The Book of Ellison, edited by Andrew Porter (Algol Press, 1978)

Contents

• Introduction (by Isaac Asimov)
• The Book About Ellison
  • Essence of Ellison (by Lee Hoffman)
  • Harlan Ellison (by Ted White)
  • The Jet-Propelled Birdbath (by Robert Silverberg)
  • 7,000 More Words About Harlan Ellison (by David Gerrold)
  • Harlan Ellison and the Formula Story (by Joseph Patrouch Jr.)
• The Book By Ellison
  • Ellison on Ellison
  • School for Apprentice Sorcerors
  • Getting Stiffed
  • A Time for Daring
  • A Voice From the Styx
  • The Whore with a Heart of Iron Pyrites; or, Where Does a Writer Go to Find a Maggie?
  • Voe Doe Dee Oh Doe
  • Hardcover
  • A Walk Around the Block
• Harlan Ellison: A Nonfiction Checklist (by Leslie Kay Swigart)

The first collection of nonfiction by and about Ellison aside from the two volumes gathering his regular column, The Glass Teat, television criticism for the LA Free Press and elsewhere. The appreciations at the front of the book are of varying quality, with Gerrold's being the least, and Silverberg's perhaps the best (certainly the most dramatic in incident). "Ellison on Ellison" might be his first quick survey of his own life at length, up through the mid-'70s; other essays address his standing in the sf/fantasy community, accounts of his work at the Clarion writers' workshops and similar bits of instruction, and a returned favor of an appreciation of Robert Silverberg. This item was already hard to find in the pre-WWWeb days of the earliest 1980s when, as a high-school student, I was able to locate a copy at the University of Hawaii's more comprehensive Hamilton Library; Ellison and editor/publisher Andrew Porter (neither the most temperate of personalities when irked) had some sort of falling out over the book and little of its content has been reprinted since, particularly a pity given some of the rarity of some of its initial publication sources (fanzines such as Inside and Abstract, special publications for conventions, etc.).

Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed: Essays by Harlan Ellison, edited by (Ms.) Marty Clark (Borgo Press, 1984)

Editor's Introduction (by Marty Clark)

• You Don't Me, I Don't Know You
• Stealing Tomorrow
• Down the Rabbit-Hole to TV-Land
• Revealed at Last! What Killed the Dinosaurs! And You Don't Look So Terrific Yourself
• Epiphany
• Rolling Dat Ole Debbil Electronic Stone
• A Love Song to Jerry Falwell
• Science Fiction: Turning Reality Inside-Out
• Defeating the Green Slime
• How You Stupidly Blew $15 Million a Week, Avoided Having an Adenoid-Shaped Swimming Pool in Your Back Yard, Missed the Opportunity to Have a Mutually Destructive Love Affair with Clint Eastwood and/or Raquel Welch, and Otherwise Pissed Me Off
• Fear Not Your Enemies
• Face-Down in Gloria Swanson's Swimming Pool
• From Alabamy, with Hate
• Leiber: A Few Too Few Words
• Serita Rosenthal Ellison: A Eulogy
• Centerpunching
• Voe Doe Dee Oh Doe
• Robert Silverberg: An Appreciation
• Cheap Thrills on the Road to Hell
• True Love: Groping for the Holy Grail
• Notes
• Index

A rather more comprehensive collection of the work in nonfiction Ellison was proudest of, as also selected by Marty Clark, who essentially served as his administrative assistant through the '70s; "Voe Doe Dee Oh Doe" reappears from The Book along with a more conventionally-titled take on Silverberg, and some of the same matter addressed in the earlier collection is dealt with in newer essays here, such as his fraught relation with his more importunate fans and other literary sorts ("You Don't Know Me...").  The Eulogy for his mother is followed by a profile of Steve McQueen; and "How You Stupidly Blew..." was his formal announcement of withdrawal from the fantasy/sf community (as with most such announcements of withdrawal and/or retirement, as from Ellison's friends Silverberg and Barry Malzberg or Donald Westlake or even Kurt Vonnegut, it didn't take). I'm finally replacing my copy of this one, having essentially traded it for a copy of the hardcover of Shatterday (one of Ellison's retrospective collections) with my aunt Beverly, a certified Ellison fan who was visiting and had never heard or nor seen the Borgo Press item, but happened to have the fiction collection with her for re-reading. I was happy to be able to pick up for her a signed copy of the first collection from Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, the comics title, a few years later; Ellison wasn't quite sure what to make of my Spitboy t-shirt, and gently mocked my first published short story, in the same issue of Algis Budrys's Tomorrow Speculative Fiction magazine as Ellison's "Attack at Dawn." 

Stalking the Nightmare Harlan Ellison (Phantasia 0-932096-16-6, 1982, hc)

• 1 · Foreword · Stephen King · fw
• 15 · Introduction: Quiet Lies the Locust Tells · in
• 25 · Grail · nv Twilight Zone Apr ’81
• 55 · The Outpost Undiscovered By Tourists · ss F&SF Jan ’82
• 63 · Blank... · ss Infinity Science Fiction Jun ’57
• 75 · The 3 Most Important Things in Life · ar Oui Nov ’78
• 95 · Visionary · Harlan Ellison & Joe L. Hensley · ss Amazing May ’59
• 111 · Djinn, No Chaser · nv Twilight Zone Apr ’82
• 135 · Invasion Footnote [as by Cordwainer Bird] · ss Super Science Fiction Aug ’57
• 145 · Saturn, November 11th [installment 6 of An Edge in My Voice] · ar Future Life Mar ’81
• 159 · Night of Black Glass · ss Beyond #1 ’81
• 171 · Final Trophy · ss Super Science Fiction Jun ’57
• 187 · !!!The!!Teddy!Crazy!!Show!!! · ss Adam Oct ’68
• 199 · The Cheese Stands Alone · ss Amazing Mar ’82
• 217 · Somehow, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas, Toto · ar Genesis Jun ’74; revised
• 237 · Transcending Destiny [revised from “School for Assassins”, as Ellis Hart] · nv Amazing Jan ’58 
• 265 · The Hour That Stretches · ss F&SF Oct ’82
• 289 · The Day I Died [inst. 10 of The Harlan Ellison Horn Book] · ar Los Angeles Free Press Jan 5 ’73
• 301 · Tracking Level · ss Amazing Dec ’56
• 313 · Tiny Ally · ss Saturn Oct ’57
• 319 · The Goddess in the Ice · ss Adam Bedside Reader Dec ’67
• 327 · Gopher in the Gilly · ss *

