Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison
At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005
Born	March 12, 1925 (1925-03-12) (age 84) Stamford, Connecticut, United States
Occupation	Fiction writer - short stories, novellas, novels, et cetera
Nationality	American
Genres	Science fiction
Spouse(s)	Joan Merkler Harrison (1930–2002) - end with her death
Children	Moira Harrison, Todd Harrison
Official website

For the radio personality, see Harry Harrison (radio).

Harry Harrison (born March 12, 1925), an American and Irish science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He is also (with Brian Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Career

Before becoming an editor, Harrison started in the science fiction field as an illustrator, notably with EC Comics' two science fiction comic books, Weird Fantasy and Weird Science. A large number of his early short stories were first published under house pseudonyms such as Wade Kaempfert. Harrison also wrote for syndicated comic strips, creating the Rick Random character. Harrison is now much better known for his writing, particularly his humorous and satirical science fiction, such as the Stainless Steel Rat series and the novel Bill, the Galactic Hero (which satirises Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers).

During the 1950s and '60s, he was the main writer of the Flash Gordon newspaper strip. One of his Flash Gordon scripts was serialized in Comics Revue magazine. Harrison drew sketches to help the artist be more scientifically accurate, which the artist largely ignored.

Not all of Harrison's writing is comic, though. He has written many stories on serious themes, of which by far the best known is the novel about overpopulation and consumption of the world's resources Make Room! Make Room! which was used as a basis for the science fiction film Soylent Green (though the film changed the plot and theme).

Harrison for a time was closely identified with Brian Aldiss. The pair collaborated on a series of anthology projects. Harrison and Aldiss did much in the 1970s to raise the standards of criticism in the field.^{[citation needed]}

In 1990 Harrison was professional Guest of Honour at ConFiction, the 48th World SF Convention, in The Hague, Netherlands, together with Joe Haldeman and Wolfgang Jeschke.

Harrison is a writer of fairly liberal worldview. Harrison's work often hinges around the contrast between the thinking man and the man of force, although the "Thinking Man" often needs ultimately to employ force himself.

Harrison was selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as the 2009 recipient of their Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.^[1]

Personal life

Harrison was born in Stamford, Connecticut, but has lived in many parts of the world including Mexico, England, Ireland, Denmark and Italy. He is an advocate of Esperanto (the language often appears in his novels, particularly in his Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld series) and was formerly the honorary president of the Esperanto Association of Ireland, as well as holding memberships in other Esperanto organizations such as Esperanto-USA (formerly the Esperanto League for North America), of which he is an honorary member, and the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (World Esperanto Association), of whose Honorary Patrons' Committee he is a member. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II as a gunsight mechanic and gunnery instructor. He lives in the Republic of Ireland and maintains a flat in Brighton for visits to England.

Harrison married Joan (nee Merkler) in 1954 in New York, a marriage that lasted until her death of cancer in 2002. They have two children, Todd (b. 1955) and Moira (b. 1959), to whom he dedicated the book Make Room! Make Room!.

Bibliography

Novellas

• The Man from P.I.G. and The Man from R.O.B.O.T. (1974) These two linked novellas, featuring interstellar intelligence agents, were comedy-drama take-offs on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The first tells of an agent of the Porcine Interstellar Guard, who performs his missions with the help of several pigs. The second tells of Henry Venn, an agent for "Robot Obtrusion Battalion — Omega Three", who poses as an interplanetary robot salesman while searching for a missing Galactic Census official on a planet populated by paranoid colonists. The latter was originally published as a short story in Analog, July 1969.

• Planet Story (1978), published as a large format book with colour illustrations by Jim Burns

Stand-alone novels

• Vendetta for the Saint (1964), credited to Leslie Charteris and based upon Charteris' mystery series, The Saint
• Plague from Space (1965)
• Make Room! Make Room! (1966) - basis for the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston
• The Technicolor Time Machine (1967)
• Captive Universe (1969)
• In Our Hands the Stars (a.k.a. The Daleth Effect) (1970)
• Spaceship Medic (1970)
• Tunnel Through the Deeps (1972); also published as A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
• Stonehenge (1972) (with Leon Stover)
• Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973)
• Skyfall (1976)
• Lifeboat (or lifeship) (1977) (with Gordon R. Dickson)
• The Jupiter Plague (1982); expanded edition of Plague from Space
• Invasion: Earth (1982)
• The QE2 is Missing (1982)
• A Rebel In Time (1983)
• Stonehenge: Where Atlantis Died (1983) (with Leon Stover) (expanded version of 1972 novel)
• The Turing Option (1992) (with Marvin Minsky)

