Harlan moved on to attend Ohio State University for a year and 6 months before being expelled for an encounter with his creative writing professor Dr. Shedd. Shortly after he began publishing science fiction fanzines and soon moved in with Robert Silverberg in 1955. His first Novel Web of the City was published in ‘58 during his time serving in the Army (‘57-’59) where he had landed a job in the Public Information Center in Fort Knox, Kentucky, writing articles for the paper Inside The Turret.