This was by no means the first Ellison collection to mix fiction and nonfiction by him to a considerable degree (that might've been Partners in Wonder) but it was the first to do so in such a ratio (albeit some of the essays become by design more speculative and fictional, such as "The Day I Died"...or include, one hopes, some fictionalized aspects, such as the murder described in "The 3 Most Important Things..."). "Somehow..."  is Ellison's first extended take on his protracted battles with the producers of the quickly-cancelled Canadian tv sf series The Starlost;  "Saturn, November 11th" is rather straightforward, and excellent, participant reportage of the Voyager mission encounter with that planet and its satellite system. Frankly, the fiction in this collection, as good as it can be, has difficulty in matching the best of the nonfiction and borderline nf here; "Grail" is an exception (and even such less than superb Ellison fiction as "The Hour That Stretches" remains charming, in this case in part due to the setting in the Pacifica Radio series Hour 25, a Los Angeles institution Ellison helped to preserve for some years after the death of founding producer and host Mike Hodel).

---

Strange Wine Harlan Ellison (Harper & Row, 1978, hc); Also in pb (Warner Jun ’79), includes author’s introduction to each story.

· Introduction: Revealed at Last! What Killed the Dinosaurs! And You Don’t Look So Terrific Yourself · in

• · Croatoan · ss F&SF May ’75
• · Working with the Little People · ss F&SF Jul ’77
• · Killing Bernstein · ss Mystery Monthly Jun ’76
• · Mom · nv Silver Foxes Aug ’76
• · In Fear of K · ss Vertex Jun ’75
• · Hitler Painted Roses · ss Penthouse Apr ’77
• · The Wine Has Been Left Open Too Long and the Memory Has Gone Flat · ss Universe 6, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1976
• · From A to Z, In the Chocolate Alphabet · ss F&SF Oct ’76
• · Lonely Women Are the Vessels of Time · ss MidAmeriCon Program Book, Kansas City, MO., 1976
• · Emissary from Hamelin · ss 2076: The American Tricentennial, ed. Edward Bryant, Pyramid, 1977
• · The New York Review of Bird [original version] · nv * (a heavily edited version appeared in Weird Heroes)
• · Seeing · nv Andromeda 1, ed. Peter Weston, London: Futura, 1976
• · The Boulevard of Broken Dreams · vi Los Angeles Review #1 ’75
• · Strange Wine · ss Amazing Jun ’76
• · The Diagnosis of Dr. D’arqueAngel [“Doctor D’arqueAngel”] · ss Viva Jan ’77

A collection of Ellison's stories from the mid 1970s that only occasionally demonstrates Ellison at his absolute best, and yet his mastery of the short-story form allows his work to be powerful even when it hasn't quite achieved all his ambitions. For example, the opening passage of the title story, Ellison's contribution to the 50th anniversary issue of Amazing, is a devastating account of a father brought to an auto accident scene to identify the corpse of his daughter, killed in the mishap, with the interior monolog revelation that the father, wracked with grief, at least believes himself not to be in the proper situation, beyond the obvious..."This should be happening to a human." The rest of the story, while making its point, has difficulty in matching the opening passage, which frankly I haven't spoiled even by giving this revelation, so deftly is it observed and constructed. Ellison can be seen to be challenging himself as well as the reader in most of what's collected here, whether technically (can one write a genuinely engaging and cohesive set of 26 vignettes such as "From A to Z..."? Yes, one can, particularly with wit and sharp observation, even if some are inevitably much more slight than others...can one sensibly challenge even some of the most deeply held beliefs of most of the audience, at very least? Yes..."Hitler Painted Roses" is both memorably and justly provocative, somewhat in the way Lenny Bruce's routine about Hitler and the MCA is, and in somewhat deeper ways, as well). And the introduction is among Ellison's best polemic writing.

Medea: Harlan’s World ed. Harlan Ellison (Phantasia 0-932096-36-0, Jun ’85 [May ’85], $50.00 signed numbered 475-copy special edition; $20.00 725-copy trade edition, 532pp, hc) [Medea] This small-press version is simultaneous with the one from Bantam Spectra and is the only hardcover. The special edition is sold out. It’s a fine job of bookbinding and should be a highly prized collector’s item. (Charles N. Brown)

• 1 · Cosmic Hod-Carriers · Harlan Ellison · in
• 9 · Introduction · Harlan Ellison · in
• 11 · Basic Concepts: Astrophysics, Geology · Hal Clement · ar
• 14 · Geology, Meteorology, Oceanography, Geography, Nomenclature, Biology · Poul Anderson · ar
• 28 · Biology, Ecology, Xenology · Larry Niven · ar
• 34 · Xenology, Sociology, Politics, Theology, Mathematics · Frederik Pohl · ar
• 45 · The Concept Seminar · Thomas M. Disch, Frank Herbert, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon & Harlan Ellison · ms
• 121 · The Extrapolations, the Questions · Thomas M. Disch, Frank Herbert, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon & Harlan Ellison · ms
• 171 · Second Thoughts · Poul Anderson, Thomas M. Disch, Hal Clement, Larry Niven & Frederik Pohl · ms
• 187 · Farside Station · Jack Williamson · nv IASFM (Asimov's SF) Nov/Dec ’78
• 217 · Flare Time · Larry Niven · nv Andromeda 3, ed. Peter Weston, London: Futura, 1978
• 253 · With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole · Harlan Ellison · ss Omni Jan ’85
• 269 · Swanilda’s Song · Frederik Pohl · nv Analog Oct ’78
• 295 · Seasoning · Hal Clement · nv IASFM (Asimov's) Sep/Oct ’78
• 321 · Concepts · Thomas M. Disch · nv F&SF Dec ’78
• 357 · Songs of a Sentient Flute [Voidship Earthling] · Frank Herbert · nv Analog Feb ’79
• 401 · Hunter’s Moon · Poul Anderson · nv Analog Nov ’78
• 433 · The Promise [“The Mind of Medea”] · Kate Wilhelm · nv Omni Jan ’83
• 461 · Why Dolphins Don’t Bite · Theodore Sturgeon · nv Omni Feb ’80 (+2)
• 509 · Waiting for the Earthquake · Robert Silverberg · nv The Best of Omni Science Fiction, No. 2, ed. Ben Bova & Don Myrus, Omni, 1981
• 529 · The Contributors · Misc. · bg

