J. Michael Straczynski, executor of Harlan and Susan Ellison’s estate, including Harlan’s literary estate, announced Ellison’s Greatest Hits collection is available for preorder. JMS posted on X:
Hey check it! These days publishers tend to do a “soft launch” of their books to see who’s paying attention, and Union Square, owned by Barnes & Noble, just put up a page for Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits! Available now for pre-order! (Cover coming soon)
Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison, which features Ellison’s best and most award-winning stories from across the many years of his career, will be released on March 12, 2024. The collection has an introduction by JMS and a foreword by Neil Gaiman.
Greatest Hits features these stories and many more:
- “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1966) – Hugo Award winner
- “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (1999) – Bram Stoker Award winner
- “Mefisto in Onyx” (1993) – Bram Stoker Award winner
- “Jeffty Is Five” (1979) – British Fantasy Award winner
- “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” (1974) – Edgar Allan Poe Award winner
About the job of picking which stories to include Straczynski says:
It was terribly hard. Some stories like ”’Repent, Harlequin’” and “I Have No Mouth…” are no-brainers…but beyond that it became a matter of finding the most recognized stories that also showed his amazing range… going from speculative fiction, to urban fantasy, to some things that were just two degrees away from mainstream…to show all the different shades of his work. I think we hit the right balance.
LAST AND OTHER DANGEROUS VISIONS. Straczynski also told Twitter followers that Last Dangerous Visions is “done, in final copyediting stage with the publisher, and will be out fall ’24.” And he had more to say on Facebook:
Since there’s a lot of interest in what’s happening with Dangerous Visions, and a lot I can’t say pending announcements, let me say what little I can say.
As I write this, the copyedited Last Dangerous Visions has been sent from the publisher for any final notes or edits on my part. This is the last stage before locking the galleys for review and publication. The file is sitting in my computer and I have until next week to turn it around so we can hit publication deadlines.
The publisher of the three Dangerous Visions books has coordinated the re-release of the first Dangerous Visions to the release of Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits by the other publisher involved. This will let them combine publicity and marketing strategies to get the most bang for their respective bucks and make that month (which will be announced soon I hope) basically Harlan Ellison Month. This will be all about putting Harlan’s work in front of critics, university bookstores, online and print press, and basically making a lot of noise.
Again, Dangerous Visions will then be released 3 months later, and The Last Dangerous Visions three months after that. The publisher and I are now working on designing a unified series of covers to span all three books.
We are hoping to have a launch party for Greatest Hits and the first DV republication at Harlan’s house, which will also be the launch of the place as a memorial library/museum. By then all the repairs, renovations and refits to make it safe for (very small) tour groups and academics will be completed, and we hope to have a lot of press in attendance as well as folks from the City of LA to help ensure that the house is designated a historical landmark for long term preservation.