I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
The defining early collection and a strong introduction to Ellison's science fiction and horror.
Author guide
Harlan Ellison Books in Order
Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) was an exceptionally prolific American writer and editor whose work ranged across science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime fiction, television, film, comics, criticism, memoir, and cultural commentary. He was known for vivid prose, speculative social criticism, and influential stories including I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, A Boy and His Dog, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, and "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. His career also included major television work such as The Outer Limits' "Demon with a Glass Hand," Star Trek's "The City on the Edge of Forever," and numerous original teleplays.
science fictionfantasyhorrorcrime fictionshort fictionessaysmemoirscreenplaysteleplayscomics
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Deathbird Stories
A major mature collection showcasing Ellison's mythic, dark-fantasy, and speculative work.
A Boy and His Dog
A concise, widely recognized novella that represents Ellison's post-apocalyptic fiction.
Read in order
Books by series
novel-series · incomplete
The Starlost
The Starlost novelization series based on Harlan Ellison's television concept; Ellison's original pilot was adapted into the first novel by Edward Bryant.
- 1 The Starlost #1: Phoenix Without Ashes
Book 1 · novel · 1975
graphic-series · complete
Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor
Collected graphic adaptations and original comic material based on Ellison's fiction and concepts.
- 1 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, Vol. One
Book 1 · graphic-work · 1996
- 2 Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, Vol. Two
Book 2 · graphic-work · 2007
teleplay-collection-series · complete
Brain Movies
Collections of Harlan Ellison's original teleplays, pilots, outlines, and related television scripts.
- 1 Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume One
Book 1 · teleplay-collection · 2011
- 2 Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Two
Book 2 · teleplay-collection · 2011
- 3 Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Three
Book 3 · teleplay-collection · 2013
- 4 Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Four
Book 4 · teleplay-collection · 2013
- 5 Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Five
Book 5 · teleplay-collection · 2013
- 6 Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Six
Book 6 · teleplay-collection · 2014
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (12)
- Web of the City
novel · 1958
Harlan Ellison was awarded an honorary degree from UCLA for the excellence of his imaginative writings. Some smartass might even call him "Dr." Ellison. But only once. Because even though Ellison has come a long way since he started…
- The Man with Nine Lives
novel · 1960
- Spider Kiss
novel · 1961
If you thought the only thing Ellison writes is speculative fiction, craziness about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit or invaders from space who look like pink eggplant and smell like chicken soup, this dynamite novel of the emergent…
- Doomsman
novella · 1967
- A Boy and His Dog
novella · 1969
Winner of the Nebula A boy and his telepathic dog fight to survive in a war-torn, postapocalyptic world in this hard-hitting science fiction novella. In an alternate world in which John F. Kennedy survived and scientific breakthroughs in…
- All the Lies That Are My Life
novella · 1980
- Demon with a Glass Hand
graphic-novel · 1986
- Night and the Enemy
graphic-novel · 1987
Five stories by master speculative-fiction author Harlan Ellison, adapted to graphic novel format and fully painted in full color by illustrator Ken Steacy. Out of print since 1987, the tales recount mankind's war with an alien race.…
- Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog
graphic-novel · 1989
- Mefisto in Onyx
novella · 1993
A mind-reader is asked to examine a serial killer before his execution
- Harlan Ellison's 7 Against Chaos
graphic-novel · 2013
- Blood's a Rover
novel · 2018
"[This is] the whole story of Vic and Blood and Spike [assembled] from the author's files, using revised-and-expanded versions of the novella and short stories, interstitial material developed for Richard Corben's graphic adaptation, and…
Nonfiction (1)
- Memos from Purgatory
memoir · 1961
Short fiction (29)
- The Deadly Streets
short-story-collection · 1958
Remember Charles Bronson stalking the streets of New York blowing holes in muggers in Death Wish? Remember Glenn Ford standing off the vicious juvenile delinquents in Blackboard Jungle? Well, it's more than fifty years and two different…
- Sex Gang
short-story-collection · 1959
- A Touch of Infinity
short-story-collection · 1960
- Children of the Streets
short-story-collection · 1961
When he is down, kick for the head and groin. Avoid cops. Play it cool. There are not many rules in the primer for gang kids, but they all count. They are all easily understood, because they use a simple and sound philosophy—it’s a…
- Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation
short-story-collection · 1961
- Ellison Wonderland
short-story-collection · 1962
Tales of terror and wonder from a winner of the Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, Bram Stoker, and many other awards. Originally published in 1962 and updated in later decades with a new introduction, Ellison Wonderland contains sixteen masterful…
- Paingod and Other Delusions
short-story-collection · 1965
Robert Heinlein says, “This book is raw corn liquor – you should serve a whiskbroom with each shot so the customer can brush the sawdust off after he gets up from the floor.” Perhaps a mooring cable might also be added as necessary…
