He was the last man on Earth, allright. But—was he still a man? Glow Worm by Harlan Ellison, that’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.

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He was told he had no talent by a creative-writing professor at Ohio State University and then he went on to become one of the most prolific science fiction writers of all time having written more than 1700 short stories and articles, at least 100 books and dozens of screenplays and television scripts.

Born in Cleveland Ohio in 1934 Harlan Ellison wrote what is regarded by many as the best episode of Star Trek, "The City on the Edge of Forever" and he hated it, because it was rewritten. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama on Television.

At the Hugos he dedicated the award to “the memory of the script they butchered, and in respect to those parts of it that had the vitality to shine through the evisceration.”

Ellison sold scripts to a lot of TV shows in the 60s, The Flying Nun, Burke's Law, Route 66, The Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Cimarron Strip, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

A word used frequently to describe Ellison was cantankerous. He was hired as a writer for Walt Disney Studios, but was fired on his first day after Roy O. Disney overheard him in the studio commissary joking about making a pornographic animated film featuring Disney characters. Ellison settled out of court over allegations that James Cameron had plagiarized elements of his work in writing the screenplay for The Terminator; and he once sent a dead gopher to a publisher who violated a clause in his contract.

And then there was the time in the 60s he was nose to nose in an argument with Frank Sinatra which nearly led to physical blows. The altercation, which started when the always impeccably dressed Sinatra didn’t like the boots Ellison was wearing, was short, lasting only about 3 minutes before Ellison walked away. In 2013 Ellison admitted he kept the boots preserved in a plastic bag in his closet.

Harlan Ellison was cantankerous; he was talented, and he wrote more than science fiction. He won 8 Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and 5 Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association. A writer for more than 60 years Harlan Ellison died at his home in Los Angeles in 2018 at the age of 84.

From the February 1956 edition of Infinity Science Fiction, Glow Worm by Harlan Ellison… 

Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast… From Chaos a space-consuming creature reached slimy tentacles toward trembling planets. And no man of the old fighting breed remained on effete Earth to battle the invulnerable monster. The Monster that Threatened the Universe by Russ Winterbotham.That’s next week onThe Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.

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