From Comics Buyer's Guide #1065 April 15, 1994
by Peter David 
For those who came in late: Back in
January, this column discussed the existence of a slam group
created specifically to attack noted essayist and fiction writer
Harlan Ellison. Originally the group called itself "Enemies
of Ellison" and - hiding behind an anonymous flier -
announced its intentions to put together a book of anecdotes
designed to savage Ellison upon his eventual demise. (Once it was
dragged, kicking and screaming, into the open, the group
reconstituted itself into the "Victims of Ellison"
[presumably to downplay the fact that they were targeting
Ellison, rather than vice versa] and crawled out from the
shadows, blinking, belligerent, and disingenuous. The most
laughable moment was ringleader Charles Platt's assertion that my
referring to co-conspirator Gary Groth as one of the
"founders" was inaccurate, since [get this] the group had
no founders. as if it had sprung, fully formed, from the brow
of Zeus or perhaps burst into existence a la the Big
Bang.) Would-be members were invited to send in nine bucks for
the honor of participating in the mean-spirited enteprise (not to
mention getting a button and a newsletter). I announced, at that
point, that I was going to start the "Friends of
Ellison" (FOE). The purpose was to collect testimonials and
stories of how Harlan Ellison had affected people in a positive
manner. I would run letters or excerpts from them from time to
time in this column, and, in turn, contributors would receive an
official "Friends of Ellison" button for which they
didn't have to pay a damned cent. The "Victims" later
caved in and waived their membership fee. I, on the other hand,
actually got checks, in amounts as high as $100, from people
wishing to help me defray costs. All such checks were returned
with polite thanks. I admit, I was dazzled by the response. We
received well over a hundred letters ranging from people who had
never met Ellison to industry professionals who had known him for
years. Accounts of how his stories had affected people, moved
them to action or tears. Stories of kindnesses great and small.
The kinds of outpouring of sentiment that - not to sound crass -
usually don't surface until after a person is in no position to
hear them. Several people said they owed him their careers, and
at least three people flat-out stated that they owed him their
lives. (Although no one copped to owing him money. Sorry,
Harlan.) Some letters have been edited for length. No meaning or
content has been changed. Let's start with Noreen Shaw, widow of
Larry Shaw: "I rise today to seak for Harlan Ellison. He's
my oldest friend in science fiction and a comrade in the trenches
when fans fought the good fight against the forces of mundania.
"Harlan never forgets a slight or a favor or kindness
done him. His memory for past favors and his paybacks are
legenday. Years may go by before he can respond, but he always
does. He does so with grace. "Out of hundreds of things that
are outstanding that he has done, the Shaw family remembers with
gratitude the tribute he arranged for Larry Shaw, his old editor,
when Larry was near the end of his life. Harlan chose the Hugo
ceremony as a forum, assembled many of Larry's friends, made a
graceful speech, and presented Larry with a plaque that he
cherished until he died. "Any time I'm in trouble, Harlan is
the first person I think of and he will always respond. You can
count on him to be there any time. I will be glad to supply more
instances of his good works, but I suspect you won't ned my
words." Then there was the letter from Robert Bloch, noted
horror writer best known for Psycho (not to mention
originating the quote "I have the heart of a little boy. I
keep it in a jar on my desk," a wonderfully macabre comment
that has since been misattributed to Stephen King). Bloch writes:
"I have known Harlan Ellison for more than 40 years. I've
known him in many of his aspects - the professional writer, the
public figure, the private person. "As a writer he pours his
passions into his prose with a power that has won him rightful
recognition. "In public performance he is an eloquent
speaker, a skilled entertainer, and - to many followers and fans
- almost a cult-figure. "The private Ellison is not a
plaster saint. But, then, few of us are, execpt for myself and
(perhaps) you. "In all three aspects of his career hs has
made many friends and more than a smattering of enemies. It's a
situation most writers and most public personalities have leanred
to expect and endure. Usually, there's some villification to be
found for judgements. "But to me the private persona
has always seemed the most important. I know Ellison's opinions
and do not always agree with them; I know his faults and can
deplore them. But, above all, I know his virtues - his acts of
kindness and generosity, his willingness to champion the cause of
others as well as fight for his own. "Right or wrong, he
fights for what he believes in; here is a man with the courage of
his convictions. I may not always love what he loves or hate what
he hates, but one thing is a certainty over the long years - I've
learned to respect and admire his willingness to stand up and be
counted. "It's because of that respect and that admiration
I'm standing up now to be counted as a friend of Harlan
Ellison." Jan Strnad writes: "Paingod and other
Delusions. That was my first exposure to Harlan Ellison's
work and it blew me away. Harlan's work still blows me away. But
even more than I appreciate his writing, I appreciate Harlan
Ellison the person. "Harlan has done me favors. He's
recommended me and my work to editors and publishers and agents.
He's hired me. He's granted me permission to reprint and adapt
his work for little or no money. He's bailed me out of desperate
situations and he's responded with utmost generosity whenver I've
called on him. He is a good man, as the many, many other
testimonials you are receiving will attest. "But I want to
make another point, to tell you and everybody else something
that's impressed me about Harlan. It's not a big thing to most
people, it won't qualify Harlan for sainthood; but it's meant a
lot to me because it's so godawfully rare. "Harlan is courteous.