Fletcher Pratt had attempted something similar to this project in the early 1950s, with The Petrified Planet, only, in that case, after John D. Clark had worked out the world in which the stories for the anthology were meant to be set, Pratt, H. Beam Piper and Judith Merril contributed a novella each. This, in comparison, was a much more hands-on effort by a wide range of contributors, even including, as not quite noted in the table of contents above, audience participants at a public seminar discussing the shared world setting for the stories commissioned. These stories were appearing in the first year I was regularly reading the sf and fantasy magazines, and I generally found them quite entertaining...particularly in seeing how differently Jack Williamson, Frederik Pohl and Thomas Disch might take on the same raw material of setting and to some extent incident...unlike most so-tagged "sharecropper" fiction since, the contributors were encouraged to be as much themselves in the work in question as the project allowed, and for the most part they succeeded, though none of the stories would qualify as the best work by the writers involved...a number of the better "shared-world" projects since have emulated this aspect. And for some folks, such as former planetary science majors who had been thinking about writing fiction for years even at the time of this book's publication, the essays and discussion transcripts laying out the groundwork had their own fascination...a fascination that I think would be shared by most fans of all or any of the writers participating. I'm not sure why this volume has been out of print since its initial editions, but it's a pity it's so. (For that matter, The Petrified Planet deserves reprinting...)

For more of today's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog.  Contents listings from the Contento/Locus indices and the Islets of Langerhans site.

FFB: MEFISTO IN ONYX by Harlan Ellison (Ziesing 1993); HARLAN ELLISON'S WATCHING (Underwood-Miller 1989)

Harlan Ellison, 1934-2018. 

Harlan Ellison having died after a long illness, or set of illnesses, that had left him mostly bedridden for the last years of his life, has resulted in an unsurprising upwelling of obituaries and less formal reminiscences, only some of them probably actionable, if anyone was so inclined, the most obvious of those being the screeds in Publisher's Weekly, of all places, and Jeet Heer's credulous bit of tantrum-throwing in what remains of The New Republic (there's been little to brag about in TNR for some decades). You can't libel the dead legally, but you sure can believe every bit of hyperbole the departed had inspired others to say or write, and that he had said or written himself (in the Heer say, it was that Ellison had once punched an ABC executive, who had messed with one of his scripts, in the mouth so hard the latter had fallen over and fractured his pelvis. And yet Ellison magically remained unindicted for what would be felony assault. Ellison once wrote in an essay about a rumor that he had thrown a aggressive convention fan/attendee down an elevator shaft, also noting there that surprisingly, no one had summoned police nor emergency medical services. No one the other week at TNR thought perhaps fact-checking might be in order).

Not that Ellison didn't, as noted, blather on at times about how he had been the swift sword of physical justice in one or another situation with venal producers and publishers among others; he could and did see people in court and would stand up to bullies, and also would give some people a very hard time, via phone calls and letters, if they did something to displease him. He famously got  physical with fellow troublemaker Charles Platt at a SFWA function (how physical is not yet clear to me, in the haze of differing accounts), and in the course of performing a weak comedy sketch with Connie Willis at a Hugo Awards ceremony, she playing a teacher scolding a mischievous child, he as said child promising to be Good and demonstrating his lack of good faith by reaching up and putting his hand on her breast...without having actually cleared this with Willis beforehand...has become the meat of the PW account of his purported "tendency toward violence and sexual harassment." Usually, it was a matter of talk, at his worst, rather than such acting out. Ellison strove to apologize to Willis immediately afterward; while his act was stupid and rude and ill-conceived, there are still those in the fannish community, including at least one woman I've corresponded with, who'd received worse treatment back in the day from others--not, as much as I've yet heard or read, from Ellison--who will still (somewhat) defend, say, Isaac Asimov's repeated tendency to grope/shake the breasts of women he just met, in lieu of shaking their hand, as him Just Trying to Make a Joke. That is one of the things he was trying to do, yes. (Judith Merril was given a footnote in Asimov's 1980 autobiography to give her assessment of this tendency; she noted that in eventual response to Asimov's freedom with his hands toward the women he knew or met that she one day reached down and took a firm grip of his testes, through his pants, and that helped settle the matter between them, at least.) Though Ellison was not above shit-talking and seeming ready to be physically aggressive (he had been a small boy and was a short man, who had been the target of a lot of physical aggression particularly in his youth, and wasn't above fronting), he was a lot more likely to try to argue with you than punch you. You could wish to be able to say the same for, say, Norman Mailer. 

And all this, usually trotted out as either damnation or, sadly, in admiration, ignores that despite the occasional bluster, Ellison was also often generous with his time and support for others, and was not, in fact, a monster on balance. He was a reasonably pleasant person on the two times I had a discussion with him, once face to face, once via telephone, albeit the latter time was in a professional context, as I was interviewing him for a TV Guide write-up of his then-new television series Masters of Science Fiction, broadcast by ABC in the US, as it happens, as a summer replacement series. The first time, I was at a signing, picking up copies of his first comic book compilation volume, Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, for myself and my aunt Beverly Laquerre. There were a few scraps of correspondence, via paper mail and through his webpage, between those events. So, I don't know how bad or good his behavior tended to be in his day-t0-day private life, but I do know he didn't act as, say, a certain repeatedly failing businessman and completely out of his depth politician, but successful tv performer, apparently does at all times, as a clownish walking example of insecure narcissism. 

