Harlan Ellison-master essayist, gadfly, literary myth figure, and viewer of dark portent-has been, for the greater part of his life, a burr under the saddle of complacency. In this collection, his former assistant and confidante, Marty Clark, has culled from hundreds of rare and un-reprinted works to select twenty wide-ranging essays-nonfiction writings ranging from travelogue to media criticism, literary exploration to personal musing-that demonstrate why the monstre sacre of imaginative literature won the prestigious Silver Pen award from PEN International for his journalistic forays.