Valleyite Known for Writings--and Rants

Writer Harlan Ellison collects quotes about writing and hangs them in his labyrinthine, 4,300-square-foot home in Oak Forest Canyon in Sherman Oaks.

Among his favorites, German poet Gunter Eich’s: “Be uncomfortable; be sand, not oil, in the machinery of the world.”

Once called “the mad dog of L.A. letters” in this very newspaper, the 62-year-old Valleyite is almost as famous for his rants as for his multiple-award-winning short stories, pungent personal essays, memorable TV scripts and other creative achievements. Say “sci-fi” (short for cosmic schlock in Ellison’s view, not the probing genre of science fiction) and watch flames shoot out his ears.

Stories such as “ ‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktock Man” and “A Boy and His Dog” have made him a legend in the world of imaginative literature. His ability to savage his ideological opponents has made him a favorite on TV’s “Politically Incorrect.”

But there is a non-pugnacious side to Ellison, as well. He lives, with his wife, Susan, in a house filled with toys, art and 285,000 books in a canyon whose beauty inspires him to rhapsody. Yes, there are six gargoyles over the carport, one of them a dead ringer for arch-foe Richard M. Nixon. But there are also deer and wild lemon trees.

“When the pressures of the world grow unbearable,” Ellison said recently, “you can come up here and hear nothing but the sound of your soul beating.”

Ellison has fought for preservation of the canyon and has proposed erecting a statue to another Valley writer who loved it, Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs.

An Angeleno since 1962, Ellison has also been zealous in protecting his own work, allowing it to go unproduced or out of print rather than submitting it to the predations of producers, editors and publishers he doesn’t respect. The work continues, on one of 12 well-maintained Olympia manual typewriters. Ellison’s 69th book, “Slippage,” is just out.