So, any news about The Collected Stories? It`s October already and I`m wondering, when will it come out or if it`s possible to pre-order it?

No news on the publisher's website (Kent State University Press), or on the Center for Bradbury Studies web page. And it's not listed on amazon yet, so it doesn't look as if the book is imminent.

But be patient - prof. Touponce has been kind enough to come to this board with any news, and I'm sure he'll let us know when the book is ready. So we're all watching this space!

To All:

The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury Volume 1 is now with the Kent State University Press; as a 500 page scholarly volume it will present Bradbury's early years in an entirely new way, with 13 previously uncollected stories, all in the order in which he wrote them. As we go to press we are very pleased to have the seal of approval from the Modern Language Association's committee on scholarly editions. The press is finishing up the design of the book and getting early reviews for the dust jacket. All who worked on the volume - including five editors at the Institute and several more at KSUP, are looking forward to it. University presses are typically not commercial publishers with a large budget for advance advertising, but by contract it has to be published this year, so we should have news about ordering fairly soon.

Thanks for your interest.

Best,

Prof. Touponce

There wouldn't happen to be a list of the stories in this first volume (including the previously uncollected stories) would there??

All the stories are listed in my earlier post to this thread (Sep 09).

Prof. Touponce

Ah yes, scroll up! Thank you. How thrilling!

A Blade of Grass (1942) 3,000 words
A Blade of Grass (1943) 3,000 words

Are these different stories? (I maintain Ray Bradbury's bibliography for the Russian site FantLab, and I try to keep it as accurate as possible.)

I can't answer Mikhail's question with certainty, but "A Blade of Grass" is listed only once in The Life of Fiction .

And I see that Barnes & Noble have a page for the book!

http://hpsearch.barnesandnoble...ooks/e/9781606350713

I would expect that the two listings of A Blade of Grass refer to the same story, but possibly to different manuscript versions.

One of the fascinating things that I expect to emerge from this new scholarly edition is a much clearer picture of the timescale of Bradbury's composition-submission-publication cycle than we have ever had. (To many of us, the stories existed only from their first book appearance. To some of us, the first magazine appearance will be known. But very few of us know how long Bradbury or his agent had a given story in circulation before it was bought for magazine publication, and very few of us know how long Bradbury wrestled with a story before even sending it out.) THE LIFE OF FICTION goes a long way to addressing this, particularly for the stories that ended up as parts of novels, but this new edition should illuminate all the short stories.

That belongs in the updates from Prof Eller thread!

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
That belongs in the updates from Prof Eller thread!

Well!

Don't look!

I got my professors mixed up! One can't swing a dead cat without hitting a professor around here!

(FINALLY) ordered my copy... should have it in my hands early next week! Surprisingly, I have all but 5 of these "uncollected" stories.

Has anyone read some of these early gems? Any thoughts?

They should be called "uncollected (except by djmonolith)"!

The critical edition sensibly separates out the amateur efforts (mostly written for fanzines) from the professional ones. The amateur pieces are, I think, for Bradbury specialists; they have little significance except in relationship to Bradbury's other works. The early pro stuff includes some great work. "The Small Assassin" is amongst this bunch, and is a remarkably mature piece of writing for so early in his career.