PRE-ORDER: Wave 1 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcovers PLUS FREE BOOK!

$330.00

Five years in the making, the Edgeworks Abbey Archive is finally here!

This collection represents Harlan Ellison’s last word on his written legacy. Researched and edited by the author’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Ellison, this collection assembles the preferred texts of each story and essay along with previously uncollected and unpublished material to create the definitive edition.

The Edgeworks Abbey Archive Collection – Wave I

THE DEADLY STREETS (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcover)
GENTLEMAN JUNKIE and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcover)
THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcover)
OVER THE EDGE (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcover)
APPROACHING OBLIVION (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcover)
POSSIBLY IMPOSSIBLE (2021 Edgeworks Abbey Archive Hardcover)

For a limited time, when you pre-order these six Edgeworks Abbey Archive edition hardcovers, you will receive a free copy of the new 2021 hardcover edition of HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD.

Out of stock

Description

F.A.Q.

Why are you offering a free hardback of HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD with pre-orders for the Wave One titles?
Susan Ellison and I discussed this promotion shortly before her death, and considered it not only a good way of thanking you for your support today, but also a way of making the hardcover reissue available for free to those who supported us early on by purchasing the original 2013 paperback edition, long before we had the option to manufacture hardback books.

How long will the free hardback of HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD be available?
That depends on a number of variables. I will most assuredly send out one more e-mail before the promotion ends, but I would not count on the free-book promotion continuing into April.

When will these books ship?
The plan is to ship out Wave One at the end of May 2021. That said, this launch and the release of four previously announced trade paperbacks have been slightly delayed due to production and shipping issues, so please consider this date the target, but understand if I miss the shot—I am juggling Molotov cocktails atop a unicycle while tigers chase me around a mine field.

Can the books be purchased together, but shipped as they become available?
Yes. I bundled the books to save on shipping, especially for our international readers, but I’m happy to make arrangements to ship the books as they become available. (Curiously, I’m not keen on my living room looking like the Texas School Book Depository, so I would LOVE to ship them as they come in!)

If you don’t want to wait and don’t mind some extra postage, just order the set and e-mail me at ellison.editor@gmail.com with the subject line “Ship Fast” and I’ll get back to you whenever I have stock in hand.

Are these the final covers?
All of the covers are still in flux. Some of them are pretty close to their final form, but most are placeholders at the moment. Look to the covers of CHILDREN OF THE STREETS and the Edgeworks Abbey Archive edition of BLOOD’S A ROVER to see the aesthetic I’m aiming for.

Will these books be available in paperback?
Yes. Several titles were made available alongside CHILDREN OF THE STREETS and BLOOD’S A ROVER a few months ago. The rest have since been added, so all the titles in this wave are available to pre-order in paperback.

Will the paperbacks have all the same content?
Probably. There are a few cases where I might omit material of interest to serious Ellison collectors from the paperback edition if it allows me to lower the price of the paperback, expanding its potential audience.

Where are the paperbacks of APPROACHING OBLIVION, THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD, THE DEADLY STREETS, and LOVE AIN’T NOTHING BUT SEX MISSPELLED that went up for pre-order with CHILDREN OF THE STREETS?
They are coming, in reverse alphabetical order. There was a printing mishap with LOVE that put things behind schedule and I took that opportunity to add another proofreader to the mix. I’m hoping to have LOVE and DEADLY STREETS in hand shortly, with BEAST and OBLIVION not far behind.

Why are these books the first six titles?
There are a variety or reasons. Initially, the plan was to focus on titles that HarlanEllisonBooks.com had never previously offered (THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE… and CHILDREN OF THE STREETS) or exhausted early in its existence (APPROACHING OBLIVION and OVER THE EDGE). New books were also a major consideration, hence POSSIBLY IMPOSSIBLE, and the plan is to offer at least one new volume with each wave. When Recorded Books licensed a large portion of the Ellison back catalog, that slightly altered the schedule, as it was Susan Ellison’s desire to make sure that the audiobooks represented the up-to-date texts prepared by the Preservation Project.

Does the HERC discount work on this collection?
Yes, the 10%-off HERC discount applies to this release.