"Officially" this is a piece on the Ellison novella Mefisto in Onyx, his last longer work to be published so far, first in Omni in 1993, and shortly thereafter in the Mark V. Ziesing edition pictured here, with comics artist/writer Frank Miller's cover design and introduction, where I first read it (as opposed to as included in Stephen Jones's 1994 volume of his annual Best New Horror, or in Ellison's '97 collection of recent fiction Slippage). And on Harlan Ellison's Watching, the 1989 edition of his collected film and other a/v criticism and related matter  (there was a later edition with more material added, I believe; I have a copy of the 1992 trade paperback, with a creased cover from a tumble off a bookshelf some years back).

Mefisto in Onyx is good rather than great work by Ellison. It demonstrates some of the recurring themes and approaches in his work: the outsider who doesn't let others see him fully, though who does make a strong bond with a few, while hiding from the mass; he being an intelligent man who has not ever quite found his niche, suffered from a lot of early emotional and other damage, and finds he can relate best to others who've faced much the same situation; and finds himself, with a special talent, facing a truly monstrous set of circumstances, institutional and personal, which threaten him and those he loves. Telepathic Rudy Pairis (the variant spelling paying off, arguably, as a foreshadowing of certain dualisms late in the narrative) is asked by his long-time friend and (literally) one-time lover Allison Roche to read the mind of, or jaunt (a term Ellison notes in his acknowledgements he borrowed, and has Pairis define differently, from Alfred Bester and the latter's novel The Stars My Destination, aka Tiger! Tiger!) into the consciousness of a man for whom she, as an Alabama prosecutor, was the primary litigator in putting away for serial murder. This is a lot to ask, as jaunting takes a lot out of Pairis; further, she admits that not only is she concerned she helped convict an innocent man, but that she's now in love with the convict, several days away from execution, which only compounds Pairis's mixed emotions, as he fully realizes the degree he still carries a torch for Roche, as well as puzzling him as to how she might fall for someone so clearly Wrong.

Ellison, as with certain other writers only often more gracefully (usually, I hope to do better than I usually do), tries to pack as much information into a sentence or, certainly, a paragraph as he possibly can; as with most writers in fantastic fiction, he is fascinated by often-obscure areas of knowledge, and musing asides will go in that direction and also toward the sensory responses he wishes the reader to feel as powerfully as the characters do, often with a high degree of success. And the descriptions of the alienating nature of the penitentiary experience, as well as the ghastliness of the crimes committed by the murderer, are compounded also not only by the dance between two people who are more than friends but have difficulty coping with that and what comes with it, and also Pairis's experiences as an African-American, including a few minor annoyances as he deals with observers nearby while simply talking, occasionally arguing, with Roche, who is a pale Caucasian. Ellison has studied the history of serial killers, and loves the scents of flowers after a rainstorm, and has meditated perhaps too much about revenge and how it can be achieved, and he wants you to know what he's found. And I think there's a certain degree of Ellison talking to himself, even as his protagonist does, in realizing it might be better if he'd stop getting in his own way. 

The story won the Horror Writers of America Stoker Award, and the Locus magazine poll, for its year, and you probably won't want to be reading something else while you read it. Ellison notes that he ran it by a number of his friends, I gather more so than most of his work, at various points, including Robert Crais, Octavia Butler, John-Henri Holmberg, Steven Barnes, O'Neil De Noux, J. Michael Straczynski, Edward Bryant, Martin H. Greenberg, Bill Warren, Robert Kilheffer, editors Ellen Datlow (at Omni) and Mark Ziesing, Kathryn Drennan and Susan Ellison. Along with crediting Alfred Bester as inspiration, he also notes both Kyle Baker's Why I Hate Saturn and Frank Miller's Sin City as giving him some nudges; in turn, I wouldn't be surprised if Ellison's aside in the novella about the Spartans versus the Persian army at the Hot Gates might not've nudged Miller along to his eventual exercise in goofiness, 300. The story was dedicated to Robert Bloch, who had commissioned a piece from Ellison for his 1991 anthology Psycho-Paths (Ellison excoriates that project's Tor Books publisher and editors presumably for pressuring him to get his work in by their deadlines, noting that between his book deal and film options he seems to have done better than he would've by rushing to meet their schedule); the book package to Dean Koontz. 

I will, as I take after Ellison in having difficulty with deadlines, have more to say about Watching later. To begin, though, this might be the most representative collection of his nonfiction writing one can find, as, more so than any other of his nonfiction volumes, it draws upon nearly every period of writing (including an example of his high school film-review beginnings) and touches upon a major segment of his work, dealing with how an excellent prose writer and dramatist can be seen coping with the demands of both media, and analyzing how others do so...often through the collected columns he wrote for such magazines as Cinema, The Staff, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and others. The high-school review is offered as an appendix, as is an essay dealing with The Daisy nightclub, the same sort of mid-'60s "scene" as Jilly's, where Frank Sinatra's attempt at bullying Ellison, as recounted in Gay Talese's "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", took place...The Daisy run by Curtis Hanson's parents, who also published Hanson's Cinema for several years. Among the things missing here that shouldn't be are Ellison's fine essay on how to write a film or television script, "With the Eyes of a Demon: Seeing the Fantastic as a Video Image".

For more of today's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog

Other Ellisonia on the blog:

Partners in Wonder by HE and divers hands

All the Lies That Are My Life

The Book of Ellison, Sleepless Nights on the Procrustean Bed, Stalking the Nightmare, Strange Wine, Medea: Harlan's World

Mind Fields by Ellison and Jacek Yerka

Harlan Ellison's Watching, briefly dealt with among the other The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction A/V critics' volumes (Kathi Maio, Lucius Shepard, Baird Searles).

