I thought it would be interesting to have a topic devoted to books or magazines that relate in some way to Ray Bradbury that are more obscure, for collectors that may wish to seek them out. The link below will take you to the cover of a small booklet published by Xerox and intended for use by teachers, THE WAY IT IS: WAITING FOR THE MAN. It contains Ray's fine story "The Other Foot" (featured on the cover). Other stories include "Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry and one of my all-time favorites, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell:
Continuing with more obscure Ray Bradbury items, the link below will take you to a photo of the cover of BRADBURY: THE WRITER'S DIGEST INTERVIEW, a re-print of an interview with Ray printed in the February, 1976 issue of Writer's Digest magazine and conducted by Bob Jacobs, Ray's close personal friend and the man who in 2020 published a fine memoir of his relationship with Ray: RAY AND ME: MY FIFTY YEAR LOVE AFFAIR WITH RAY BRADBURY. (If Mr. Jacob's name sounds familiar, he also released the record album DARK CARNIVAL, a musical tribute to Ray on Tower Records.) I love the cover of the interview re-print, with Ray "blasting away" with his toy ray guns!
The link below will take you to the cover of THE DRAGON, Ray's wonderful story about knights off to slay the creature, which turns out to be...well, I won't spoil it for anyone who may not have read the story! The story originally appeared in the August, 1955 issue of Esquire Magazine, and was later collected in A MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY (1959) and R IS FOR ROCKET (1962). This small book was published in 1988 by Footsteps Press, in an edition of 300 numbered and 26 lettered copies, all signed by Ray:
On April 9, 1980, Ray Bradbury was the guest speaker at an employee function for WED Enterprises, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Productions. During his address, he read the poem "Doing Is Being," which he had written specifically for the event. A few months later, WED Enterprises had Ray's wonderful poem reproduced on a sheet of mylar, and distributed it to employees. While it is uncertain how many copies of the poem were produced in this manner, it is unlikely to have been that many, given its scarcity:
Subsequent to Anthony Boucher's review of DARK CARNIVAL in 1949, Ray Bradbury began submitting stories to the magazine edited by Mr. Boucher and J. Francis McComas, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. There is a fine, out-of-print paperback (published in 1982) of some of the best stories published in that magazine during the period from 1949 to 1954. It is called THE EUREKA YEARS, and was edited by Annette Peltz McComas. It includes stories by not only Ray, but such luminaries as Richard Matheson, Alfred Bester, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick. What makes the book especially interesting is the inclusion of correspondence from the editors and the authors about their submitted stories. For example, in response to a rave letter from the editors about his story "Born of Man and Woman", Richard Matheson wrote: "I hope it won't shock you to learn it is the first story I ever sold in my life....I'm 23. I graduated from the University of Missouri Journalism School in June. Since then I have spent my days writing, working at night for sustenance."
The story by Ray in this collection is "The Exiles". The editors liked the story, but felt some of the characters didn't ring true, especially Ray's depiction of Ambrose Bierce and Nathaniel Hawthorne, which resulted in a series of back and forth letters in 1949. At one point, Ray wrote: "Sorry about THE EXILES. You're right about Bierce and Hawthorne. Put it down to the fact that I've never been a research man in my life, preferring to manufacture my fantasies out of whole cloth...." The changes Ray made to the story obviously satisfied the editors, as the story was eventually published by the magazine.
THE EUREKA YEARS is an excellent book. A link to the cover can be accessed by clicking on the link below:
SUN AND SHADOW is a small book published by The Quenian Press in 1957. It was printed by Kenneth J. Carpenter for fellow members of the Roxburghe Club and other friends. (The Roxburghe Club was located in San Francisco, and its purpose was to further the love of fine printing and books in general.) The printing was limited to just 90 copies, and is considered one of the scarcest publications authorized by Ray Bradbury. (Ray's wonderful short story was first published in the March 17, 1953 issue of REPORTER, and was collected in THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN.) To view the cover of the book, click on the link below:
1984 WILL NOT ARRIVE: A PREDICTION FOR THE GREENING OF SCRIPPS is an eight page booklet which reproduces the text of a lecture that Ray Bradbury gave at Scripps College in Claremont, California. It was published in 1975 by Grant Dahlstrom at The Castle Press. It is a beautifully printed little book. I am not sure how many copies were printed but, given this item's scarcity, there couldn't have been many. The cover can be seen by clicking on the link below:
THE UMBRAL ANTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE FICTION POETRY is a collection edited by writer Steve Rasnic Tem, and published by Tem's Umbral Press in 1982. Ray Bradbury is represented by his poem "The Beast Upon the Wire", and the collection include poems by other fine writers such as Thomas Disch, Brian Aldiss, Margaret Atwood, Michael Bishop, Marilyn Hacker, and Tem himself. I haven't seen many copies over the years. The cover of the book can be viewed by clicking on the link below:
For Spanish-speaking Ray Bradbury readers, the link below will take you to the cover of LA GUADANA (in English, THE SCYTHE). This small book, containing Ray's classic short story, was privately published in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1972 by Cesar and Valeria Palui and distributed to friends as a Christmas gift in 1972. It also contains an embossing and an etching by artist Gabriela Aberastury. The edition size was only 43 copies. (Personally, I can think of more cheerful Bradbury stories to read on Christmas!)
THE VINTAGE BRADBURY, a collection of some of Ray's best stories, was published in 1965 and remains in print to this day. While the book was originally released as a mass market paperback, a very small number of copies were bound in red buckram cloth by the publisher, and were intended for sale to libraries. However, a handful of those cloth bound copies found their way into private hands, and the hardbound edition is a scarce and highly sought after book. To view a photo of the hardcover first edition of THE VINTAGE BRADBURY, just click on the link below:
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