Deadly Streets, The (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Trade Hardcover)

Five years in the making, the Edgeworks Abbey Archive represents Harlan Ellison’s last word on his written legacy. Researched and edited by Ellison’s long-time associate, Jason Davis, under the supervision of Harlan and Susan Ellison, this collection assembles the preferred texts of each story and essay along with previously uncollected and unpublished material to create the definitive edition.

These are stories of juvenile delinquents, bopping gangs, switchblade street thugs whose direct lineal descendants roam the nights in every major American city from New York to San Francisco. It’s a book that first saw issue in 1958, when kid gangs ruled the stoops and sidewalks of every urban ghetto. But Ellison has updated the book to match the times: while it’s true the gangs are back in Pittsburgh and Detroit, Washington D.C. and Denver, the author has drawn a shockingly obvious line from the punks of the Fifties to the street criminals of today, creating a package of paralyzing panic that reflects not only where we are today in terms of fear…but where we came from…how we got here…crouched in our little rooms with triple locks on the doors.

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Description

Edited by Jason Davis, director of the Harlan Ellison Books Preservation Project.

Cover photograph by Steven Barber.

The complete table of contents of the 1975 Pyramid edition of THE DEADLY STREETS, with the author’s revisions from the 2014 Subterranean Press hardback:

  • Introduction to the 1975 Edition: Avoiding Dark Places
  • Introduction to the 1958 Edition: Some Sketches of the Damned
  • Rat Hater
  • “I’ll Bet You a Death”
  • We Take Care of Our Dead
  • The Man With the Golden Tongue
  • Johnny Slice’s Stoolie
  • Joy Ride
  • Buy Me That Blade!
  • The Hippie Slayer
  • Kid Killer
  • With a Knife in Her Hand
  • Sob Story (with Henry Slesar)
  • Look Me in the Eye, Boy!
  • The Dead Shot
  • Ship-Shape Pay-Off (with Robert Silverberg)
  • Made in Heaven
  • Students of the Assassin

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

Knocking Over the Candy Store by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s first [published] short story collection.

Selling the Streets: 1975-1983
A compendium of Ellison-written cover copy for 62 years’ worth of DEADLY STREETS reissues.

Story Introductions: 1958
Ellison-written commentary on eleven stories from the first edition of THE DEADLY STREETS (Ace, 1958). Unseen since they were dropped from the 1975 Pyramid reissue.

Tightrope (previously unpublished)
An Ellison short story originally intended for the 1958 edition of THE DEADLY STREETS, but dropped from the book when the contents were adjusted to focus on stories of juvenile delinquency. Includes Ellison’s 1958 introduction.

Penny Dreadful: A Novel (previously unpublished)
A page of fiction thematically linked to the “Avoiding Dark Places.”

6″ x 9″ Trade Hardcover, approx. 250p. ISBN: 978-1-946542-11-3.

Additional information

Weight 1.5625 lbs
Dimensions 6.5 × 9.25 × 1 in
Condition

New, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Binding Copy, Reading Copy