The book was dedicated to , among others , four student protesters who were killed in the Kent State shootings of 1970 . This dedication prompted a response from a reader calling the students " hooligans " who were " Communist-led radical revolutionaries and anarchists , and deserved to be shot " . This letter was reprinted in the introduction to Ellison 's subsequent 1974 short story collection '' Approaching Oblivion '' . Ellison states that this letter frightened him and was one of the things that led him to change that collection from a call to action to a cry of frustration and disillusionment
Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
Alone Against Tomorrow