Will Title X be released as part of the Edgeworks Abbey Archive collection?
The plan is to reissue all the “unique” Ellison titles as part of the collection. That means all the novels, short story collections, collaborations, and anthologies that feature mostly original contents. Retrospectives like ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW or THE ESSENTIAL ELLISON will not be part of the series, nor will themed compilations such as the young adult-targeted TROUBLEMAKERS.

Are stories/essays duplicated between volumes?
The short answer is yes, there are a few pieces that appear in multiple books. In the early 1970s, Harlan Ellison became self-conscious of stories being reprinted across multiple story collections and began a decades-long process of making each book unique as they were reissued. Much of this work was carried out in the 1975–6 Pyramid paperbacks, the 1980s Ace/Bluejay releases, and the 1996–7 Edgeworks collections from White Wolf. There were, however, a few titles that were never reissued under any of those banners, books Harlan and I planned to revisit as part of this project. After Harlan’s death, Susan Ellison and I agreed that the tables of contents should remain as Harlan left them, while all the newly collected bonus material would appear at the back of the book. In some cases, I’ve been able to present alternate version of duplicated stories—the original version of “The Hungry One” in PULLING A TRAIN and its 1975 re-write “Nedra at f5.6″ in NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS—but that’s not always possible. Where two stories were duplicated between GENTLEMAN JUNKIE and CHILDREN OF THE STREETS, I added two new stories to the bonus content of the latter in an effort to make up for the repeats.

Will COFFIN NAILS be reissued in trade hardcover and/or paperback?
Yes, the early sf stories in Charnel House’s COFFIN NAILS and PS Publishing’s PEBBLES FROM THE MOUNTAIN will be reprinted in three volumes, beginning with POSSIBLY IMPOSSIBLE in this wave.

Is CHILDREN OF THE STREETS part of this collection?
Yes, CHILDREN OF THE STREETS was the first Edgeworks Abbey Archive edition. We released it on its own, in advance, as a test case. Having never before produced a hardcover book, we wanted to get our first offering into readers’ hands so they’d be able to see the finished product before committing to a six-volume package. Susan Ellison approved the format prior to her death after we thoroughly researched all the printing possibilities available for our projected print runs and price points.

Why is there no hardcover listing for LOVE AIN’T NOTHING BUT SEX MISSPELLED or WEB OF THE CITY?
Those titles are 7.5″ by 9.25″ because they feature screenplays. Because they’re larger than the 6″ by 9″ books that make up Wave One, I opted to delay their hardcover release to avoid awkwardly packed boxes of oddly sized books.

THE EDGEWORKS ABBEY ARCHIVE COLLECTION WAVE 1

APPROACHING OBLIVION (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021)

The New York Times called him “relentlessly honest” and then used him as the subject of its famous Sunday Acrostic. People magazine said there was no one like him, then cursed him for preventing easy sleep. But in these stories Harlan Ellison outdoes himself, rampaging like a mad thing through love (“Cold Friend,” “Kiss of Fire,” “Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman”), hate (“Knox,” “Silent in Gehenna”), sex (“Catman,” “Erotophobia”), lost childhood (“One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty”), and into such bizarre subjects as the problems of blue-skinned, eleven-armed Yiddish aliens, what it’s like to witness the end of the world and what happens on the day the planet Earth swallows Barbra Streisand. Oh yeah, this one’s a doozy!

The complete table of contents of the 1984 Bluejay Special Edition of APPROACHING OBLIVION, including later revisions by the author from subsequent short story appearances.

1984 Introduction to the Introduction
Foreword: Approaching Ellison by Michael Crichton
Introduction: Reaping the Whirlwind
Knox
Cold Friend
Kiss of Fire
Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman
I’m Looking for Kadak
Silent in Gehenna
Erotophobia
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty
Ecowareness
Catman
Hindsight: 480 Seconds

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

No Winners by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s fourteenth short story collection.

Nihilistic Copy: 1974-1984
A compendium of Ellison-written cover copy for 10 years’ worth of APPROACHING OBLIVION reissues.