"The Deathbird"  as it appeared in F&SF March 1973

Other media:

Richard Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky interview Harlan Ellison in 1997 for Bookwaves on Pacifica Radio in Berkeley (longer cut of the interview)

FFB Redux for Anthologies week: PARTNERS IN WONDER by Harlan Ellison and collaborators; best of the year 1978 short fiction anthologies

I've had a few too many All-Night sessions of various taxing sorts over the last few months, and last night was yet another...so, as the most monotonously anthology (and fiction-magazine)-oriented of FFBers, a redux post of two of the reviews from past years that perhaps could use a few more eye tracks...sorry if you find them a bit slight or overfamiliar!  TM (Please see Patti Abbott's blog for the fresher examples from other contributors!)

The Contento Index:

Partners in Wonder Harlan Ellison (Walker, 1971, hc)
· Sons of Janus · in [now-dead link]
· I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg · Harlan Ellison & Robert Sheckley · nv F&SF Jan ’68
· Brillo · Harlan Ellison & Ben Bova · nv Analog Aug ’70
· A Toy for Juliette · Robert Bloch · ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World · nv Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· Scherzo for Schizoids: Notes on a Collaboration · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ms Knight Nov ’65
· Up Christopher to Madness · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ss Knight Nov ’65
· Runesmith · Harlan Ellison & Theodore Sturgeon · ss F&SF May ’70
· Rodney Parish for Hire · Harlan Ellison & Joe L. Hensley · ss Swank May ’62
· The Kong Papers · Harlan Ellison & William Rotsler · ct The Kong Papers, William Rotsler & Harlan Ellison, 1969
· The Human Operators · Harlan Ellison & A. E. van Vogt · ss F&SF Jan ’71
· Survivor No. 1 [“The Man with the Green Nose”] · Harlan Ellison & Henry Slesar · ss Knave Sep ’59
· The Power of the Nail · Harlan Ellison & Samuel R. Delany · ss Amazing Nov ’68
· Wonderbird · Harlan Ellison & Algis Budrys · ss Infinity Science Fiction Sep ’57
· The Song the Zombie Sang · Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg · ss Cosmopolitan Dec ’70
· Street Scene [“Dunderbird”] · Harlan Ellison & Keith Laumer · ss Galaxy Jan ’69; this story has two different endings. The version with the Ellison ending was in Galaxy, the version with the Laumer ending was in Adam Mar ’69 as “Street Scene”.
· Come to Me Not in Winter’s White · Harlan Ellison & Roger Zelazny · ss F&SF Oct ’69

There are certain books which will change your life, though usually only very slightly. This was one of those more potent ones for me, as a young reader, which more than any other early reading experience brought home the sense of a writer's life and the community of writers. It's available as an e-book, which is the source of the link to the introduction [since removed from the web, apparently], but I read the Pyramid edition with the Leo and Diane Dillon cover design pictured here, part of the series they did of Ellison paperbacks for the publisher (some reissued by Jove after the purchase). This is almost certainly the only version of an Ellison book to be blurbed with the employment of Jimmie Walker's mid-'70s catchphrase. (The painting they did for the hardcover, below, rather better.)

The stories here, in what was the first collection of collaborations between one writer and several others that Ellison was aware of (I think there was at least one previous example, but it eludes me at the moment), are a mixed lot (and include a series of cartoons with William Rotsler which struck me as Just OK even when I was ten, not Rotsler's best work in the form, certainly--though I'm still fond of Fay Wray in the clutches of the big ape as he scales the Empire State, and someone shouting up from below, "Trip him, Fay!"). Even the best of them are almost invariably not quite up to the best of either collaborator, but they do have a special flavor...even when, as with the the two stories by Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison individually, the collaboration is more along the lines of nudging inspiration...resulting in a decent Bloch story, since his was merely commissioned for Dangerous Visions, and a rather better sequel to that story by Ellison, who was mildly obsessed with what he was asking Bloch to do (both stories being sequels to Bloch's early story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," one of those stories which follow their creators around for their entire careers, and one of the most widely plagiarized stories written in the last century). The antic comedies, such as the Laumer and Davidson collaborations, are often more successful than the attempts at more serious work, but the darker humor of the Sheckley and Silverberg stories are certainly effective. And, of course, while I'd read a few Davidson stories before this book (in anthologies attributed to Hitchcock), this was the first opportunity I had to read Davidson's delightful nonfiction, in this case an acocunt of an incident that Ellison also recounts, and the comparison of the two versions is telling and extremely entertaining.

And the Bova story, "Brillo," was even ripped off for at least two tv series, though only actionably for one.

Still a valuable read, and the ancillary material might be Ellison at his best at this, at which he is one of the best.

For more "Forgotten" Books, please see Patti Abbott's blog, though updates will be delayed while she Shakespeares.

The first edition, from Walker & Co.

FFB: the best short stories of 1978 (the year I started reading new short fiction in earnest) as judged by the annual editors...

I picked up (either purchased or found in libraries) all these volumes (with the exception of the Pushcart item) back when, and I was fascinated not only by the contents themselves but also by the choices made among the short fiction published in 1978, a good chunk of which I'd read as it was offered in the magazines and original anthologies (though I didn't yet have access to little magazines--I read The Atlantic Monthly by year's end and looked at The New Yorker and some of the other newsstand titles). Looking at their contents now, I'm impressed, if  not universally, any more than I was back then, by the quality of the selection--it was a good year to start reading new short fiction in bulk, though it's usually if not always a good year to do so. It's rather telling that the fantasy (and horror) volumes have no overlap or shared stories, and neither do the eclectic/contemporary mimetic volumes, but the sf volumes certainly do. Also notable to me, as it was then, how certain books demonstrate, if not the desire to include Names at the cost of quality, then at least a certain kindness or nostalgia toward some of the writers...certainly Terry Carr, in the first two volumes of his fantasy annual, included two of the worst Stephen King stories I've read...at least Gerald Page and Ed Hoch selected rather better, though not Year's Best, stories from King for their books. The Stephen Donaldson story was also not up to most of the rest of the Carr fantasy selections. Lin Carter likewise could let nostalgia and desire to play up Conan and such overwhelm his annual, but Arthur Saha, who would inherit the series on his own after Carter's death, probably was already being felt in this volume in some of the more innovative choices.

