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

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

Cover photograph from the collection of Harlan Ellison.

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 2013 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:

No Doors, No Windows by Jason Davis
An original essay detailing the history of Ellison’s fifth short story collection.

Selling the Hung-Up Generation: 1961-2013
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Ellison-written introductions and afterwords from THE DEADLY STREETS (unpublished), Rogue magazine, The Saint Detective Story magazine,  OVER THE EDGE, TROUBLEMAKERS, and JEWISH NOIR.

“The Hangman with the Turquoise Eyes” (previously uncollected)
The only uncollected story from Ellison’s Rogue years.

“Coffee Houses Are Cabarets, Police Say; Owners Deny It” and “My Day in Stir, or Buried in the Tombs” (previously uncollected)
Two pieces of reportage for The Village Voice. The latter was the seed for MEMOS FROM PURGATORY.

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

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.

The Night of Delicate Terrors (previously unpublished)
An abandoned novel of the early 1960s.

NOTE: This volume was originally solicited with “Frank Robinson: The Finest Human Being Who Ever Lived” listed among its contents. As the book neared completion, the editor was reminded that Ellison had incorporated his obituary for Robinson into the lengthy 2015 introduction to ELLISON WONDERLAND. To avoid a further redundancy herein, the piece has been dropped from GENTLEMAN JUNKIE. We hope the additional story and Village Voice pieces will make up for the omission.

6″ x 9″ Trade Hardcover with Dust Jacket, 350p. ISBN: 978-1-946542-14-4. Original price: $50.