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In Rusty Santoro’s neighborhood, the kids carry knives, chains, bricks. Broken glass. And when they fight, they fight dirty, leaving the streets littered with the bodies of the injured and the dead. Rusty wants out—but you can’t just walk away from a New York street gang. And his decision may leave his family to pay a terrible price.

First published more than half a century ago and inspired by the author’s real-life experience going undercover inside a Brooklyn street gang, WEB OF THE CITY marked the long-form debut of one of the most electrifying, unforgettable, and controversial voices of 20th century letters.

Appearing here for the first time together with three thematically related short stories Ellison wrote for the pulp magazines of the 1950s, WEB OF THE CITY offers both a snapshot of a lost era and a portrait of violence and grief as timely as today’s most brutal headlines.

• Harlan Ellison has won the Edgar Allan Poe Award twice for his crime fiction, and is even better known as one of the most acclaimed fantasy and science fiction authors of all time, having won a record 10 Hugo Awards, 5 Nebulas (including the lifetime Grand Master Award), 6 Bram Stoker Awards (including their lifetime Grand Master Award), 4 Writers Guild of America Awards, and 2 World Fantasy Awards, as well as multiple other lifetime achievement awards. He has also been a finalist for the Emmy and twice for the Grammy.
• WEB OF THE CITY was inspired by the same real-life experiences that Ellison turned into a famous episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour starring James Caan (The Godfather) and Walter Koenig (Star Trek).

"Harlan Ellison is the dark prince of American letters, cutting through our corrupted midnight fog with a switchblade prose. He simply must be read."

— Pete Hamill

"Ellison writes with sensitivity as well as guts—a rare combination."

— Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint

"One of the best writers in the world."

— Isaac Asimov