In the Dandelion Wine story that refers to the lonely one, there is a character called Frank Dillion, while in Summer Morning Summer Night story "At midnight in the month of June", there is a character called Tom Dillion...

In the Greentown world, are they the same person, or brothers? I realise there is no definative answer, but its just a thought for the day///

I found a continuity issue of my own, actually. The Lonely One is famously dispatched with sewing scissors in "Dandelion," but it appear that he gets away in "Summer Morning, Summer Night" and goes to have a cup of milk at a diner after the encounter with Lavinia.

As for the question about Tom and Frank being brothers -- wouldn't be surprised.

Ah, the perils of being a short story writer who revises his work into a novel...

It seems that originally (in 1950) Bradbury published the short story in which the Lonely One murders Lavinia. Then, in 1954, at the prompting of the editor of Ellery Queen magazine, he wrote the sequel short story in which the Lonely One reflects on his night of murder.

Later, Bradbury was selecting from his Green Town stories to revise into the novel Dandelion Wine. At this point, he decided to let Lavinia Nebbs survive (by killing the Lonely One with scissors) and consequently was unable to use the sequel.

So now, in the 2010, what we have in DW is a revised text, and what we have in Summer Morning, Summer Night is an unrevised text. Hence, inconsistencies! I assume the name change (Frank to Tom) was part of the revision.

It would be interesting to look at the other places where these Bradbury stories have appeared, and see which version of the text has been used. If I have time, I'll have a look.

The full story of the revisions, by the way, is in Eller & Touponce's Ray Bradbury: the Life of Fiction, pages 222 and 235. You can view the pages on Google Books, here.

Phil --

Thanks very much for the answer. I read the three Spaulding-centric Green Town books in a span of about three days starting with "Dandelion Wine" and concluding with the short story collection, so it was particularly fresh in my mind. I do love how Green Town has its own continuity -- it gives the place more of a life of its own.

In the "Ray Bradbury: Stories" volume (2003, Wm. Morrow), the version of "The Whole Town's Sleeping" is virtually identical to the one that appeared in "Dandelion Wine," ending with the Lonely One clearing his throat.

Many thanks for clearing that up!

Ben

Thanks for the answer Phil.

And for those who havent read "Summer Morning, Summer Night", I highly recommend it, more than Farewell Summer. And although the hardback was limited to 2000 copies, the paperback is availible to order on Amazon.