''Ellison Wonderland'' is a collection of short stories by author
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
that was originally published in 1962. Gerry Gross bought the book from Ellison in 1961, providing him with the funds he needed to move to Los Angeles. Subsequent payments after the book was published supplied the author with enough money to survive until he was able to find a job writing for a television series. It was later reprinted in 1974 by
New American Library with an introduction by Ellison.
The stories are in the genre of
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...
, and concentrate on the themes of loneliness, the end of the world, and the flaws of humanity. Ellison wrote a short introduction to each story, a tradition that he would repeat in many of his later
short story collections
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
. Many of the stories in this collection, such as "All the Sounds of Fear", "The Very Last Day of a Good Woman" and "In Lonely Lands", would turn up in later anthologies of Ellison's short stories.
Contents
*Introduction: The Man on the Mushroom
*Commuter's Problem
*Do-it-yourself
*The Silver Corridor
*All the Sounds of Fear
*Gnomebody
*The Sky is Burning
*Mealtime
*The Very Last Day of a Good Woman
*Battlefield
*Deal from the Bottom
*The Wind Beyond the Mountains
*Back to the Drawing Boards
*Nothing for My Noon Meal
*Hadj
*Rain, Rain, Go Away
*In Lonely Lands
1962 short story collections
Short story collections by Harlan Ellison
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