The Last Dangerous Visions

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The Last Dangerous Visions was planned to be a sequel to the science fiction short story anthologies Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. It was edited by Harlan Ellison.

Various difficulties, however, delayed publication many times. At this point, Ellison has said that it will probably never see the light of day, since by now the stories wouldn't be as groundbreaking or have the impact they would have had in the 1970s. Ellison has been severely criticized for neither publishing the volume nor returning control of the stories to their authors, some of whom have since died.

One story destined for Last Dangerous Visions, "Himself in Anachron" by Cordwainer Smith (died 1966), did find publication in the 1993 collection of Smith's short fiction, The Rediscovery of Man. Other stories that have since been published are John Varley's "The Bellman", which was published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine in 2003, and Joe Haldeman's "Fantasy for Six Electrodes and One Adrenaline Drip", which Haldeman had believed lost until finding an old carbon copy of the manuscript and which was finally published in his 2006 collection A Separate War and Other Stories.

In 2005 Haffner Press published a large reprint collection of Edmond Hamilton's two "Star Kings" novels and Leigh Brackett's three stories starring Eric Stark, called Stark and the Star Kings. The title story is the long-lost tale by both writers which should have been published in Last Dangerous Visions.

British author Christopher Priest's lengthy critique of Ellison's failure to publish was published as "The Last Deadloss Visions" in the UK and, in book form, as The Book on the Edge of Forever (an allusion to the Ellison-written Star Trek episode The City on the Edge of Forever) by Fantagraphics Books in the US. The essay was once available online, but Priest has since requested the essay be withdrawn from the Internet.

The following and assuredly incomplete list of the contents of The Last Dangerous Visions is from the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

[edit] Incomplete Table of Contents

"Search Cycle: Beginning and Ending 1. The Last Quest 2. Fifth and Last Horseman" by Russell Bates
"Emerging Nation" by Alfred Bester
"Dogs Lives" by Michael Bishop
"Pipeline to Paradise" by Nelson S. Bond
"Precis of the Rappacini Report" by Anthony Boucher
"The Danaan Children Laugh" by Mildred Downey Broxon
"War Stories" by Edward Bryant
"The Accidents of Blood" by Frank Bryning
"Cacophony in Pink and Ochre" by Doris Pitkin Buck
(Title Unknown) by Algis Budrys
"Childfinder" by Octavia E. Butler
"Geriatric Word" by Orson Scott Card
"Doug, Where Are We? I Don't Know. A Spaceship Maybe," by Grant Carrington
"The Bing Bang Blues" by Delbert Casada
"The True Believer" by A. Bertram Chandler
"The Burning Zone" by Graham Charnock
"A Journey South" by John Christopher
"Cargo Run" by William E. Cochrane
"Suzy is Something Special" by Michael G. Coney
"Blackstop" by Gerard Conway
"Various Kinds of Conceit" by Arthur Byron Cover
(Title Unknown) by Philippe Curval
"The Carbon Dream" by Jack Dann
"The Stone Which the Builders Rejected" by Avram Davidson
"The Names of Yanil" by Chan Davis
"Copping Out" by Hank Davis
"The Great Forest Lawn Clearance Sale: Hurry Last Days!" by Stephen Dedman
"Love Song" by Gordon R. Dickson
"Halfway There" by Stan Dryer
(Title Unknown)
"False Premises: 1. The Capitals Are Wrong; 2. Stage Fright; 3. Rocky Colavito Batted .268 in 1955" by George Alec Effinger
"The Children of Bull Wood" by Gordon Eklund
"All Creatures Great and Small" by Howard Fast
(Title Unknown) by Jonathan Fast
"What Used to be Called Dead" by Leslie A. Fiedler
"Giant Rat of Sumatra, or By the Light of the Silvery" by the Firesign Theatre
"Adversaries" by Franklin Fisher
(Title Unknown) by Felix C. Gotschalk
"A Day in the Life of A-420" by Jacques Gouldchaux
"The Return of Agent Black" by Ron Goulart
"Play Sweetly, In Harmony" by Joseph Green
"Among the Beautiful Bright Children" by James E. Gunn
"Fantasy for Six Electrodes and One Adrenaline Drip (A Play in the Form of a Feelie Script)" by Joe Haldeman
"Golgotha" by Graham Hall
"Stark and the Star Kings" by Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett
"Signals" by Charles L. Harness
"A Dog and His Boy" by Harry Harrison
"The Accidental Ferosslk" by Frank Herbert
"Leveled Best" by Steve Herbst
(Title Unknown) by P. C. Hodgell
"û-1 Think, Therefore û-1 Am" by Leonard Isaacs
"Uncle Tom's Time Machine" by John Jakes
(Title Unknown) by Langdon Jones
(Title Unknown) by Raul Judson
(Title Unknown) by Daniel Keyes
"Squad D" by Stephen King
(Title Unknown) by William Kotzwinkle
"Grandma, What's the Sky Made Of?" by Susan C. Lette
"Return to Elf Hill" by Robert Lilly
"The Bones Do Lie" by Anne McCaffrey
"XXY" by Vonda McIntyre
"The Swastika Setup" by Michael Moorcock
(Title Unknown) by Raylyn Moore
"Falling From Grace" by Ward Moore
"Las Animas" by Janet Nay
"The Life and the Clay" by Edgar Pangborn
"None So Deaf" by Richard E. Peck
"The Residents of Kingston" by Doris Piserchia
"The Red Dream" by Charles Platt
"The Isle of Sinbad" by P.J. Plauger
"Free Enterprise" by Jerry Pournelle
"A Night at Madame Mephisto" by Joseph F. Pumilia
(Title Unknown) by Tom Reamy
"Ponce De Leon's Pants" by Mack Reynolds
(Title Unknown) by D. M. Rowles
"The Senior Prom" by Fred Saberhagen
"The Isle of Sinbad" by Thomas N. Scortia
"Dark Night in Toyland" by Bob Shaw
"Primordial Follies" by Robert Sheckley
"I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up in the Air" by Clifford D. Simak
"Himself in Anachron" by Cordwainer Smith
"Living Inside" by Bruce Sterling
(Title Unknown) by Craig Strete
"The Amazonas Link" by James Sutherland
"Son of Wild in the Streets" by Robert Thom
"Ugly Duckling Gets the Treatment and Becomes Cinderella Except Her Foot's Too Big for the Prince's Slipper and Is Webbed Besides" by Robert Thurston
(Unknown Title) by Wilson Tucker
"Child of Mind" by Lisa Tuttle
(Title Unknown) by Steven Utley
"Skin" by A. E. van Vogt
"The Bellman" by John Varley
"The 100 Million Horses of Planet Dada" by Daniel Walther
(Title Unknown) by Ian Watson
(Title Unknown) by Manly Wade Wellman
"The Other Side of Space" (Provisional title) by Wallace West
"Previews of Hell" by Jack Williamson
"At the Sign of the Boar's Head Nebula" by Richard Wilson
"A Rousing Explanation of the Events Surrounding My Sister's Death" by David Wise
"A Night at the Opera" by Robert Wissner
"The Seadragon" Laurence Yep
(Title Unknown) by Pamela Zoline