Hard Case Crime will publish a new edition of Web of the City by Harlan Ellison. For the first time in thirty years, fans will be able to find the science fiction author’s first novel in bookstores.
The publisher will release the book in both paperback and eBook format in April 2013. The new edition will feature a pulp style cover created by illustrator Glen Orbik. It will also contain three thematically-linked short stories which Ellison (pictured, via) published through pulp fiction magazines during the 1950’s.
Here’s more from the release: “Written in 1957 while Ellison was enduring Army Ranger basic training in Georgia, Web of the City tells the story of a teenager who sets out to leave the New York City street gang he runs with, putting his family in grave danger. Ellison wrote the book after going undercover for ten weeks as a member of an actual Brooklyn street gang, the Barons, an experience that also inspired him to write the famous ‘Memo From Purgatory’ episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour starring James Caan (The Godfather) and Walter Koenig (Star Trek).”
Pyramid Books, now an imprint at Penguin Group (USA) called Jove Books, originally published Web of the City with the title Rumble in 1958. Pyramid neglected to consult with Ellison on the title change. They later changed it back to Web of the City in subsequent re-printings.