HARRISON, Harry

(1925-)

   US writer, born Henry Maxwell Dempsey (though his father changed his name to Harrison soon after HH's birth), now usually resident, after many years of travelling, in Ireland. HH began his career as a commercial artist about 1946, working chiefly in comics as an illustrator and writer, often in collaboration with Wallace A. WOOD, supplying illustrations as well to magazines like GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION and eventually having a stint as art director of Picture Week. At the same time - being from an early age an sf enthusiast and friendly with many writers through his membership of the Hydra Club, a New York group of sf professionals - he began to think about writing. Damon KNIGHT, then editor of WORLDS BEYOND and one of the Hydra Club members, commissioned some illustrations from HH for that magazine; he then - far more importantly - bought HH's first story, "Rock Diver", which appeared in Worlds Beyond in 1951. HH's short fiction appeared regularly from then, sometimes as by Felix Boyd or Hank Dempsey. In 1953 HH served as editor of ROCKET STORIES for 1 issue (\#3)under the house name Wade KAEMPFERT. In later years, HH was also for short periods in charge of the magazines Impulse (SCIENCE FANTASY), AMAZING STORIES and FANTASTIC.In 1957, from Mexico, HH sold his first story toJohn W. CAMPBELL Jr for ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION, thereby initiating a long and close relationship with both editor and magazine. This was his first tale featuring the interstellar-criminal-turned-law-enforcer Slippery Jim DiGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, HERO of a set of fast-movingadventures with a broad leavening of HUMOUR: The Stainless Steel Rat (fixup 1961 US), The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970 US) and TheStainless Steel Rat Saves the World (1972 US) - all assembled as The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat (omni 1977) - plus The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You! (1979 US), The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982 US), A Stainless Steel Rat is Born (1985 US) and The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987 UK). (HH did the jacket illustrations for the UK hardcover editions of the second and third books.) HH always remained a stout defender of Campbell, even though as editor and critic his attitude often seemed diametrically opposed to Campbell's increasingly stiff-necked social and political views. He edited Campbell's Collected Editorials from Analog (coll 1966), was filmed at a working lunch with Campbell and GordonR. DICKSON, a session which resulted in the Harrison-Dickson collaborative novel The Lifeship (1976 US; vt Lifeboat 1978 UK), and after Campbell's death edited a memorial anthology, Astounding (anth 1973; vt The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology 1974 UK).HH's first published novel appeared ayear before The Stainless Steel Rat: Deathworld (1960 US; vt Deathworld 1 1973 UK). Its highly kinetic description of the COLONIZATION of a planetcrammed with hostile life established him as a vigorous writer of intelligent action adventures. Further volumes in the Deathworld series are Deathworld 2 (1964 US; vt The Ethical Engineer 1964 UK) and Deathworld 3 (1968 US), all three being assembled as The Deathworld Trilogy (omni1974 US); "The Mothballed Spaceship" (1973) was an associated short story. The third series begun by HH in his early years (though the second volume was not to appear for three decades) was the Bill, the Galactic Hero sequence, starting with Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965 US), a sharp extended lampoon of aspects of stories by Robert A. HEINLEIN, Isaac ASIMOV and even HH himself. The later volumes of the series declined, unfortunately, into undirected slapstick: Bill, the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot Slaves (1989 US; vt Bill, the Galactic Hero on thePlanet of Robot Slaves 1989 UK), Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains (1990 US) with Robert SHECKLEY, Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure (1991) with David F. BISCHOFF, Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Zombie Vampires (1991) with Jack C.HALDEMAN II, and Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars (1991; vt Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Hippies from Hell 1992 UK) with Bischoff.Most of HH's singletons are also of interest. They include: a group of stories exploring the ROBOT theme, War with the Robots (coll 1962 US); the examination of MATTER TRANSMISSION in One Step From Earth (coll 1970 US); a parody of E.E. SMITH in Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973 US); Captive Universe (1969 US), an unusual GENERATION-STARSHIP story using a background of Aztec culture (CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH; POCKET UNIVERSE); Tunnel through the Deeps (1972 US; vt A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! 1972 UK), a PARALLEL-WORLD novel in which the American Revolution failed and the British Empire still flourishes; and Skyfall (1976 UK), a fairly conventional DISASTER novel. Some, however, like Invasion: Earth (1982 US), seem to parody nothing but their author's own attempts to parody bad SPACE OPERA. In contrast, MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM! (1966 US) is a serious - indeed, impassioned - novel ofOVERPOPULATION, gravely told and well formed. It formed the basis of the film SOYLENT GREEN (1973), though much of its substance was lost in transition; the film nevertheless won the 1973 NEBULA for Best Dramatic Presentation.Later series of interest include the To the Stars sequence -Homeworld (1980 US), Wheelworld (1981 US) and Starworld (1981 US), all three being assembled as To the Stars (omni 1981) - which combine muscular sf-adventure plotting with sharp narrative analyses of UK and US life. Far more important, however, is the Eden series - West of Eden (1984 US), Winter in Eden (1986 US) and Return to Eden (1988 US) - an ambitiouslyconceived ALTERNATE-WORLD sequence based on the assumption that the dinosaurs did not suffer extinction and, in the due course of time, have evolved into saurians skilled at biotechnology. Their encounter with a savage humanity, and the irreconcilable differences between two intelligent species warring for Lebensraum, is intrinsically interesting, tightly and informatively told, and dramatically gripping as the slowly approaching Ice Age adds intensity to the strife and the sense of peril. Along with his earliest sf adventures and Make Room! Make Room!, the Edenbooks are by a considerable margin HH's best work.For many years HH's close professional association with Campbell was balanced by his even closer personal and professional association with Brian W. ALDISS, a figure dauntingly averse to the Campbellian vision. Together they founded the critical magazine SF Horizons, whose two issues served as a litmus test for sf criticism; they edited an annual Best SF anthology (see listing below); they collaborated on other anthologies, such as Nebula Award Stories Two (anth 1967 US),All About Venus (anth 1968 US; exp vt)Farewell, Fantastic Venus! A History of the Planet Venus in Fact and Fiction (anth 1968 UK; cut vt 1968 US), The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume One (anth 1972 US; vt in 2 vols as The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume One 1973 UK and The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume Two 1973 UK) and The Astounding-Analog Reader, Volume Two (anth 1973 US); and they assembled the Decade series - Decade: The 1940s (anth 1975), Decade: The 1950s (anth 1976) and Decade: The 1960s (anth 1977).HH has been hard topin down. He has lived everywhere. He was an author of the hardest of hard-sf adventure novels while at the same time mercilessly spoofing the conventions - and politics - of that literature. He is deeply American, and deeply expatriate. He might spend the rest of his career writing bad-joke spin-offs from his own earlier work, or he might compose his masterpiece. After 40 years, there is still no knowing.