Multiple appearances across several volumes include those of John Varley, with four appearances of two different stories (three reprints of "The Persistence of Vision"), four appearances with three different stories for Michael Bishop and three with three for Thomas Disch (the O. Henry volume was indexed for WorldCat by a proud fellow Minnesotan), three inclusions of two stories by Gregory Benford, likewise three inclusions for two stories by Joan D. Vinge, and, as noted, three appearances with three different stories by Stephen King. It really was a very good year for Disch and Bishop amd Janet Fox.

Among the particularly brilliant stories (among many) I remember are Dennis Etchison's "The Pitch" (Horror), Bill Pronzini's "Strangers in the Fog" (Detective),  Fox's "Demon and Demoiselle" (Carter/Saha Fantasy), and Gregory Benford's squicky "In Alien Flesh" (several). John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision" certainly blew me (and the award voters) away in 1978 and into the next year, though even from the first reading it struck me as more fantasy than sf, and perhaps in more than one way (though Varley's sexual libertinism certainly struck a chord with 13yo me, and I'm somewhat in sympathy with that attitude still, with certain reservations).  Look at all that established and emerging talent in the Pushcart...and all the others...

The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII ed. Gerald W. Page (DAW 0-87997-476-1, Jul ’79, $1.95, 221pp, pb)

• 7 · Introduction · Gerald W. Page · in
• 11 · The Pitch · Dennis Etchison · ss Whispers Oct ’78
• 20 · The Night of the Tiger · Stephen King · ss F&SF Feb ’78
• 34 · Amma · Charles R. Saunders · ss Beyond the Fields We Know Fll ’78
• 54 · Chastel [Lee Cobbett; Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant] · Manly Wade Wellman · nv *
• 78 · Sleeping Tiger · Tanith Lee · ss Dragonbane Spr ’78
• 87 · Intimately, with Rain · Janet Fox · ss Collage Nov ’78
• 94 · The Secret · Jack Vance · ss Impulse Mar ’66
• 103 · Hear Me Now, My Sweet Abbey Rose · Charles L. Grant · ss F&SF Mar ’78
• 118 · Divers Hands [Julian] · Darrell Schweitzer · nv *
• 144 · Heading Home · Ramsey Campbell · ss Whispers Oct ’78
• 149 · In the Arcade · Lisa Tuttle · ss Amazing May ’78
• 159 · Nemesis Place [Dama (& Vettius)] · David Drake · ss Fantastic Apr ’78
• 173 · Collaborating · Michael Bishop · ss Rooms of Paradise, ed. Lee Harding, South Yarra, Victoria, Australia: Quartet Books, 1978
• 192 · Marriage · Robert Aickman · nv Tales of Love and Death, Gollancz, 1977; F&SF Apr ’78

The Year’s Finest Fantasy Volume 2 ed. Terry Carr (Berkley 0-425-04155-7, Jul ’79, $1.95, 311pp, pb); Series continued with Fantasy Annual III.

• 1 · Introduction · Terry Carr · in
• 3 · Gotcha! · Ray Bradbury · ss Redbook Aug ’78
• 11 · The Lady in White · Stephen R. Donaldson · nv F&SF Feb ’78
• 43 · Within the Walls of Tyre · Michael Bishop · nv Weirdbook #13 ’78
• 75 · The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge · Harlan Ellison · ss Analog Aug ’78
• 91 · The Gunslinger [Roland (Gunslinger)] · Stephen King · nv F&SF Oct ’78
• 141 · A Certain Slant of Light · Raylyn Moore · ss Shadows #1, ed. Charles L. Grant, Doubleday, 1978
• 155 · Sleep Well of Nights [“A Good Night’s Sleep”; Jack Limekiller] · Avram Davidson · na F&SF Aug ’78
• 209 · Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies · R. A. Lafferty · nv Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
• 241 · The Treasure of Odirex [Erasmus Darwin] · Charles Sheffield · na Fantastic Jul ’78
• 299 · Recommended Reading—1978 · Misc. · bi
• 301 · The Year in Fantasy: 1978 · Susan Wood · ar

The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 5 ed. Lin Carter  and Arthur W. Saha (DAW 0-87997-510-5, Jan ’80, $1.95, 204pp, pb)

• 11 · The Year in Fantasy · Lin Carter · in
• 15 · The Troll · T. H. White · ss Gone to Ground, 1935
• 28 · In the Balance · Tanith Lee · ss Swords Against Darkness #3, ed. Andrew J. Offutt, Zebra, 1978
• 34 · The Gem in the Tower [Conan] · L. Sprague de Camp & Lin Carter · nv Conan the Swordsman, ed. L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter & Bjorn Nyberg, Bantam, 1978
• 58 · Above Ker-Is · Evangeline Walton · ss The Fantastic Imagination II, ed. Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski, Avon, 1978
• 70 · Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin · Marvin Kaye · ss Fantastic Oct ’78
• 77 · Rhian and Garanhir · Grail Undwin · ss *
• 83 · Lord of the Dead [Steve Harrison] · Robert E. Howard · nv, 1978
• 118 · Child of Air · Pat McIntosh · ss *
• 136 · A Malady of Magicks [Ebenezum] · Craig Shaw Gardner · ss Fantastic Oct ’78
• 153 · St. George · David Mallory · ss, 1978
• 158 · Astral Stray [Voidal] · Adrian Cole · nv Heroic Fantasy, ed. Gerald W. Page & Hank Reinhardt, DAW, 1979
• 180 · Demon and Demoiselle [Arcana] · Janet Fox · nv Fantastic Oct ’78
• 201 · The Year’s Best Fantasy Books · Lin Carter · bi

The 1979 Annual World’s Best SF ed. Donald A. Wollheim & Arthur W. Saha (DAW 0-87997-459-1, May ’79, $2.25, 268pp, pb)

