Harrison was born as Henry Maxwell Dempsey in Stamford , Connecticut . His father , Henry Leo Dempsey , a printer who was partly of Irish descent , changed his name to Harrison soon after Harry was born . Harry did not know this himself until he was 30 years old , at which point he changed his name to Harry Max Harrison in court . His mother , Ria H. ( Kirjassoff ) , was Russian Jewish . She had been born in Riga , Latvia , but she grew up in St. Petersburg , Russia . Her brother , Max David Kirjassoff ( 1888-1923 ) , had been an American consul in Japan , but he died along with his wife Alice during the huge earthquake in Yokohama and Tokyo in 1923
huge earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Harry Harrison (writer)