A major collection of Harlan Ellison's incomparable, troublemaking, uncompromising, confrontational essays and newspaper columns, The Harlan Ellison Hornbook mines deep into the author's colorful past. Failed love affairs, departed pets, a defense of comic books--in lesser hands, these subjects would be pabulum or treacle. When Harlan Ellison is behind the typewriter, the mundane becomes an all‑out intellectual brawl. Emotionally moving and verbally stimulating, these columns cannot be missed, especially Ellison's article on controversial comedian Lenny Bruce or the chilling account of the author's trip to visit a death row inmate in San Quentin State Prison.