E. T. ELLISON’S FAVORITE CREATURES at the above captured moment were ravens. He would’ve liked to become acquainted with one someday. Two, if possible…not possible, as it turned out.
Like most people on this planet, some numbers can be attached to his name. These include: 10 novels (so far), 4 children, 8 grandchildren, 27 former residences, 2 academic degrees, 2 book-of-the-year awards, 2 design patents.
In the distant past, he was employed in various capacities by various entities before becoming variously self-employed in 1979. At the time of his death, he considered himself variously self-unemployed, which is like being retired, only different.
He was grateful for much, most recently for surviving a four-year tussle with an unpleasantness called lymphoma – only to eventually succumb to damage of essential systems. Ellison most recently lived with his brother Scott — a software engineer and fellow less prolific novelist — in a Northern California woods. The same woods is also inhabited by ravens. Sometimes E.T. imagined they spoke to him, most often squawking a query about when he’d stop making up lies and writing them down. He imagined telling them “nevermore.” Alas…
