Harrison’s first novellas were published in 1979 under the title "Legends of the Fall". Actor Jack Nicholson, a close friend of Harrison's whom he had met through Thomas McGuane, played a peripheral role in the creation of that book. When Nicholson heard that Harrison was broke, he sent $30,000, which allowed Harrison to write "Legends of the Fall". The title novella is an epic story that spans 50 years and tells the tale of a father and three sons in the vast spaces of the northern Rocky Mountains around the time of World War I. Referring to the title novella, Harrison said:"I wrote "Legends of the Fall" in nine days and when I re-read it, I only had to change one word. There was no revision process. None. I had thought so much about the character that writing the book was like taking diction. I felt overwhelmed when I finished, I needed to take a vacation, but the book was done." The novella format would become an important part of both Harrison's future reputation and his output. Following "Legends of the Fall", seven more collections of novellas appeared over the course of Harrison's lifetime: "The Woman Lit by Fireflies" (1990), "Julip" (1994), "The Beast God Forgot to Invent" (2000), "The Summer He Didn’t Die" (2005), "The Farmer's Daughter" (2009), "The River Swimmer" (2013), and finally "The Ancient Minstrel" (2016), the latter appearing just before Harrison's death in March of that year.