Story Introductions: 1974-1979
Ellison-written commentary on the stories from FINAL STAGE, edited by Edward L. Ferman & Barry N. Malzberg (Charterhouse, 1974); THE FUTURE NOW, edited by Robert Hoskins (Fawcett Crest Books, 1978), and GALAXY: Thirty Years of Innovative Science Fiction, edited by Frederik Pohl, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph Olander (Playboy Press, 1980).

“Dostoevski Never Wrote for Tony Either, So Get On with Your Life” (previously uncollected)
Ellison’s 1999 essay on getting published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Knox & One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty (previously unpublished)
Ellison’s first drafts of these short story.

You Are What You Write (previously uncollected)
The second of Ellison’s trilogy of essays featured in the three CLARION anthologies edited by Robert Scott Wilson.

RIF (previously unpublished)
A 1971 prospectus for an abandoned novel.

The Song of the Soul
The introduction to Ellison’s 1971 retrospective, ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW.

Thoughts on Turning Eighteen (previously uncollected)
Ellison’s 1973 afterword to Leslie K. Swigart’s Harlan Ellison: A Bibliographic Checklist.

THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021)

A FEW (AMONG THE MANY) QUESTIONS THIS BOOK ANSWERS:

What stopped Attila the Hun from sacking the Holy City of Rome in the year 452 when it lay defenseless before him? Where is the sunken continent of Atlantis and what will happen if it rises? Has anyone ever made an interesting case for the merits of waging war, and how does war benefit the human race? What happened When Santa Claus attacked Ronald Reagan in the men’s toilet of the abandoned Camarillo State Mental Institution? Is it true that Jesus had a homosexual liaison with Prometheus? Does the Abominable Snowman exist, and what’s his sex life like? What’s the worst thing that can happen to those who do too much bad dope? How do you identify and survive the attentions of emotional vampires? Are you listening? Why are the bizarre stories of Harlan Ellison so damned popular, translated into thirteen languages, and made into movies; why do they influence a whole generation of younger writers, provoke lynch mobs, and win this Ellison person such an unconscionable array of literary awards?

ASK NOT FOR WHOM THIS BOOK TOILS.
IT TOILS FUR THEE, KIDDO.

The complete table of contents of the 1994 Borderlands Press hardcover of THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD, including later revisions by the author from EDGEWORKS, Volume 4 and subsequent short story appearances.

Foreword by Neil Gaiman
Introduction: The Waves in Rio
The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
Along the Scenic Route
Phoenix
Asleep: With Still Hands
Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R.
Try a Dull Knife
The Pitll Pawob Division
The Place with No Name
White on White
Run for the Stars
Are You Listening?
S.R.O.
Worlds to Kill
Shattered Like a Glass Goblin
A Boy and His Dog

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

Whatever Happened to “The 90003rd Fantastic Spectacular Windi Maypole Movie?” by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s eleventh short story collection.

Beastly Copy: 1969-1997
A compendium of Ellison-written cover copy for 51 years’ worth of BEAST THAT SHOUTED. reissues.

Story Introductions: 1959-2004
Ellison-written commentary on the stories from an early assembly of A TOUCH OF INFINITY (1959), the unpublished collection CRACKPOTS and Other Delusions (ca. 1962), an early assembly of FROM THE LAND OF FEAR (1967), unpublished introductions from ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW (1971), Heavy Metal (December 1979), BLOOD IS NOT ENOUGH, edited by Ellen Datlow (1989), Absolute Magnitude (Winter, 1996), and THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRES, edited by Stephen Jones (2004).

Worlds to Kill (previously unpublished)
Ellison’s original plot synopsis for the short story.

School for Apprentice Sorcerers
Ellison’s 1969 essay on the Clarion Writer’s Workshop, previously collected in THE BOOK OF ELLISON (1978).

Kicking the Hobbit; or, Why Do Science Fiction Fans Have Fur on Their Feets? (previously uncollected)
Ellison’s 1968 essay on the pleasures of science fiction fandom.

DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND (featuring previously uncollected material)
A previously uncollected 1968 introduction and four chapters from Ellison’s unfinished novel that was the basis for The Outer Limits episode “Demon with a Glass Hand.” The novel-in-progress was previously published as OBITUARY FOR AN INSTANT in BRAIN MOVIES, Volume 3.