• 7 · Introduction · Donald A. Wollheim · in
• 11 · Come to the Party · Frank Herbert & F. M. Busby · ss Analog Dec ’78
• 37 · Creator · David Lake · nv Envisaged Worlds, ed. Paul Collins, Void, 1978
• 64 · Dance Band on the Titanic · Jack L. Chalker · nv IASFM Jul/Aug ’78
• 87 · Cassandra · C. J. Cherryh · ss F&SF Oct ’78
• 96 · In Alien Flesh · Gregory Benford · nv F&SF Sep ’78
• 122 · SQ · Ursula K. Le Guin · ss Cassandra Rising, ed. Alice Laurance, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978
• 133 · The Persistence of Vision · John Varley · na F&SF Mar ’78
• 181 · We Who Stole the Dream · James Tiptree, Jr. · nv Stellar #4, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1978
• 206 · Scattershot · Greg Bear · nv Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
• 239 · Carruthers’ Last Stand · Dan Henderson · nv Analog Jun ’78

The Best Science Fiction of the Year # 8 ed. Terry Carr (Ballantine 0-345-28083-0, Jul ’79, $2.25, 372pp, pb)

• ix · Introduction · Terry Carr · in
• 1 · The Barbie Murders [Anna-Louise Bach] · John Varley · nv IASFM Jan/Feb ’78
• 35 · A Hiss of Dragon · Gregory Benford & Marc Laidlaw · nv Omni Dec ’78
• 56 · Black Glass · Fritz Leiber · nv Andromeda 3, ed. Peter Weston, London: Futura, 1978
• 89 · To Bring in the Steel · Donald Kingsbury · nv Analog Jul ’78
• 136 · The Very Slow Time Machine · Ian Watson · nv Anticipations, ed. Christopher Priest, Scribner’s, 1978
• 159 · Devil You Don’t Know [Val Clarke] · Dean Ing · nv Analog Jan ’78
• 207 · Count the Clock That Tells the Time · Harlan Ellison · ss Omni Dec ’78
• 228 · View from a Height · Joan D. Vinge · ss Analog Jun ’78
• 246 · The Morphology of the Kirkham Wreck · Hilbert Schenck · nv F&SF Sep ’78
• 281 · Vermeer’s Window · Gordon Eklund · ss Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
• 298 · The Man Who Had No Idea · Thomas M. Disch · nv F&SF Oct ’78
• 336 · Death Therapy · James Patrick Kelly · nv F&SF Jul ’78
• 364 · Recommended Reading—1978 · Terry Carr · bi
• 366 · The Science Fiction Year · Charles N. Brown · ar

The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1 ed. Terry Carr (Ballantine, Sep ’79, 328pp, pb)

• vii · Introduction · Terry Carr · in
• 1 · The Persistence of Vision · John Varley · na F&SF Mar ’78
• 54 · Old Folks at Home · Michael Bishop · na Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
• 110 · Shipwright · Donald Kingsbury · na Analog Apr ’78
• 153 · Seven American Nights · Gene Wolfe · na Orbit 20, ed. Damon Knight, Harper & Row, 1978
• 211 · Fireship · Joan D. Vinge · na Analog Dec ’78
• 274 · The Watched [Dream Archipelago] · Christopher Priest · na F&SF Apr ’78

Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year (1978) ed. Gardner R. Dozois (Elsvier-Dutton, 1979, hc); Also in pb (Dell Aug ’80).

• · Introduction- Summation: 1978 · Gardner R. Dozois · in
• · The Persistence of Vision · John Varley · na F&SF Mar ’78
• · Found! · Isaac Asimov · ss Omni Oct ’78
• · Whores [Dream Archipelago] · Christopher Priest · ss New Dimensions 8, ed. Robert Silverberg, Harper & Row, 1978
• · Cousins · Bernard Deitchman · nv Analog Aug ’78
• · View from a Height · Joan D. Vinge · ss Analog Jun ’78
• · Mutability · Thomas M. Disch · ss Anticipations, ed. Christopher Priest, Scribner’s, 1978
• · Lost and Found · Phyllis Eisenstein · ss Analog Oct ’78
• · Old Folks at Home · Michael Bishop · na Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
• · September Song · James P. Girard · ss Penthouse Sep ’78
• · In Alien Flesh · Gregory Benford · nv F&SF Sep ’78
• · Seven American Nights · Gene Wolfe · na Orbit 20, ed. Damon Knight, Harper & Row, 1978
• · Honorable Mentions- 1978 · Misc. · bi

courtesy WorldCat: 

Best detective stories of the year, 1979 ; 33rd annual collection  
edited by Edward D. Hoch. 
New York : E.P. Dutton, 1979. 209 pages

Quitters, Inc. / Stephen King --
Little paradise / Zena Collier --
The man in the lake / Ernest Savage --
Strangers in the fog / Bill Pronzini --
Delayed mail / Jack Ritchie --
Filmflam / Francis M. Nevins --
The fire man / Elizabeth A. Lynn --
The adventure of the blind alley / Edward Wellen --
The cloud beneath the eaves / Barbara Owens --
The closed door / Thomas Walsh --
Truth will out / Ruth Rendell --
Checkpoint Charlie / Brian Garfield --
Rite of Spring / Jerry Jacobson --
The golden circle / Patricia L. Schulze --
Captain Leopold Incognito / Edward D. Hoch --
The leech / Frank Sisk.

courtesy Contento/Stephensen-Payne Miscellaneous Anthologies:

The Best American Short Stories 1979 

ed. Joyce Carol Oates & Shannon Ravenel (Houghton Mifflin, 1979, tp)

