Roller Ball Murder

Roller Ball Murder (1974) is the only short story collection by William Harrison, a Texas-born novelist and creative writing professor at the University of Arkansas. The title story, first published in Esquire in September 1973, is the reason this book belongs in any serious dystopian collection. Set in a near future where corporations have replaced nation-states entirely, it follows Jonathan E., the aging star of Roller Ball Murder, a globally televised sport of escalating brutality designed to channel public aggression and discourage independent thought. The game's rules are periodically altered to increase carnage, and there's a growing awareness in Jonathan that his own individuality is the real target of the sport. Harrison reportedly conceived the story after witnessing a brawl break out at a basketball game, recognizing in the crowd's reaction something he found genuinely alarming.

Harrison adapted the story into the screenplay for Norman Jewison's 1975 film Rollerball, starring James Caan, which earned $30 million against a modest budget and has since become a cult classic of 1970s science fiction cinema. The remaining stories in the collection are unrelated to the title piece.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. New York: William Morrow, 1974. ISBN: 068800265x. #11471.
Fine in fine dust jacket.