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Boxed Hardcover

Published April 2017

Boxed Hardcover price: $75.00
Shipping: free shipping to US addresses;
$25/book to Canada addresses;
$35/book elsewhere

First edition, First printing
ISBN-13: 978-1-61037-322-7
Page count: 450
Book Size: 6" x 9"

Ebook (epub)

Published January 2021

Ebook (epub) price: $0.00

Second edition, First printing
ISBN-13: 978-1-61037-325-8

Hardcover (Trade)

Published July 2017

Hardcover (Trade) price: $35.00

First edition, First printing
ISBN-13: 978-1-61037-323-4
Page count: 448
Book Size: 6" x 9"

A Lit Fuse

The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison

by Nat Segaloff

Special Limited Edition, numbered 1–500
Unlimited Trade HC (Hardcover) Edition
(both contain 32 pages of photos)

An unguarded, uncensored, unquiet tour of the life of Harlan Ellison. In late 2011 Harlan Ellison—the multi-award-winning writer of speculative fiction and famously litigious personality—did two uncharacteristic things. First, he asked biographer Nat Segaloff if he’d be interested in writing his life story. Second, he gave Segaloff full control. The result is the long-anticipated A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison. The expansive biography, which is the first such project in which Ellison has permitted large portions of his varied works to appear. Segaloff conducted exhaustive interviews with Ellison over the course of five years and also spoke with many of his friends and enemies in an effort to get inside the man and pin down the best-known “Harlan stories.” Their wide-ranging discussions cover his bullied boyhood, his storied marriages, his fabled lawsuits, and his compulsive writing process with more depth and detail than has ever before appeared in print. But it also delves deeply into the man’s deeply held principles, his fears, and the demons that have driven him all of his 83 (so far) years. Friends, colleagues, and admirers such as Neil Gaiman, Patton Oswalt, Peter David, Robert Sawyer, Michael Scott, Edward Asner, Leonard Nimoy, Ed Bryant, Alan Brennert, Robert Silverberg, and many other notables add their voices. Along the way the reader is treated to an analysis of the Connie Willis controversy, the infamous dead gopher story, allegedly pushing a fan down an elevator shaft, and the final word on The Last Dangerous Visions. What emerges is a rich portrait of a man who has spent his life doing battle with his times and himself, always challenging his readers to reach for a higher plane and goading himself to get them there. It’s funny, wise, shocking, and—well, it’s Harlan.

Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1: Morning in the Sunken Cathedral
Chapter 2: First Contact
Chapter 3: Harlan in Wonderland
Chapter 4: Marriage Ain't Nothin' But Love Misspelled
Chapter 5: Science Friction
Chapter 6: Teats for Two
Chapter 7: All the Lies That Are His Life
Chapter 8: The Cordwainer Chronicles
Chapter 9: Aye, Robot
Chapter 10: The Snit on the Edge of Forever
Chapter 11: The Voice in the Wilderness
Chapter 12: The Collector
Chapter 13: Repent, Harlan!
Chapter 14: The Rabbit Whole
Chapter 15: The Lost Dangerous Visions
Chapter 16: The Flight of the Deathbird
Epilogue
Afterword
Appendix A: Harlan Ellison on Writing: A Conversation
Appendix B: Unrealized Projects (Unproduced Teleplays, Screenplays, and Treatments)
Appendix C: Awards
Appendix D: Interviews
Selected Bibliography
Index

Author

[Photo by Liane Brandon]

Nat Segaloff is a writer, producer, and film historian. He has written the biographies of Arthur Penn, William Friedkin, and Stirling Silliphant, and produced documentaries on Stan Lee, John Belushi, Larry King, and Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop. He is co-author of the play “The Waldorf Conference,” about the origins of the Hollywood Blacklist (in which Harlan Ellison acted) and, in addition to A Lit Fuse, has also completed a memoir, Screen Saver.

Information about the limited, boxed first edition

Publishing information

ISBN: 978-1-61037-322-7
The book is slipcased, signed by the author (Nat Segaloff), and numbered from 1–500. [Please don't ask for particular numbers, they are shipped in an unpredictable order.]
Some slipcases for A Lit Fuse were produced with misaligned text on the spine. It will take a while to replace them. Until then, each book with a slipcase that may be in this category will be accompanied by instructions for requesting a replacement, if one is desired. Replacement slipcases must be requested within three months of ordering the book. Requested replacements will be shipped free of charge.

Dealer and member discounts

The limited edition is currently being sold only through the NESFA web site at full price. There are no discounts available for the limited edition.
Later states of the book will be sold normally through Amazon and other dealers. Normal dealer and member discounts will apply.
Ebook (epub and mobi) editions are planned for 2021.

Errata

Edited by David G. Grubbs
Cover photo by Beth Gwinn