Memos from Purgatory

Name: Memos from Purgatory
Author: Unknown Author
ISBN: 9780515037067

by Unknown Author

1975Jove BooksISBN 9780515037067

Science Science Fiction Biography

Open in BookOwl Download on App Store

About this book

Hemingway said, "A man should never write what he doesn't know," In the mid-fifties, Harlan Ellison--kicked out of college and hungry to write--went to New York to start his writing career. It was a time of street gangs, rumbles, kids with switchblades and zip guns made from car radio antennas. Ellison was barely out of his teens himself, but he took a phony name, moved into Brooklyn's dangerous Red Hook section and managed to con his way into a "bopping club." What he experienced (and the time he spent in jail as a result) was the basis for the violent story that Alfred Hitchcock filmed as the first of his hour-long TV dramas...This autobiography is a book whose message you won't be able to ignore or forget.

Publication Details

Publisher: Jove Books
Published: 1975
ISBN: 9780515037067

About Unknown Author

Harlan Ellison was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a Jewish-American family. His family moved to Painesville, Ohio, but returned to Cleveland in 1949 after the death of his father. As a child, he performed in minstrel shows, and frequently ran away from home, taking odd jobs. He attended Ohio State University but was expelled after 18 months for hitting a professor who had denigrated his writing ability. He moved to New York City in 1955 to become a science fiction writer. Over the next two years, he published more than 100 short stories and articles. In 1957, he joined a street gang in Brooklyn as research for his novel Web of the City/Rumble and short story collection The Deadly Streets. In the late 1950s, he wrote erotic fiction under the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. Later, he used the pseudonym for works that he felt were warped beyond his original intention by editors or producers. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1957 and returned to New York in 1960, before moving to Chicago, to write for Rogue magazine and work as an editor for Regency Books. In 1962, he moved to California and began writing for Hollywood film studios in. His first screenplay was for the film The Oscar. He also wrote scripts for television shows such as The Flying Nun, Burke's Law, Route 66, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Cimarron Strip. During the late 1960s, he also wrote a column about political and social issues in television for the Los Angeles Free Press titled "The Glass Teat." Ellison has won ten Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and five Bram Stoker Awards (presented by the Horror Writers Association) including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He has written nine novels, hundreds of short stories, and many articles and essays. He continues to write from his home in Los Angeles, California with Susan, his fifth wife.