Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation - Softcover

Harlan Ellison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0515039330 ISBN 13: 9780515039337

Publisher: Pyramid Books, 1975

Synopsis

Pyramid Books paperback, 1975. Reprints the 1961 paperback original (this publication drops "The Time of the Eye," adds "Turnpike" and a new introduction). An early collection of non-genre short stories; most were written between 1957 and 1959, while the author was an army draftee. Foreword by Frank M. Robinson, introduction (1975) by Ellison, and THESE STORIES: Final Shtick (1960); Gentleman Junkie (1961); May We Also Speak? (1961) essay; Daniel White for the Greater Good (1961); Lady Bug, Lady Bug (1961); Free With This Box! (1958); There's One on Every Campus (1959); At the Mountains of Blindness (1961); This Is Jackie Spinning (1959); No Game for Children (1959); The Late, Great Arnie Draper (1961); High Dice (1961); Enter the Fanatic, Stage Center (1961); Someone Is Hungrier (1960); Memory of a Muted Trumpet (1960); Turnpike (1961); Sally in Our Alley (1959); The Silence of Infidelity (1957); Have Coolth (1959); RFD #2 (1957, with Henry Slesar); No Fourth Commandment (1956); The Night of Delicate Terrors (1961).

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Raw, vital, uncopromising here are portraits of the lost, the damned, the helpless, trying to get a handle on life. A startling collection of "hip" stories by an impressive young writer, torn from the shadows of the twilight world.

From Booklist:

This hardcover reprint of the 1955 original paperback showcases the young, raw, sometimes clumsy Ellison, a writer who hasn’t quite developed the storytelling or prose style he will soon become known for. Unusual for Ellison, these stories aren’t science fiction (or, more broadly, speculative fiction). Set during the 1950s, the stories focus on issues that were on the author’s mind at the time: discrimination, oppression, racial hatred, and other injustices. Where Ellison would later use the sf genre as a means of exploring these issues from other (sometimes allegorical) angles, here he tackles them head-on, with mixed results: some of the stories are graceful and revelatory, while others come off a bit ham-fisted, as though the author sought to punch the issue right in the nose rather than—as he would later in his career—dance around it a bit first. Definitely for the author’s legion of fans (who will forgive a little clunkiness from the guy, who was, after all, just starting out). --David Pitt

About this edition

• Publisher: Pyramid Books
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 0515039330
• ISBN 13: 9780515039337
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 255
• Illustrator: Diane And Leo Dillon