RayBradbury

THE RAY BRADBURY BIBLIOGRAPHY

TY POWER

Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, USA, in 1920, and
attended Los Angeles High School, from which he graduated in
1938. He furthered his education with frequent nightly visits to the
library and many days at the typewriter. Weird Tales accepted his
first science fiction short story when he was twenty, and this was
followed by a succession of other stories which appeared in the
budding SF and fantasy magazines of the time. Since that time, he
has gone on to publish more than 100 short stories, novels, poems,
and plays. His work was selected for best American short story
collections in 1946, 1948 and 1952. Among his many awards are:
The O. Henry Memorial Award; The Benjamin Franklin Award in
1954; The Aviation-Space Writer's Association Award, for best
space article in an American magazine in 1967; The World Fantasy
Award for lifetime achievement, The Grand Master Award from the
Science Fiction Writers of America; and the National Medal of Arts
award, presented by George W. Bush. He has written for television
(including The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the
excellent Ray Bradbury Theatre), radio and the theatre, and the
screenplays for It Came From Outer Space; Moby Dick; and
Something Wicked This Way Comes which was adapted from his
own novel.

Bradbury was ideas consultant for the United States Pavilion at the
1964 World's Fair. He also wrote the basic scenario for the interior
of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT, Disney World, and has conducted
consultant work on city engineering and rapid transit. One of the
Apollo space teams named Dandelion Crator on the moon in
honour of his novel, Dandelion Wine. His many written works have
been translated into numerous languages, and he is internationally
acclaimed for being a prolific author of fantasy-laden science fiction
and horror. Now, well into his eighties, Ray Bradbury continues his
activities as a writer and consultant.

A collection of 18 short stories, comprising: The Kilimanjaro
Device; The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place; Tomorrow's
Child; The Women; The Inspired Chicken Motel; Downwind from
Gettysburg; Yes, We'll Gather at the River; The Cold Wind and the
Warm; Night Call, Collect; The Haunting of the New; I Sing the
Body Electric!; The Tombling Day; Any Friend of Nicholas
Nickleby's is a Friend of Mine; Heavy-Set; The Man in the
Rorschach Shirt; Henry the Ninth; The Lost City of Mars; Christus
Apollo.

Originally written as The Silver Locusts, this follows the progress
of three Earth Expeditions to Mars, each following up the previous
one when it does not return and nothing is heard. The first is told
from the viewpoint of a Martian couple, the husband of which takes
drastic action when his wife dreams of the arrival of six-feet-tall
beings from another world. The three men of the second expedition
lose contact with each other when they are drawn into illusions in
which they are reunited with long-dead relatives in the modest
backwater villages in which they were born. The third, and major
part of the book, follows the rise and fall of a human colony. The
Martian Chronicles was filmed as a three-part mini-series, but failed
to reach the standards of the novel.

The narrator is on the final leg of a walking tour of Wisconsin,
when he meets and makes camp with a large and muscular man,
covered from neck to feet in tatoos. But these are not ordinary
tatoos. The big man had, some time previously, fallen in love with a
woman "illustrator" who had, over a long period, covered him in
hundreds of beautiful intricate patterns and images. The woman
vanished one day, never to return. But the pictures are alive and
moving, playing out tales of terror and woe. The man tells the
narrator that he will kill the woman when he finds her, for ruining his
life, because he has not been able to hold a relationship or keep a
job since. As the two men lie down shirtless on that warm summer
night, images move again, and the narrator cannot remove his gaze
as the tales unfold. This book is in the form of 16 short stories: The
Veld; Kaleidoscope; The Other Foot; The Highway; The Man; The
Long Rain; Usher II; The Last Night of the World; The Rocket; No
Particular Night or Morning; The Fox and the Forrest; The Visitor;
Marionettes, Inc.; The City; Zero Hour; The Playground.

A collection of 22 short stories: The Fog Horn; The Pedestrian;
The April Witch;The Wilderness; The Fruit at the Bottom of the
Bowl; Invisible Boy; The Flying Machine; The Murderer; The
Golden Kite, the Silver Wind; I See You Never; Embroidery; The
Big Black and White Game; A Sound of Thunder; The Great Wide
World Over There; Powerhouse; En La Noche; Sun and Shadow;
The Meadow; The Garbage Collector; The Great Fire; Hail and
Farewell; The Golden Apples of the Sun. Contains chapter-heading
illustrations.

...being the temperature at which book paper burns. A futuristic
novel in which all books are outlawed as being the cause of all
unhappiness and disruption. Montag is part of a special taskforce
of firemen which destroys classic books as and when they are
found, until he sits down and begins to read one himself. When his
secret hoard is finally discovered and burned, Montag is taken by a
friend to a secret location where individuals memorise entire classic
works of literature and pass the knowledge on to their offspring.

A collection of 13 short stories: The Dwarf; The Watchful Poker
Chip of H. Matisse; Skeleton; The Jar; The Traveler; The Emissary;
Touched With Fire; The Scythe; Uncle Einar; The Wind; There
Was an Old Woman; Homecoming; The Wonderful Death of
Dudley Stone.

