If you’ve ever wanted to stroll through an author’s personal library, but they won’t let you into their house (and with good reason), Harlan Ellison’s wife Susan offers the next best thing: a book purge from his private collection.

There’s enough good stuff written about Mr. Ellison available on the internet that you don’t need me to cut and paste a bunch of it to reaffirm the award-winning author’s place in literature and pop culture. From books to movies to TV to comic books, he’s really done it all and won awards for lots of it. Mr. Ellison and I have had about a dozen fun and friendly encounters over the years and it was always a pleasure to hear his voice at the other end of the phone.

“What the hell are you doing now, Mason?” he’d call out teasingly and we’d take it from there. Very enjoyable conversations about the state of the world, the comic book industry, and even one about the history of, if I remember correctly, the Golden Age super-hero, Cat-Man.

Now Susan Ellison has realized that over the years her husband has collected way too much stuff and she’s launching another book purge.

The Great Ellison Book Purge is running from July 6-July 8 and it’s a great opportunity to pick up some rare items from his personal collection, and at decent prices too, some starting at $5.00.

The A.V. Club has the details and a link where you can download the brochure so you can shop before you buy. This is not an auction, it’s a sale, so it’s first come and all that.

You can also run over to Unca Harlan’s Art Deco Dining Pavilion for some additional info and links, as well as a very busy message board that the author is known to frequent.

Good luck and good shopping!

[This post has been edited to reflect a clarification from the comment section.]

[Artwork: Cover to The Spirit #2 which features a story by Harlan Ellison and Kyle Baker, © DC Entertainment]

[h/t to Bill Crider for the link]