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Science fiction writer and provocateur Harlan Ellison, who wrote stories including "Jeffty Is Five," "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," and "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," died in his sleep at home in Los Angeles at age 84. Like many who write short stories and novellas in genres like speculative fiction, the sweep of his career is evident in his collection of awards: Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, Edgar Awards and many others. He wrote episodes of 

("The City on the Edge of Forever" won him a Writer's Guild of America Award), as well as 

. He wrote comics and read audiobooks.
He also had a reputation for being, as Jason Sheehan called him in 

, "America's weird uncle." Words like that one from the title — "cantankerous" — and "irascible" and "difficult" followed him for much of his life. His rants were legendary, including a profanity-filled 

 that has been viewed on YouTube more than a million times. Sheehan also said:



Ellison, who won so many awards, wrote a 

in 2013 about the Oscars in which he said, "I do not merely hate all awards shows, I wish to see them beheaded, stakes driven through their black and corrupted widdle hearts, and to see the decapitated remains buried at a crossroads come midnight."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Linda Holmes

Author

The famous, and famously cantankerous, science fiction writer Harlan Ellison has died. Over a 6-decade career, he won multiple awards for his fiction and television writing.

Harlan Ellison, award-winning science fiction author, dies at 84

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