Harry Max Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey; March 12, 1925 – August 15, 2012)[2] was an American science fiction author, known mostly for his character The Stainless Steel Rat and for his novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture Soylent Green (1973). Long resident in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, Harrison was involved in the foundation of the Irish Science Fiction Association, and was, with Brian Aldiss, co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Aldiss called him "a constant peer and great family friend".[3] His friend Michael Carroll said of Harrison's work: "Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean or Raiders of the Lost Ark, and picture them as science-fiction novels. They're rip-roaring adventures, but they're stories with a lot of heart."[4] Novelist Christopher Priest wrote in an obituary
"Harrison was an extremely popular figure in the SF world, renowned for being amiable, outspoken and endlessly amusing. His quickfire, machine-gun delivery of words was a delight to hear, and a reward to unravel: he was funny and self-aware, he enjoyed reporting the follies of others, he distrusted generals, prime ministers and tax officials with sardonic and cruel wit, and above all he made plain his acute intelligence and astonishing range of moral, ethical and literary sensibilities.[5]"
Career
Before becoming an editor and writer, Harrison started in the science fiction field as an illustrator, notably with EC Comics' two science fiction comic book series, Weird Fantasy and Weird Science. In these and other comic book stories, he most often worked with Wally Wood. Wood usually inked over Harrison's layouts, and the two freelanced for several publishers and genres, including westerns and horror comics. He and Wood split up their partnership in 1950 and went their separate ways. Harrison used house pen names such as Wade Kaempfert and Philip St. John to edit magazines and published other fiction under the pen names Felix Boyd and Hank Dempsey[6] (see Personal Life below). Harrison ghostwrote Vendetta for the Saint, one of the long-running series of novels featuring Leslie Charteris' character The Saint. Harrison also wrote for syndicated comic strips, writing several stories for the character Rick Random.
His first short story, "Rock Diver", was published in the February 1951 issue of Worlds Beyond, edited by Damon Knight;[6]
Personal life
Early life
Harrison was born March 12, 1925, as Henry Maxwell Dempsey in Stamford, Connecticut. His father, Henry Leo Dempsey, a printer who was three-fourths of Irish descent, changed his name to Harrison soon after Harry was born. Harry did not know this himself until he was 30 years old, at which point he changed his name to Harry Max Harrison in court.[16] His mother, Ria, née Kirjassoff,[17] was Russian Jewish. She had been born in Riga, Latvia, and grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[18][19] Her brother, Max David Kirjassoff (1888–1923), had been an American consul in Japan, but he died along with his wife Alice during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.[20]
Bibliography
Novels
Novella and novelettes
- The Man from P.I.G. and The Man from R.O.B.O.T. (1974): These two linked novellas, featuring interstellar intelligence agents, were comedy-drama take-offs on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The first tells of an agent of the Porcine Interstellar Guard, who performs his missions with the help of several pigs. The second tells of Henry Venn, an agent for "Robot Obtrusion Battalion—Omega Three", who poses as an interplanetary robot salesman while searching for a missing Galactic Census official on a planet populated by paranoid colonists. They were originally published as novelettes in Analog in July 1967 and July 1969.
- Planet Story (1978), novella, published as a large format book with colour illustrations by Jim Burns
Short story collections
See List of short stories by Harry Harrison
- War with the Robots (1962)
External links
- Bibliography and works
- Biography and criticism
- Stover, Leon. Harry Harrison. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
- Interviews
- "Worlds Beside Worlds" (Harry Harrison describes how "Tunnel Through the Deeps" was written)
- July 6, 1997, Dublin, Ireland
- Other links
- Harry Harrison News Blog – About: "maintained by Paul Tomlinson and Michael Carroll, who also maintain Harry's official website at www.harryharrison.com"
- Samples of works published as e-books
References
- Inkpot Award^
- Douglas Martin. Harry Harrison, a Prolific Writer of Satiric Science Fiction, Dies at 87 The New York Times, August 17, 2012, retrieved January 4, 2020^
- James Meikle. Death of Harry Harrison, science fiction author, aged 87 The Guardian, August 15, 2012, retrieved October 5, 2012