In this excellent collection of character stories, written as a novel,
12-year-old Douglas Spaulding discovers the joys of summer in a
secret world within reality. During this time he comes into contact
with: the inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by
building a happiness machine; the young reporter who fell in love
with an alluring lady of 90; and the old gentleman whose last act
was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner
2,000 miles away.

A collection of 23 short stories: The Day it Rained Forever; In a
Season of Calm Weather; The Dragon; The End of the Beginning;
The Wonderful Ice-Cream Suit; Fever Dream; Referent; The
Marriage Mender; The Town Where No One Got Off; Icarus
Montgolfier Wright; Almost the End of the World; Dark They Were
and Golden-Eyed; The Smile; Here There Be Tygers; The
Headpiece; Perchance to Dream; The Time of Going Away; The
Gift; The Little Mice; The Sunset Harp; A Scent of Sarsparilla; And
the Rock Cried Out; The Strawberry Widow.

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, (c) 1963, Grafton
(UK).

In this, arguably Bradbury's best novel to date, two 13-year-old
boys grow up almost overnight when a deadly carnival comes to
Green Town, Illinois. It contains all manner of beasts and freaks,
and a carousel which is not what it seems. The leader, the
mysterious Mr Dark, develops a decidedly unhealthy interest in the
boys when they get too close to the truth. Bradbury wrote the
screenplay for the movie adaptation of the same title.

A collection of 21 short stories: The Machineries of Joy; The One
Who Waits; Tyrannosaurus Rex; The Vacation; The Drummer Boy
of Shiloh; Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!; Almost
the End of the World; Perhaps We Are Going Away; And the
Sailor, Home From the Sea; El Dia Muerte; The Illustrated Woman;
Some Live Like Lazarus; A Miracle of Rare Device; And So Died
Riabouchinska; The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge; Death and the
Maiden; A Flight of Ravens; The Best of All Possible Worlds; The
Lifework of Juan Diaz; To the Chicago Abyss; The Anthem
Sprinters.

In this children's novella, nine trick-or-treaters undertake and
odyssey of discovery during one moon-filled night. Their objective,
to learn the original secret of All Hallows Eve. Contains sketch
illustrations by Joseph Mugnaini.

A collection of 22 short stories: The Blue Bottle; One Timeless
Spring; The Parrot Who Met Papa; The Burning Man; A Piece of
Wood; The Messiah; GBS - Mark V; The Utterly Perfect Murder;
Punishment Without Crime; Getting Through Sunday Somehow;
Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds; Interval in Sunlight;
A Story of Love; The Wish; Forever and the Earth; A Better Part of
Wisdom; Darling Adolf; The Miracles of Jamie; The October
Game; The Pumpernickel; Long After Midnight; Have I Got a
Chocolate Bar For You!

A collection of 13 short stories: The Small Assassin; The Next in
Line; The Lake; The Crowd; Jack-in-the-Box; The Man Upstairs;
The Cistern; The Tombstone; The Smiling People; The Handler;
Let's play "Poison"; The Night; The Dead Man.

THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY - VOLUME ONE, (c)
1980, Granada (UK).

THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY - VOLUME TWO, (c)
1980, Granada (UK).

Originally available as a two-book boxed set, these are now on sale
separately. Apparently inspired by friendly arguments about
favourite Bradbury short stories, they are the ultimate collections of
some of his best. The first contains 52 tales, the second 48. This is
an ideal starting place for newcomers to his work; but readers
should be aware that most of the stories included in his other books
appear in this two-book collection.

Stories to look for in Volume One include: The Small Assassin,
about a baby who blames its mother for its entrance into the cold,
harsh world from its prior warm coccoon, and tries to kill her; A
Sound of Thunder, in which a time-travelling hunting expedition in
prehistoric times affects the known future; The Scythe, where a
peasant farmer cuts the heads off his corn and relates it to the loss
of life in the world; and The Lake, in which a summertime
childhood friendship extends beyond death.

Included in Volume two are: The October Game, about an object-
feeling game in the dark which becomes a little too real for comfort;
The Haunting of the New, in which an old house becomes tired of
the atrocities committed within its confines, and no longer allows
tainted people inside; and All Summer in a Day, where a little girl is
locked up by her cruel friends and misses the one day of sunshine
in thousands of years of rain.

Set in Venice, California in 1949, this is a murder mystery that
positively exudes atmosphere. Against the backdrop of a
dismantled arcade and broken roller coaster, a struggling writer
catches a late train home, where a drunk sits behind him and
whispers of death. A dead man is found in an abandoned circus
cage, and the hunt is on to discover the identity of the drunk who
our hero knows committed the atrocity. But convincing Detective
Elmo Crumley is another matter.

