Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison was a popular figure in the SF world, much appreciated for his wit and amiable manner by his peers, as well as by his many readers. Although born in the USA (Stamford, 1925) he spent much of his life living in the UK and Ireland. He founded the Irish SF Association and was co-President of the Birmingham SF Society, along with his friend Brian Aldiss. Harrison served in the US Army Air Force in WWII (gunsight technician and sharpshooter). He moved to Ireland in the 1970's, where he learnt esperanto, and became Hon. President of the Irish Esperanto Society. At other times he also lived in Mexico, Denmark and England (retiring to Brighton for the last ten years of his life after the death of his second wife). Harrison died in 2012.
Harry Harrison was awarded the SFWA Grand Master Award, in 2009
“Birth control doesn’t mean no children. It just means that people have a choice how they want to live. Like rutting, unthinking, breeding animals—or like reasoning creatures. Will a married couple have one, two or three children—whatever number will keep the world population steady and provide a full life of opportunity for everyone? Or will they have four, five or six, unthinking and uncaring, and raise them in hunger and cold and misery? Like that world out there,”
― a quotation from this highly regarded 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room!, of considerable relevance today.
Obit
Harrison was obviously much loved by many in the writing world, as this extract from his obituary in The Guardian newspaper (15 August 2012) written by Christopher Priest, shows:
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.
Bibliography
Novels
Deathworld (1960) - Hugo Award nominee for best novel
The Stainless Steel Rat (1961)
Planet of the Damned (1962)
Vendetta for the Saint (1964) - ghostwritten by Harrison, credited to Leslie Charteris (non-SF)
Deathworld 2 (1964) - originally serialised as The Ethical Engineer
Plague from Space (1965)
Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965) - satirical classic & 'the funniest SF book ever written' according to Pratchett
Make Room! Make Room! (1966) - basis of 1973 SF movie Soylent Green (starring Charlton Heston)
The Technicolor Time Machine (1967)
Deathworld 3 (1968) - originally serialised as The Horse Barbarians
Captive Universe (1969)
The Daleth Effect (1970)
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970)
Spaceship Medic (1970)
Tunnel Through the Deeps (1972) - also published as A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
Montezuma's Revenge (1972)
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World (1972)
Stonehenge (1972) - co-written with Leon Stover
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973) - comic parody of Lensman-style space opera
Queen Victoria's Revenge (1974) - co-written with Tony Hawkin
The California Iceberg (1975)
Skyfall (1976)
The Lifeship (1977) - co-written with Gordon R. Dickson
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)
The QE2 is Missing (1980) - Non-SF political thriller
Homeworld (1980) - 1st book in To the Stars Trilogy
Wheelworld (1981) - 2nd book in To the Stars Trilogy
Starworld (1981) - 3rd book in To the Stars Trilogy
Planet of No Return (1981)
Invasion: Earth (1982)
The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982)
A Rebel In Time (1983)
West of Eden (1984)
A Stainless Steel Rat is Born (1985)
Winter in Eden (1986)
The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987)
Return to Eden (1988)
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Robot Slaves (1989)
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains (1990) - co-written with Robert Sheckley
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure (1991) - co-written with David Bischoff
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Zombie Vampires (1991) - co-written with Jack C. Haldeman II
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars (1991) - co-written with David Bischoff
Bill, the Galactic Hero: The Final Incoherent Adventure (1991) - co-written with David Harris
The Turing Option (1992) - co-written with Marvin Minsky
The Hammer and the Cross (1993) - co-written with John Holm (Tom Shippey)
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues (1994)
One King's Way (1994) - co-written with John Holm (Tom Shippey)
The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell (1996)
King and Emperor (1997) - co-written with John Holm (Tom Shippey)
Stars and Stripes Forever (1998)
The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (1999)
Stars and Stripes in Peril (2000)
Stars and Stripes Triumphant (2002)
The Stainless Steel Rat Returns (2010)
Short story collections
Two Tales and Eight Tomorrows (1965)
War with the Robots (1967)
Prime Number (1970)
One Step from Earth (1970)
The Best of Harry Harrison (1976)
Stainless Steel Visions (1992)
Galactic Dreams (1994)
50 In 50 (2001) - a comprehensive collection of his best short fiction