   MJE/JC

   Other works: Planet of the Damned (1962 US; vt Sense of Obligation 1967 UK) and its sequel, Planet of No Return (1981 US); Vendetta for the Saint * (1964 US) as Leslie CHARTERIS; Plague from Space (1965 US; vt The Jupiter Legacy1970 US); Two Tales and 8 Tomorrows (coll 1965 UK); The Technicolor Time Machine (1967); The Man from P.I.G. (1968 US; with additional story as coll vt The Men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T. 1974 UK), a juvenile; The Daleth Effect (1970 US; vt In Our Hands, the Stars 1970 UK); Prime Number(coll 1970 US); Spaceship Medic (1970 UK); Stonehenge (1972 US; exp vt Stonehenge: Where Atlantis Died 1983 US) with Leon E. STOVER; Montezuma's Revenge (1972 US) and Queen Victoria's Revenge (1974 US), linked associational novels; The California Iceberg (1975 UK); The Best of Harry Harrison (coll 1976 US; rev 1976 UK); Great Balls of Fire: A History ofSex in Science Fiction Illustration (1977 UK), nonfiction; Spacecraft in Fact and Fiction (1979) with Malcolm EDWARDS, nonfiction; Mechanismo (1978), nonfiction; Planet Story (1979 UK); The QE II is Missing (1980 UK), associational; A Rebel in Time (1983 US).As Editor: Apeman, Spaceman: Anthropological Science Fiction (anth 1968 US) with Leon E. Stover; the Author's Choice anthologies, in which authors chose their own favourites and said why, comprising Backdrop of Stars (anth 1968 UK; vt SF: Authors' Choice 1968 US), SF: Author's Choice 2 (anth 1970 US), \#3 (anth 1971 US)and \#4 (anth 1974 US); the Best SF annual series, all with Brian W. Aldiss, comprising Best SF: 1967 (1968 US; vt The Year's Best ScienceFiction No 1 1968 UK), The Year's Best Science Fiction No 2 (anth 1969 UK; exp vt Best SF: 1968 1969 US), The Year's Best Science Fiction No 3 (anth 1970 UK; vt Best SF: 1969 1970 US), The Year's Best Science Fiction No 4(anth 1971 UK; vt Best SF: 1970 1971 US), The Year's Best Science Fiction No 5 (anth 1972 UK; vt Best SF: 1971 1972 US), Best SF: 1972 (anth 1973 US; vt The Year's Best Science Fiction No 6 1973 UK), Best SF: 1973 (anth 1974 US; cut vt The Year's Best Science Fiction No 7 1974 UK), Best SF 1974 (anth 1975 US; cut vt The Year's Best Science Fiction No 8 1975 UK) and The Year's Best Science Fiction No 9 (anth 1976 US; vt Best SF: 1975 1976 US); Blast Off: S.F. for Boys (anth 1969 UK; rev vt Worlds of Wonder1969 US); Four for the Future: An Anthology on the Themes of Sacrifice and Redemption (anth 1969 UK); the Nova series of original sf stories, comprising Nova 1 (anth 1970), \#2 (anth 1972 US), \#3 (anth 1973 US; vt The Outdated Man 1975 US) and \#4 (anth dated 1974 but 1975 US); The Year 2000(anth 1970 US); The Light Fantastic (anth 1971 US) and Ahead of Time (anth 1972 US), the latter with Theodore J. Gordon; A Science Fiction Reader (anth 1973 US) with Carol Pugner; Science Fiction Novellas (anth 1975 US) with Willis E. MCNELLY; Hell's Cartographers (anth 1975 UK) with Brian W. Aldiss; There Won't Be War (anth 1991) with Bruce MCALLISTER.About theauthor: Harry Harrison (last rev 1985 chap) by Gordon BENSON Jr; Harry Harrison (1990) by Leon STOVER.

   See also: ANTHOLOGIES; ANTHROPOLOGY; ARTS; ATLANTIS; AUTOMATION; CHILDREN'S SF; COMICS; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; DYSTOPIAS; EVOLUTION; FAR FUTURE; GOLDEN AGE OF SF; GRAVITY; JOHN W. CAMPBELL MEMORIAL AWARD; MAINSTREAM WRITERS OF SF; MEDIA LANDSCAPE; MEDICINE; MESSIAHS; MYTHOLOGY; POLLUTION; RADIO; RELIGION; ROBERT HALE LIMITED; SATIRE; SEX; TABOOS; TRANSPORTATION; UNDER THE SEA.