Tokyo University - School of American Studies ??????

[Well, his obit said he taught there in 1963-1965. Mebbe when he wrote the Heinlein/Harrison works that was the only place that would publish them. ]

Twayne United States Author Series -- one of the most highly respected series of short critical biographies for particularly contemporary authors. There are other series for British authors. If you want to get a brief exposure to the themes and critical issues for anybody -- say Philip Wylie or Olaf Stapledon are two I've recently researched this way -- you pick up the Twayne book at a big library. They're pretty much uniform in format, with timeline, biographical and critical sections. If you've read Stover's TUSAS book, you know what the format is.

It's a very useful reference series -- I just have a hard time imagining why anyone would want that kind of reference material on Harry Harrison -- and so far as I know there is no critical work done on Harrison at all, just fan stuff.

It was an act of friendship to write that book.

There was a very brief period in the late sixties and early seventies when Harrison's serious side showed up -- he and Brian Aldiss edited a literary SF best of the year anthology, and of course, "Make Room! Make Room!" dealt with overpopulation.

Harrison's parodies in the Stainless Steel Rat series were seen as a sign of literary talent too, early on.

But he's largely fallen by the wayside, particularly after the West of Eden stuff sold well -- series writers don't tend to be seen in literary terms, although there are exceptions (Terry Pratchett, for one).

I had a period of reading all the Harrison I could find. It ended, and I haven't gone back.

Well, yes, I don't question why Stover wrote it; I only question why TUSAS published it. In a field that included post-Dhalgren Delany, Ursula LeGuin, and other serious writers, why Harry Harrison? It numbs the mind.

Never having read any of the works published by TUSAS (or heard of it before your post above, obvious from my previous post in this thread) my only thought has to be that Stover brought out some aspects of Harrison's work that TUSAS felt deserved to be brought to the attention of its readers. Or, alternatively, he had a high-placed friend at TUSAS who duked the Harrison work in. Or that it was a "both Heinlein and Harrison or neither" ukase by Stover. Or .... If it confuses you, who is broadly conversent with TUSAS and their work, what chance do I have?

I'm pretty sure he didn't present them with a package and an ultimatum; the Heinlein book was actually written for another publsher and then moved to Twayne.

But I'm pretty sure the Twayne people were please with Robert Heinlein as it sold roughly twice as many as any of their other books and they actually had to go into a second edition, so Stover had the leverage of success.

I have a 1st Ed of _The Technicolor Time Machine_, and I treasure it, even if I wouldn't claim it as great literchurcher. Some guys can just put together a damn fine read at their best, and that should be sufficient unto the day.

Alan Dean Foster being another.

Technicolor Time Machine is one of my favorites, along with Keith Laumer's The Great Time Machine Hoax

Maybe he did such a good job of it that they published it, even though they considered Harrison to be borderline as a subject.

I think that's likely -- plus it was a time as noted upthread, when both Harrison and SF were developing their serious sides, so it might well have been a matter of opportunity presenting itself.