This first new collection of long-awaited short stories in nearly a
decade comprises the following 23 titles: The Toynbee Convector;
Trapdoor; On the Orient; North; One Night in Your Life; West of
October; The Last Circus; The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair; I
Suppose You Are Wondering Why We Are Here?; Lafayette,
Farewell; Banshee; Promises, Promises; The Love Affair; One For
His Lordship, and One For the Road!; At Midnight, in the Month
of June; Bless Me Father, For I have Sinned; By the Numbers!; A
Touch of Petulance; Long Division; Come, and Bring Constance!;
Junior; The Tombstone; The Thing at the Top of the Stairs;
Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Mummy.

What is the connection between the struggling Maximus Pictures
studios and the adjoining Green Glades Cemetery? A young and
naive movie buff scriptwriter longs to relive the golden age of film.
When he receives an anonymous note asking him to the cemetery,
where he will learn a startling revelation, he is drawn into a years'
old pact, a cover-up involving the death of the most prominent man
in the film industry at that time. Aided rather reluctantly by a private
detective friend, he attempts to uncover the truth, only to discover
more than he bargained for.

A collection of 21 short stories: Unterderseaboat; Zaharoff/Richter
Mark V; Remember Sascha?; Another Fine Mess; The
Electrocution; Hopscotch; The Finnegan; That Woman on the
Lawn; The Very Gentle Murders; Quicker Than the Eye; Dorian in
Excelsus; No News, Or What Killed the Dog?; The Witch Door;
The Ghost in the Machine; At the End of the Ninth Year; Bug;
Once More, Legato; Exchange; Free Dirt; Last Rites; The Other
Highway.

A collection of 21 short stories: Night Train to Babylon; If MGM is
Killed, Who Gets the Lion?; Hello, I Must Be Going; House
Divided; Grand Theft; Remember Me?; Fee Fie Foe Fum; Driving
Blind; I Wonder What's Become of Sally; Nothing Changes; That
Old Dog Lying in the Dust; Someone in the Rain; Madame Et
Monsieur Shill; The Mirror; End of Summer; Thunder in the
Morning; The Highest Branch on the Tree; A Woman is a Fast-
Moving Picnic; Virgin Resusitas; Mr Pale; That Bird That Comes
Out of the Clock.

In some ways similar in format to Dandelion Wine, this is similarly
themed short stories which knit nicely together as a novel. Partly
based on the characters of his relatives, the Elliots are a fantastical
group of individuals with peculiar traits. Cousin Cecy's spirit can fly
across the astral plane and into people's heads. There are time
travellers, spectres, invisibles, and a mummified husk that knows
everything about death. These tales are brought together by
Timothy, an orphan adopted by vampires. It's crazy to think that
something seemingly so unbalanced should work, but work it does,
and beautifully. The magic remains.

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD, (c) 2003, Avon/HarperCollins
(US).

A collection of 25 short stories, 18 of which are brand new: First
Day, Heart Transplant; Quid Pro Quo; After the Ball; In Memoriam;
Tete-a-Tete; The Dragon Danced at Midnight; The Nineteenth;
Beasts; Autumn Afternoon; Where All Is Emptiness, There Is
Room to Move; One-Woman Show; The Laurel and Hardy Alpha
Centauri Farewell Tour; Leftovers; One More for the Road;
Tangerine; With Smiles as Wide as Summer; Time Intervening; The
Enemy in the Wheat; Fore!; My Son, Max; The
F.Scott/Tolstoy/Ahab Accumulator; Well, What Do You Have to
Say For Yourself?; Diane de Foret; The Cricket on the Hearth.

LET'S ALL KILL CONSTANCE, (c) 2003, Avon/HarperCollins
(US).

A writer in Venice, California, is visited in the night by an ageing,
once-glamorous Hollywood star who is in fear of her life. Before
leaving, still panic-stricken, Constance leaves behind two listings:
the Tiseltown dead, and the soon to be dead, upon which her name
appears. The writer attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery,
accompanied by his sidekick Crumley. A strange but compelling
tale which seems to teeter on the boundary between fantasy and
reality.

The following titles are currently out of print, or are US only
publications; most are short story collections, containing many of
the aforementioned tales: R is For Rocket; S is For Space; A
Medicine For Melancholy; The Anthem Sprinters; Dinosaur Tales;
When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed; Where Robot
Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns; The Wonderful
Ice-Cream Suit; Kaleidoscope; One Timeless Spring;
Yestermorrow; Journey to Far Metaphor; Green Shadows, White
Whale (being Bradbury's reminiscences in Ireland on his film script
adaptation of John Huston's Moby Dick); Zen in the Art of Writing
(being a collection of articles on writing).

Note: This bibliography originally appeared in the periodical,
Librarians World, and has been updated here for his latest releases.

Ray Bradbury is well into his eighties and still going strong, with
further writing projects and at least three films in the pipeline, based
on his books. Screen adaptations have generally thus far failed to
capture the magic of his books. However, there are a couple of
notable exceptions: the old film version of Fahrenheit 451 is well
worth a look, as is the Ray Bradbury Theatre TV series (which in
some regions went out under the name Twist in the Tale). There
was also an excellent stateside radio series of his short stories,
published by Durkin Hayes in 1994 and released by Paperback
Audio on tape. These also contained snippets of interviews of the
man himself, who was reportedly extremely happy with the
productions.

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