Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison was a prolific sci-fi writer, known for his witty, action-packed science fiction novels like The Stainless Steel Rat series and Make Room! Make Room!, which inspired the film Soylent Green.

Harrison began his career in the 1940s as an illustrator and began publishing his own stories in the early 1950s. In 1957, he sold The Stainless Steel Rat to Astounding Science Fiction, beginning a long and close relationship with that magazine and its editor, John W. Campbell Jr. This was his first of many tales that would feature the interstellar thief Slippery Jim DiGriz. Two other popular series followed: The Deathworld Trilogy and Bill, the Galactic Hero.

Later novels tread more serious ground, including Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the film adaptation of which Soylent Green (1973), won the 1973 Nebula award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Also of importance are Harrison's Eden series, begun in 1984, in which humanity battles a highly evolved dinosaur race.