Profile of Harry Harrison on Famous Like Me

For the radio personality, see Harry Harrison (radio).

Harry Maxwell Harrison (born March 12, 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut) is an American science fiction author who has lived in many parts of the world including Mexico, England, Denmark and Italy. He currently lives in Dublin, and was formerly the honorary president of the Esperanto Association of Ireland. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII as a gunsight mechanic and gunnery instructor.

Career

Harrison started working in the science fiction field as an illustrator before becoming an editor. A large number of his early short stories were first published under house pseudonyms such as 'Wade Kaempfert'. Harrison also wrote for syndicated comic strips, creating the 'Rick Random' character. Harrison is now much better known for his writing, particularly his humorous and satirical science fiction, such as the Stainless Steel Rat series and the novel Bill, the Galactic Hero (which satirises Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers).

During the 1950s and 60s he was the main writer of the Flash Gordon newspaper strip. One of his Flash Gordon scripts was serialized in Comics Revue magazine. Harrison drew sketches to help the artist be more scientifically accurate, which the artist largely ignored.

Not all of Harrison's writing is comic, though. He has written many stories on serious themes, of which by far the best known is the classic novella about overpopulation and consumption of the world's resources Make Room! Make Room! which was used as a basis for the science fiction film Soylent Green (though the film changed the plot and theme).

Harrison for a time was closely identified with Brian Aldiss and the pair collaborated on a series of anthology projects. Harrison and Aldiss did much in the 1970s to raise the standards of criticism in the field.

Bibliography

Novellas

• Make Room! Make Room! (1966) Basis for the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston.
• Planet Story (1978) published as a large format book with colour illustrations by Jim Burns.

Novels

• Planet of the Damned (1962) (first published as Sense of Obligation)
• The Jupiter Legacy (1965) (first published as Plague from Space)
• Vendetta for the Saint (1965) - credited to Leslie Charteris and based upon Charteris' mystery series, The Saint
• Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965)
• Technicolor Time Machine (1967)
• War with the Robots (1967) (short stories)
• In Our Hands the Stars (1970)
• Spaceship Medic (1970)
• Prime Number (1970) (short stories)
• One Step from Earth (1970) (short stories)
• Tunnel Through the Deeps (1972) (also published as A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!)
• Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973)
• The Men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T. (1974) (collection of two linked novellas).
• Skyfall (1976)
• Lifeboat (1977) (with Gordon R. Dickson)
• Planet of No Return (1981) (Sequel to Planet of the Damned)
• Invasion: Earth (1982)
• The Turing Option (1992) (with Marvin Minsky)
• Galactic Dreams (1994) (short stories)

Deathworld series

• Deathworld 1 (1960)
• Deathworld 2 (1964) (first published as The Ethical Engineer)
• Deathworld 3 (1968)

The Stainless Steel Rat series

1. The Stainless Steel Rat (1961)
2. The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970)
3. The Stainless Steel Saves the World (1972)
4. The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)
5. The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982)
6. A Stainless Steel Rat is Born (1985)
7. The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987)
8. The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues (1994)
9. The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell (1996)
10. The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (1999)

• You Can Be The Stainless Steel Rat: An Interactive Game Book (Role playing book, 1988)
• The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat (First three books anthology, 1978)

Eden series

• West of Eden (1984)
• Winter in Eden (1986)
• Return to Eden (1989)

The Hammer and the Cross series

• The Hammer and the Cross (1993)
• One King's Way (1995)
• King and Emperor (1997)

Comics

• Rick Random
• Flash Gordon (1958 - 1964)

Essays

• Mechanismo (1977)

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