Ellison Under Glass

The stories in this collection were written in public. The lion’s share were written in bookstore windows—hence the title. One was written at a party, two at conventions, and one is a story he started at the Golden China restaurant and finished in the window of Change of Hobbit bookstore. Harlan wrote in public because he wanted people to see that writing was no joke—it was work. Often he would ask for what he called a “kick-start,” a line or a idea from the live audience that gathered in and outside the bookstores. He had no tricks up his sleeve, just a point to make and a story to write, and he would tape the pages on the window so the crowd outside could read each page as he wrote it.

This is the very first printing of these stories in their in-window versions—the words Harlan wrote while performing the writing live—which he later tinkered with before they went into separate collections. This is also the first time these stories are collected in the edition that Harlan envisioned and tried for years to have published.