• xi · Introduction · Joyce Carol Oates · in
• 1 · A Silver Dish · Saul Bellow · nv New Yorker Sep 25 ’78
• 28 · An Exile in the East · Flannery O’Connor · ss South Carolina Review Nov ’78
• 39 · Home and Native Land · Seán Virgo · ss Malahat Review, 1978
• 44 · A Short Walk into Afternoon · Kaatje Hurlbut · ss The Southwest Review, 1978
• 56 · Shadrach · William Styron · nv Esquire Nov 21 ’78
• 79 · The Wedding Week · Rosellen Brown · ss Boston University Journal, 1978
• 84 · A Party in Miami Beach · Isaac Bashevis Singer · ss Playboy Jun ’78
• 97 · The Quail · Rolf Yngve · ss Quarterly West, 1978
• 102 · Some Manhattan in New England · Peter LaSalle · ss Georgia Review, 1978
• 115 · Plaisir d’Amour · Lynne Sharon Schwartz · ss The Ontario Review, 1978
• 131 · Falling Off the Scaffold · Lyn Coffin · ss Michigan Quarterly Review Win ’78
• 150 · Spelling · Alice Munro · ss Weekend Magazine, 1978
• 157 · Seasons · Ruth McLaughlin · ss California Quarterly, 1978
• 167 · Living Alone · Robley Wilson, Jr. · ss Fiction International, 1978
• 172 · The Middle Place · Mary Hedin · ss The Southwest Review, 1978
• 184 · The Quarterback Speaks to His God · Herbert Wilner · nv Esquire, 1978
• 206 · Trip in a Summer Dress · Annette Sanford · ss Prairie Schooner, 1978
• 214 · The Eye · Paul Bowles · ss The Missouri Review, 1978
• 222 · Paper Covers Rock · Jean Thompson · ss Mademoiselle, 1978
• 234 · The Missing Person · Maxine Kumin · ss TriQuarterly, 1978
• 243 · Finisterre · Louis D. Rubin, Jr. · nv The Southern Review, 1978
• 270 · A Lingering Death · Silvia Tennenbaum · ss Massachusetts Review, 1978
• 284 · Home Is the Hero · Bernard Malamud · nv Atlantic Monthly, 1978
• 312 · The New Music · Donald Barthelme · ss New Yorker Jun 19 ’78
• 324 · Something That Happened · Jayne Anne Phillips · ss Gallimaufry, 1978 

[This citation in WorldCat is annoyingly shorthanded...particularly where the writer's name isn't so obvious as with Herbert Gold or Alice Adams.]
 
Prize stories 1979 : the O. Henry Awards  edited and with an introduction by William Abrahams. 

"Includes story by Minnesota author Thomas M. Disch."

Weaver, G. Getting serious.--
Bromell, H. Travel stories.--
Hecht, J.I want you, I need you, I love you.--
Goldberg, L. Shy bearers.--
Heller, S. The summer game.--
Pfeil, F. The quality of light in Maine.--
Leaton, A. The passion of Marco Z--.--
Thomas, A. Coon hunt.--
Molyneux, T.W. Visiting the point.--
Oates, J.C. In the autumn of the year.--
Baumbach, J. Passion?--
Zelver, P. My father's jokes.--
Gold, H. The smallest part.--
Van Dyke, H. Du Côté de Chez Britz.--
Smith, L. Mrs. Darcy meets the blue-eyed stranger at the beach.--
Caputi, A. The derby hopeful.--
Schwartz, L.S. Rough strife.--
Yates, R. Oh, Joseph, I'm so tired.--
Peterson, M. Travelling.--
Disch, T.M. Xmas.--
Adams, A. The girl across the room.  

  The Pushcart prize, IV : best of the small presses  
edited by Bill Henderson.   591 pages

		Introduction : about Pushcart Prize, IV -- Home / by Jayne Anne Phillips -- From laughing with one eye / by Gjertrud Schnackenberg Smyth -- A renewal of the word / by Barbara Myerhoff -- Ice / by AI -- In another country / by James Laughlin -- The daisy dolls / by Felisberto Hernández -- Snow owl / by Dave Smith -- Lot's wife / by Kristine Batey -- The stone crab : a love poem / by Robert Phillips -- Night flight to Stockholm / by Dallas Wiebe -- Literature and ecology: an experiment in ecocriticism / by William Rueckert -- Ghosts like them / by Shirley Ann Taggart -- Elegy / by David St. John -- The ritual of memories / by Tess Gallagher -- Plowing with elephants / by Lon Otto -- Meeting Mescalito at Oak Hill Cemetery / by Lorna Dee Cervantes -- A Jean-Marie cookbook / by Jeff Weinstein -- dg The politics of anti-realism / by Gerald Graff -- Winter sleep / by Mary Oliver -- Wildflower / by Stanley Plumly -- Letters from a father / by Mona Van Duyn -- Early winter / by Max Schott -- My work in California / by James B. Hall -- The ownership of the night / by Larry Levis -- The Spanish image of death / by César Vallejo -- For Papa (and Marcus Garvey) / by Thadious M. Davis -- A vision expressed by a series of false statements / by John Love -- Jeffrey, believe me / by Jane Smiley -- Sweetness, a thinking machine / by Joe Ashby Porter -- To Ed Sissman / by John Updike -- The man whose blood tilted the earth / by M.R. Doty -- Lawrence at Taos / by Shirley Kaufman -- Contemporary poetry and the metaphors for the poem / by Charles Molesworth -- Another Margot chapter / by R.C. Day -- Sitting up, standing, taking steps / by Ron Silliman -- Made connections / by Michael Harper -- Anonymous courtesan in a jade shroud / by Brenda Hillman - A woman in love with a bottle / by Barbara Lovell --- Proteus / by Judith Hoover -- Quinnapoxet / by Stanley Kunitz -- Things that happen where there aren't any people / by William Stafford -- Lechery / by Jayne Anne Phillips -- Civilization and isolation / by Vine Deloria -- from Kiss of the spider woman / by Manual Puig -- Running away from home / by Carolyn Kizer -- The biography man / by Gary Reilly -- The nerves of a midwife: contemporary American women's poetry / by Alicia Ostriker -- Forgive us / by George Venn -- The hat in the swamp / by Paul Metcalf -- These women / by Christine Schutt -- Johnny Appleseed / by Susan Schaefer Neville -- Some carry around this / by Susan Strayer Deal -- The stonecutter's horses / by Robert Bringhurst -- Grandmother (1895-1928) / by Cleopatra Mathis -- Rich / by Ellen Gilchrist -- Pig 311 / by Margaret Ryan -- American poetry: looking for a center / by Ishmael Reed- I show the daffodils to the retarded kids / by Constance Sharp -- Dream / by John Willson -- Living with animals / by Margaret Kent -- The trial of Rozhdestvov / by Russian Samizdat -- Contributors notes -- Outstanding writers -- Outstanding small presses. For more of this week's books,  please see Patti Abbott's blog...