Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods was published by Harper & Row in 1975, and it is Ellison’s masterwork — the collection that best represents his range, his ambition, and his terrifying emotional intensity.
The concept is that the old gods are dead and new gods have taken their place: the gods of technology, commerce, media, and urban experience. Each story presents a modern deity or a confrontation between human beings and the forces that have replaced traditional religion. “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” is about the god who feeds on urban violence and apathy (inspired by the Kitty Genovese murder). “Along the Scenic Route” is about the god of the automobile — road rage elevated to sacramental ritual. “Paingod” imagines the deity responsible for all human suffering, who experiences every pain he inflicts. “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes” is about the slot machine as idol — a man absorbed into a Las Vegas machine, feeding it coins for eternity.
The title story, “The Deathbird,” is the collection’s climax: a retelling of the Garden of Eden in which the Serpent was actually the good guy, God is a mad tyrant, and the last human being must mercy-kill the planet to free it from divine abuse. Ellison’s reversal of the creation myth is not atheist polemic but genuine theological imagination — he takes the problem of evil seriously and proposes that the only solution is to reject the god responsible for it.
Collecting Deathbird Stories
First edition (Harper & Row, New York, 1975): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $60–$200
- Without jacket: $15–$40
- Signed copies: $100–$300