I have read Harlan's Ellison's work, a bit about his life, and a lot of rants. I think the thing that you quickly realize about him after awhile is that he's a rather angry person. He's described a lot of bad arguments and physical confrontations over the year.
I have liked many of his stories, most notably Repent Harlequin! Said the ticktock man.
It's a very short story, but I liked it a lot. I remember reading about a publication in Canada called the Bloomsbury Review (I think) that gave him the honorary position of "slayer of dragons" or something to that effect, to sort of remember him for helping defend them against various legal assaults that threatened to derail the magazine.
I'm not too fond of his litigious nature, but I guess it's a part of the package. He's always been willing to put up a fight, and in some ways that good, and in some ways it is bad. He's been involved in protecting other people's interests, but he's also gotten into some arguments that were just plain stupid. Some of the lawsuits have sounded ridiculous. I think it's mostly because he had a tendency to see a fight coming before there really one was, and assumed the worst of people.
I hope that he's doing better than he let on. If not, I hope he gets a graceful exit. It can be a difficult thing to growl in America, but hopefully he's been successful enough, and has enough family left that he isn't going out alone.