Tony Hawkin series

• Montezuma's Revenge
• Queen Victoria's Revenge

Bill, the Galactic Hero series

1. Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965)
2. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Robot Slaves (1989)
3. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains (1990, with Robert Sheckley)
4. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure (1991, with David Bischoff)
5. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Zombie Vampires (1991, with Jack C. Haldeman II)
6. Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars (1991, with David Bischoff. vt. ...Planet of Hippies from Hell)
7. Bill, the Galactic Hero: the Final Incoherent Adventure (1991, with David Harris)
8. Bill, the Galactic Hero's Happy Holiday (short story in Galactic Dreams) (1994)

Brion Brandd series

• Planet of the Damned (1962) - first published as Sense of Obligation
• Planet of No Return (1981)

Deathworld series

On the planet Pyrrus, human colonists have fought a centuries-old war with the native life forms. These enemies adapt to human tactics and technology, evolving new species so rapidly that natives returning from even brief trips off planet must be carried in protective armor canisters from their ship to the safe buildings, where they will learn of the latest deadly threats.

The first three stories were initially published as serials in Analog Magazine under the names given below.

1. Deathworld (1960)
2. Deathworld 2 (1964) (first published as The Ethical Engineer)
3. Deathworld 3 (1968) (first published as The Horse Barbarians)

• The Mothballed Spaceship (1973) ("final" short story, in ASTOUNDING: the John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology).

The following three novels were not published in English (with Ant Skalandis):

4. Return to Deathworld (1998)

5. Deathworld vs. Filibusters (1998)

6. The Creatures from Hell (1999)

Only in Russian (with Mikhail Ahmanov):

7. Deathworld 7 (2004)

• The Deathworld Trilogy (1974, omnibus of Deathworld, Deathworld 2 & Deathworld 3. vt. The Deathworld Omnibus)

To the Stars trilogy

• Homeworld (1980)
• Wheelworld (1981)
• Starworld (1981)
• To the Stars (1991) - omnibus collection of the three novels

The Stainless Steel Rat series

Listed according to internal chronology.

1. A Stainless Steel Rat is Born (1985)
2. The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987)
3. The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues (1994)
4. The Stainless Steel Rat (1961)
5. The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970)
6. The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World (1972)
7. The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)
8. The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982)
9. The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell (1996)
10. The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (1999)

• You Can Be The Stainless Steel Rat: An Interactive Game Book 1988 - choose your own adventure style
• The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat (1978) - omnibus collection of The Stainless Steel Rat, The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge and The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
• A Stainless Steel Trio (2002) - omnibus collection of A Stainless Steel Rat is Born, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted and The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues

Stainless Steel Rat short stories

• "The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat" (1981)
• "The Fourth Law of Robotics" (1989)
• "The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat" (1992, published in Stainless Steel Visions)

Eden series

• West of Eden (1984)
• Winter in Eden (1986)
• Return to Eden (1989)

The Hammer and the Cross series

In collaboration with Tom Shippey. Published under pseudonym John Holm.

• The Hammer and the Cross (1993)
• One King's Way (1995)
• King and Emperor (1997)

Stars and Stripes trilogy

• Stars and Stripes Forever (1998)
• Stars and Stripes in Peril (2000)
• Stars and Stripes Triumphant (2002)

Short story collections

As author

• Two Tales and Eight Tomorrows (1965)
• War with the Robots (1967)
• Prime Number (1970)
• One Step from Earth (1970)
• The Best of Harry Harrison (1976)
• Stainless Steel Visions (1992)
• Galactic Dreams (1994)
• 50 In 50 (2001)

As editor

• Farewell Fantastic Venus (1968)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction No.6 (1973)

Comics

• Rick Random
• Flash Gordon (1958–1964)
• The Stainless Steel Rat was adapted into a comic strip in the magazine 2000 AD by Kelvin Gosnell.
• Harry Harrison's Bill, The Galactic Hero Comics; 3 issues

Essays

• "Great Balls of Fire" (1977)
• "Mechanismo" (1977)

References

1. ^ Harry Harrison named SFWA Grand Master

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Harry Harrison

• Official website
• Official Harry Harrison News Blog
• Harry Harrison at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Harry Harrison Manuscripts Collection, University of South Florida-Tampa
• "Worlds Beside Worlds" (Harry Harrison describes how "Tunnel through the Deeps" was written)
• Interview with Harry Harrison 6 July 1997, Dublin, Ireland
• Works by Harry Harrison at Project Gutenberg