Hal Ellson

Harold "Hal" Ellson (1910 – October 31, 1994 in Brooklyn)^[1] was an American author of pulp fiction whose work primarily focused on juvenile delinquency, a field in which he has been described as "one of the most popular" writers^[2][3] and as "legendary".^[4]

Ellson was a social worker,^[5] recreational therapist, and nurse's aide at Bellevue Hospital,^[1] where he encountered the adolescent psychiatric patients on whom he based much of his fiction; he subsequently stated that many of the patients viewed him as a "father confessor", and eagerly told him their stories while trusting that he would not report them to law enforcement.^[6] As a result, Nelson Algren described Ellson's work as "just straight case studies."^[7]

Frederic Wertham was an aficionado of Ellson's work, favorably reviewing Ellson's 1949 novel "Duke" in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, and providing an introduction to Ellson's 1950 novel Tomboy;^[8] as well, Wertham subsequently cited Tomboy in the first chapter of his own 1954 Seduction of the Innocent.^[9]

Harlan Ellison cites Ellson's work as having inspired his own interest in juvenile delinquency — an interest which led directly to the writing of Ellison's first novel, Web of the City.^[10][11] Ellison has also stated that in the earliest days of his career as a writer, he was often mistaken for Ellson writing under a pseudonym — and that decades later, when Ellison had become much more known and Ellson's career had waned, Ellson was often mistaken for Ellison writing under a pseudonym.^[10]

Bibliography

• Duke (1949)
• Tomboy (1950) – adapted by Marcel Carné in Wasteland
• The Golden Spike (1952)
• Rock (1953)
• I'll Fix You (1956)
• Tell Them Nothing (1956)
• This Is It (1956)
• Jailbait Street (1959)
• A Killer's Kiss (1959)
• Stairway to Nowhere (1959)
• The Knife (1961)
• Nest of Fear (1961)
• Nightmare Street (1965)
• Games (1967)
• That Glover Woman (1967)
• Blood on the Ivy (1971)
• "hundreds of short stories"^[1]

References