It's funny you should say that, Phil, because your very own Short Story Finder includes numbers beyond the last one listed in The Life of Fiction. Perhaps that was just your own attempt to continue the sequence?

For an example, you need go no further than the very first story on your list, "About Face". You list it as 04.21, while the book goes only up to 2003.01 (overall story no 401).

I'm pretty sure prof. Eller does maintain the system, because fragments of it can be found among the documents that are available on the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies website.

I would never expect prof. Eller to make all his research freely available, but even a simple list of the further titles and corresponding numbers, unadorned with any other information, would be valuable and helpful in all sorts of ways that even I am not long-winded enough to set forth here.

You're right, douglasSP, the Eller numbering system is maintained in the list of holdings of the Center for RB studies:

http://www.iupui.edu/~crbs/catalog.html

If I have used numbering beyond what is found in THE LIFE OF FICTION, it will either be because I have taken information from the CRBS site, or because I have obtained it some other way from Prof E. (He kindly agreed to my using the numbering system several years ago, and we are in frequent contact.)

So what's the total number of published stories so far?

Extrapolating from the last number given in The Life of Fiction, I'd say it has to be be around 490 to 500.

It obviously depends on what you count as a story, which is why I'm interested.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
So what's the total number of published stories so far?

You'd have to work it out by looking at the highest-numbered story for each year of Ray's career and adding them all up. (The Eller numbering system uses two digits to indicate the year of first publication, followed by digits to indicate the publication order within that year. Example: 57-04 means the fourth story published in 1957.)

Eller & Touponce provide a cumulative serial number for every story listed in their Year-by-Year index, besides the Eller Number, described by Phil above.

Thus, "El Dia De Muerte" is story no 47-14, and the cumulative number is 100 - that is, Ray's 100th published story.

"The Garbage Collector", no 53-5, is cumulative no 200.

"The Execution", no 77-1, is cumulative no 300.

"Austin and Justin: The Twins of Time" (02-17) is no 400.

Only one further story is listed in the book ("Sixty-Six"), so you would have to list all the published stories after that, and then update the number.

I haven't bothered to do it myself, because prof. Eller and his elves are on the job and have the information; it's just a matter of publication. I reckon it would settle somewhere close to 500.

That's about what I figured. So when I read what I have here, I will have read at least 90% of the short stories and (I think) all but one of the novels.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...I will have read...all but one of the novels.

Which novel?

quote:

Originally posted by douglasSP:
Extrapolating from the last number given in The Life of Fiction, I'd say it has to be be around 490 to 500.

Extrapolating is a good word.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...I will have read...all but one of the novels.

Which novel?

Let's All Kill Constance.

Oh, and I don't know how to count Now and Forever and Somewhere a Band is Playing so I guess I'll have to get to them in chronological order. Also haven't read Match to Flame, A Pleasure to Burn (what is the difference between these two, if any?), and Summer Morning, Summer Night.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Let's All Kill Constance.

I read that one. It's dedicated to Zee, if I remember. I recall visiting one day a few years ago when she was there, and telling her that I forgot to bring my copy for her to sign! Dang it.

Thanks, I should keep that in mind.

According to SFWA criteria, a novel is a work of fiction of 40,000 words or more.

A novella is 17,500 to 39,999 words, a novelette is 7,500 to 17,499 words, and a short story has fewer than 7,500 words.

The last three categories can all be lumped under the umbrella term "short fiction", or "stories".

So RB's novellas would technically count as "stories" and should be counted. There aren't many of them. There are the two mentioned by dandy, and possibly "Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines".

I'm not sure about The Halloween Tree. You'd have to establish the word count. If that's under 40,000, then you can make a reasonable case for it as a story and not a novel.

Of course, practical considerations count as well. The Halloween Tree has always been a book on its own, so that tends to support it as a novel, especially if it is only marginally under 40,000 words.

Oh, I've just realized that Eller & Touponce didn't give Ahmed and The Halloween Tree story numbers. They're the best arbiters we've got, so that should settle it.

Switch on the Night is the only other short (originally) stand-alone I can name. (Some of the short stories previously published in collections have appeared as separate books.) Does Switch on the Night have a number?

Ahmed is around 8,000 words, so by your definition posted here it's a (children's) novelette. Switch on the Night is a story poem, not prose (and has been collected as such without illustrations- see LOF 1955). So neither of these narratives have received short story numbers in our (really Jon's) listings.

Bill Touponce