Not merely polite or well-mannered (which he isn't always, nor
should be always), but courteous. "Which means: He
treats you like a human being. He has called, as a matter of
courtesy, to warn me when I was entering perilous waters. He has
called to argue with things I've written - and we've argued about
the issue. (Do you know how few people can argue fervently
about something and not slide into personal denigration and
name-calling and - well, I suppose you do.) He responds, not just
with manners, but with genuine concern and thoughtfullness and
respect and kindness, and that's courtesy. "Harlan
has treated me courteously always. When I was just a fan. When I
was a publisher. When comic-book fans knew my name. When they
haven't. You have only to to suffer the ups and downs of an
on-again, off-again professional career to appreciate deeply and
thoroughly someone like Harlan who doesn't care if you're
"hot" or "not" or...if you can do him some
good or make him some money or even if you agree or disagree with
him about this or that. His respect runs deeper, and he earns my
deep respect in return. "I am very thankful that the world
contains a Harlan Ellison, I'm grateful for what he's done for me
and who he is, and I think you, Peter, for giving me a forum in
which to say so." Before we go any further, some of you may
be wondering whether I received any negative comments. If anyone
wrote in and praised the actions of "Victims of
Ellison." The answer, in the interests of accuracy, is: Yes.
I got one. One letter. And in contrast to all the others, which
were uniformly intelligent, literate, and carefully composed,
this one was illiterate, with misspellings in every sentence. No
exagerration there: every sentence. I won't run the poor
guy's name, because why embarass him? But I'll run an uncorrected
sample here, just for amusement's sake: "Now I have met
Hartlan Ellison. I know it is not rumor or inuendo that makes me
dislioke him...(H)e dismisses everyone who disagrees with him as
a mental defective...The greatest villifier of Harlan Ellison is
Halrna Ellison!" I'm so glad that's been clarified. As soon
as we hunt down this Halrna and get him/her to leave Harlan
alone, we'll be all set. Moving on to the less-giggle-inducing
letters, we get to the following from William D. Griffith, a
short-story writer in Canada who first met Harlan in early 1987.
Since then he has kept in constant and frequent touch with Harlan
and Susan Ellison and goes on to say: "One of my short
stories just recently won first prize in a short-fiction contest
sponsored by the Canadian Writer's Journal. I owe Harlan
Ellison a small debt of gratitude for this. He was that small
nagging voice forcing me onward, striving to be better; to
fulfill my potential and try to surpass it. He is my model, my
inspiration, my friend. "I have seen Harlan give and
sign on of his books to fans who told him about the exorbitant
price they just paid to an unscrupulous dealer for another one of
his books. "I have seen him endure the long lines of
autograph seekers and stay on long after he should have left. At
the Diamond Trade show last year in Atlanta, I saw him sign
autographs and chat with people for at least three hours, even
though he was under medical care for his cardiac problems. By the
end of the evening, only he, Susan, and I knew about the angina
that the autograph session had caused him. "I have seen him
suffer the rudeness and stupidity of loud, boorish fans at many
of these occaisions. I have to wonder how he can put up with it
all. "The plain truth is that I cannot imagine the
world without Harlan Ellison. If he did not exist, we
would have to invent him. "Do I consider myself a Friend of
Ellison (FOE)? You bet. Count me in." We will close out this
installment of FOE (And, yes, rest assured, there will be more
down the line. If I ran every single letter I got in its
entirety, I would have enough material for a solid year of
But I Digress. Obviously, I'm going to space things out.)
with a letter from Julius Schwartz, who merely helped create the
Silver Age of comics and also edited Superman for - well,
forever. Julie attached the first three chapters of his
autobiography in which Ellison is discussed, along with such
folks as Alfred Bester and Ray Bradbury. He also sent a cover
letter which features a guest appearance by Isaac Asimov who -
even from beyond the grave - managed to make the definitive
statement in regards to this matter. Ladies and gentlemen, Julius
Schwartz: "Harlan Ellison calls me `The World's Biggest Pain
in the Toochas' - but I know he says it with affection. "And
it was affection - literary and social - that Harlan felt for
Manly Wade Wellman that prompted [Harlan] to cancel all
engagements and fly to the 1986 World Science Fiction convention
in Atlanta and conduct a benefit auction on behalf of Manly's
widow, Frances. "Manly's death on April 5, after a painful
and lingering illness, had drained the family resources, leaving
her in danger of losing her house. "Contributions ranged
from Stephen King's literary notebook to an autographed copy of Superman
#411 in which I co-starred with the Man of Steel. "Frances
Wellman had been hopeful that a few thousand dollars would be
raised. Harlan's forceful auctioneering raised a whopping $30,000.
"Manly Wade Wellman won the World Fantasy Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1983. "Harlan Ellison won the World
Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. "Every
September, New York City holds a book fair along 5th Avenue.
"On one occasion, I came upon a long line leading to Isaac
Asimov's autographing his book published by Otto Penzler's
Mysterious Press. "Knowing it would be futile to barge in to
claim I was a friend of Isaac, I was inspired to tell Penzler I
was a personal friend of Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison!
"Overhearing this, Isaac looked up and muttered, `Much
better to be a friend of Harlan Ellison than an enemy!'"