The Queer File
An abandoned short story and preliminary outline that Ellison adapted into the DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND. Previously collected BRAIN MOVIES, Volume 3.

These Are My Dreams (previously uncollected)
A 1968 essay originally published in Harlan Ellison: The Man, the Writer.

THE DEADLY STREETS (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021)

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.

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: 1975-2014
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 Books, 1958). Unseen since they were dropped from the 1975 Pyramid reissue.

Tightrope (previously unpublished)
An unpublished Ellison short story originally intended for the 1958 edition of THE DEADLY STREETS, but dropped at the last minute because the magazine that purchased it failed to debut the story before the collection went to print. Includes Ellison’s 1958 introduction.

GENTLEMAN JUNKIE and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021)

This is the book that established Harlan Ellison once and for all as a master of short fiction; this is the book that took Ellison to Hollywood; and this is the only paperback book, ever, reviewed by the legendary Dorothy Parker in Esquire magazine:

“It is not the province of this department to take up recent paperbacks. But lately there has come into my weary hands a paperback of short stories by Harlan Ellison, a young writer whose name I had not known before. The book is horribly titled, `Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation.’ . It turns out that Mr. Ellison is a good, honest, clean writer, putting down what he has seen and known, and no sensationalism about it. I cannot recommend it too vehemently.”

DOROTHY PARKER

The complete table of contents of the 1975 Pyramid edition of GENTLEMAN JUNKIE and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation, with the author’s revisions from the 2014 Subterranean Press hardback:

Foreword, by Frank M. Robinson
Introduction: The Children of Nights
Final Shtick
Gentleman Junkie
May We Also Speak? (Four Statements From the Hung-Up Generation) [1. Now You’re in the Box 2. The Rocks of Gogroth 3. Payment Returned, Unopened. 4. The Truth]
Daniel White for the Greater Good
Lady Bug, Lady Bug
Free With This Box!
There’s One on Every Campus
At the Mountains of Blindness
This Is Jackie Spinning
No Game for Children
The Late, Great Arnie Draper
High Dice
Enter the Fanatic, Stage Center
Someone Is Hungrier
Memory of a Muted Trumpet
Turnpike
Sally in Our Ally
The Silence of Infidelity
Have Coolth
RFD #2 (with Henry Slesar)
No Fourth Commandment Murder
The Night of Delicate Terrors

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

Night Fix by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s fifth short story collection.

Selling the Hung-Up Generation: 1961-2014
A compendium of Ellison-written cover copy for 60 years’ worth of GENTLEMAN JUNKIE reissues, including Dorothy Parker’s famous review.

Story Commentary: 1958-2014
Ellison-written introductions and afterwords from THE DEADLY STREETS (unpublished), Rogue magazine, OVER THE EDGE, and JEWISH NOIR.

Ellison’s 1961 Preface
The author’s original preface, omitted from all editions since the first.

Frank Robinson: The Finest Human Being Who Ever Lived (previously uncollected)
Ellison’s 2014 obituary for his friend, who authored the foreword to this collection.

Truth and the Writer, or “I’ve had a fabulous life; all you have to do is write it and I’ll split it with you, fifty-fifty!” (previously uncollected)
Ellison’s 1961 essay for Writer’s Digest, with his 1989 revisions and an introduction, “Grinning at the Kid,” written for that reappearance.

and MORE CONTENT, to be announced closer to publication!

OVER THE EDGE (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021)

The complete table of contents of the 1996 EDGEWORKS, Volume 1 version of OVER THE EDGE, including later revisions by the author.

The Frontiers of Edgeville by Norman Spinrad (1996 version)
Introduction: Brinksmanship (1996 version)
Pennies, Off a Dead Man’s Eyes
The End of the Time of Leinard
3 Faces of Fear (essay)
Blind Lightning
Walk the High Steel
Shadow Play
The Words in Spock’s Mouth (essay)
From a Great Height
Night Vigil
Xenogenesis (essay)
Rock God
Ernest and the Machine God

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

Passing by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s twelfth short story collection.

