Harlan Ellison Biography

Harlan Ellison was a writer of speculative fiction and television shows, known best for short works such as the story “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and the Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever.”

A teen runaway from Ohio, Ellison began his writing career writing short stories for pulp magazines in the 1950s. He branched out into television in the 1960s,  writing for The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone and the original Star Trek.

During his career, Ellison won several Hugo and Nebula awards, and was known especially for short stories and novellas, including the collection Death Bird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods (1975) and the novella All the Lies That Are My Life (1980). He also wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie A Boy and His Dog (1975, starring Don Johnson).

Harlan Ellison was also famously cantankerous and litigious. One of his many lawsuits was against James Cameron over the 1984 film The Terminator, which Ellison claimed was taken from an episode he had written for The Outer Limits (the case was settled out of court).