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
short-story-collection · 1967
This is a story set in a post-apocalyptic future. The Cold War progressed until it was too complicated for humans to manage, so the three major superpowers each developed a computer program to help run the war. When one of the programs…
- From the Land of Fear
short-story-collection · 1967
- Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled
short-story-collection · 1968
- The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
short-story-collection · 1969
It is wholly inaccurate to categorize what Harlan Ellison writes as "science fiction" even as it is pejorative to call the stories of Edgar Allan Poe "detective fiction" or the novels of A. B. Guthrie "westerns". Poe wrote Poe-stories,…
- Over the Edge: Stories from Somewhere Else
short-story-collection · 1970
- Approaching Oblivion: Road Signs on the Treadmill Toward Tomorrow
short-story-collection · 1974
The New York Times called him "relentlessly honest" and then used him as the subject of its famous Sunday Acrostic. People Magizine said there was no one like him, then cursed him for preventing easy sleep. But in these stories Harlan…
- Deathbird Stories
short-story-collection · 1975
- No Doors, No Windows
short-story-collection · 1975
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF! The only trouble is, fear comes in so many different shapes and sizes these days. It comes as rejection by a beautiful woman. It comes in the brutalization of your love by an amoral man. It comes…
- Strange Wine
short-story-collection · 1978
From “one of the great . . . American short story writers,” comes a collection of dark fantastical fiction (The Washington Post). In the Locus Award–winning “Croatoan,” a man descends into the sewers of New York City to confront the…
- The Illustrated Harlan Ellison
illustrated-short-story-collection · 1978
- Shatterday
short-story-collection · 1980
- Stalking the Nightmare
short-story-collection · 1982
- Angry Candy
short-story-collection · 1988
- Ensamvark
short-story-collection · 1992
- Mind Fields
short-story-collection · 1994
- Slippage
short-story-collection · 1997
- Rough Beasts
short-story-collection · 2012
- Honorable Whoredom at a Penny a Word
short-story-collection · 2013
- 8 in 80
short-story-collection · 2014
- Again, Honorable Whoredom at a Penny a Word
short-story-collection · 2014
- Coffin Nails
short-story-collection · 2016
- Ellison Under Glass
short-story-collection · 2018
Essays and speeches (9)
- The Glass Teat
essay-collection · 1970
America: change it...or lose it! That is the powerful message of this no-holds-barred book of TV criticism, chosen from a year's worth of weekly assaults on racism, pollution, halfwitted situation comedies, corrupt politicians, asinine…
- The Other Glass Teat
essay-collection · 1972
- The Book of Ellison
essay-collection · 1978
- Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed
essay-collection · 1984
- An Edge in My Voice
essay-collection · 1985
- Harlan Ellison's Watching
essay-collection · 1989
- The Harlan Ellison Hornbook
essay-collection · 1990
- Harlan Ellison's Endlessly Watching
essay-collection · 2014
- The Last Person to Marry a Duck Lives 300 Years Ago: Pointed Essays
essay-collection · 2016
Plays (4)
- Harlan Ellison's Movie
screenplay · 1990
- I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay
screenplay · 1994
- The City on the Edge of Forever
screenplay · 1996
The Original teleplay that became the classic Star Trek episode, with an expanded introductory essay by Harlan Ellison 'The City on the Edge of Forever' has been surrounded by controversy since the airing of an "eviscerated"…
- None of the Above
screenplay · 2012
Collaborations (1)
- Partners in Wonder: SF Collaborations with Fourteen Other Wild Talents
coauthored-short-story-collection · 1971
Other (2)
- Jokes Without Punchlines
chapbook · 1995
- Can & Can'tankerous
mixed-collection · 2015
Harlan Ellison has been compared to an annoying gnat, a no-see ’em buzzing in your peripheral vision till you try to swat him, and he’s gone. The great English writer Michael Moorcock—and if his name does not leave you dumbstruck with…
Frequently asked questions about Harlan Ellison
Who was Harlan Ellison?
Harlan Ellison was an American writer born in Cleveland in 1934 who worked across speculative fiction, essays, television, film, and criticism. He died in 2018.
Sources: case.edu (opens in a new tab)nebulas.sfwa.org (opens in a new tab)
What influenced Harlan Ellison’s writing?
Comic books and pulp magazines strongly influenced his early stories. He also cited Joseph Conrad and Immanuel Kant among his formative literary interests.
Sources: case.edu (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)
What did Harlan Ellison write for television?
Ellison wrote for television series including The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and Star Trek. His story for Star Trek’s “The City on the Edge of Forever” became one of his best-known screen credits.
Sources: interviews.televisionacademy.com (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)
What awards did Harlan Ellison win?
He won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master in 2006. He also received lifetime-achievement honors from the World Fantasy Awards and the Horror Writers Association.
Sources: nebulas.sfwa.org (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)
Why is Harlan Ellison important to science fiction?
Ellison helped shape New Wave speculative fiction through his provocative short fiction, criticism, and editing of influential anthologies. He is remembered as a pioneering, outspoken voice who expanded the genre’s literary and social possibilities.
Sources: theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)case.edu (opens in a new tab)