Sales Copy: 1970-1996
A compendium of Ellison-written cover copy for 26 years’ worth of OVER THE EDGE reissues.

Story Commentary: 1960-71
Ellison-written commentary on the stories from an early assembly of A TOUCH OF INFINITY (1959), an early assembly of FROM THE LAND OF FEAR (1967), the 1970 edition of OVER THE EDGE, and unpublished introductions from ALONE AGAINST TOMORROW (1971).

Dead Man’s Pennies (previously unpublished)
Ellison’s unfinished My Name Is Adam treatment that became the basis for “Pennies, Off a Dead Man’s Eyes.”

Dreamers on the Barricades (previously uncollected)
The first of Ellison’s trilogy of essays featured in the three CLARION anthologies edited by Robin Scott Wilson.

Goodbye, Gypsy (previously uncollected)
An August 1972 Ellison essay from Knight that ties in to “From a Great Height.”

The Final Push
Ellison’s other traditional Western short story, previously collected in the 2014 edition of AGAIN, HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD, now collected here as a complement to “The End of the Time of Leinard.”

Good Morning, Folks; I Am Not Kathie Lee Gifford
Ellison’s 1996 introduction to EDGEWORKS, Volume 1, which featured OVER THE EDGE and AN EDGE IN MY VOICE.

and MORE CONTENT, to be announced closer to publication!

POSSIBLY IMPOSSIBLE (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021) – A new collection!

Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS and PEBBLES FROM THE MOUNTAIN—limited-editions from Charnel House and PS Publishing, respectively—these stories were the last published-but-uncollected stories in the Ellison œuvre, finally available in the first of three trade editions.

Where possible, each of the following stories is sourced from Harlan Ellison’s original typescript:

Conversation Piece (Caper, Mar. 1957) – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS
Satan is My Ally (Fantastic, May1957) – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS
The Steel Napoleon (Amazing Stories, June 1957) – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS
The Big Trance (Dream World, Aug. 1957) – Previously collected in PEBBLES FROM THE MOUNTAIN
Phoenix Treatment (Fantastic, Aug. 1957) – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS
Children of Chaos (Amazing, Nov. 1957) – Previously collected in PEBBLES FROM THE MOUNTAIN
Waste (Fantastic, Oct. 1958) – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS
Vector: Two Attempts at Story (Tomorrow and…, Jan. 1969)
The Saddest Lot of All – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS
Visitation on a Thursday – Previously collected in COFFIN NAILS

“The Big Trance” features previously unpublished material from the original typescript, which was omitted from the story’s publication in Dream World and subsequent collection in PEBBLES FROM THE MOUNTAIN.

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

Coffin Nails, By Any Other Name by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s final published short story collection(s).

FREE—FOR A LIMITED TIME—WHEN YOU PRE-ORDER THE HARDCOVER EDITIONS OF THE SIX BOOKS LISTED ABOVE:

HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD (Edgeworks Abbey Archive, 2021)

Previously issued as an oversized trade paperback in 2013, HONORABLE WHOREDOM AT A PENNY A WORD has been completely re-set for its reissue as part of the Edgeworks Abbey Archive collection.

Introduction to Burn My Killers (incorporating Naked Deranged Psycho Thrill-Demon or, Bitch-Slut Gun-Crazy Homicidal Rat)
Burn My Killers!
The Golden Virgin (starring Jerry Killian)
Thrill Kill
Riff
Scum Town (starring Jerry Killian)
Kill Joy
Girl at Gunpoint
Can Opener (starring Big John Novak)
Knife/Death
They Killed My Kid! (starring Jerry Killian)
Final Movement
The Honor in the Dying
Mac’s Girl
The Honor in the Dying (first draft)

NEW Edgeworks Abbey Archive Content:

Is a Purveyor of Literary Whoredom a Publishing Pimp? by Jason Davis
An expanded version of the original introductory essay.

Riff
The previously unpublished first draft, which features a different narrator than the final story.

In Small Packages
The previously unpublished and abandoned first draft of “Find One Cuckaboo,” which was originally written to star Big John Novak and featured references to “Can Opener.”

Additional information

Weight 9.75 lbs
Dimensions 13 × 10 × 3.5 in