You heard it here first:

BRADBURY UNBOUND, Prof Jon Eller's follow-up volume to the well received BECOMING RAY BRADBURY, is now complete and is with the publishers, University of Illinois Press.

I've had the honour and privilege of reviewing and commenting on the manuscript as Jon has developed it over the last couple of years, and I am pleased to report that it's every bit as thorough, fascinating and riveting as the first volume.

It takes time for a book to go through the editorial process, typesetting, correction of proofs etc, so it will be a while before the book is available to buy, but I'll post updates on its progress whenever I can.

Looking forward to it! So much so, that I may re-read the first one in the meantime.

What part of Ray's life does it cover? Mid-fifties to when?

It essentially covers the rest of the 1950s (picking up where BECOMING RAY BRADBURY left off) and the whole of the 1960s.

(The amazing thing is that these two volumes still only cover about half of Ray's professional career! What a full and rich life that man had!)

Looking forward to this too. And the future volume, which I guess will cover his poetry writing.

Phil said:

quote:

The amazing thing is that these two volumes still only cover about half of Ray's professional career! What a full and rich life that man had!

I read somewhere, probably in Sam Weller's book, that Ray very much enjoyed being Ray Bradbury in his later years. That's why I thought one of the later volumes would be Being Ray Bradbury!

Maybe a future book on Ray could have that title.

Any idea if there will be a third volume?

I understand that Jon hopes there will be a third volume, but it is likely to be several years down the road. He's a very busy man, you know!

I wonder if the title Being Ray Bradbury would be appropriate. Ray said more than once that certain people got stuck on thinking they were so-and-so, while he never thought he was Ray Bradbury, just did his work.

Didn't he say that he sometimes woke up, pinched himself and realized that he was Ray Bradbury, and fell around laughing and marveling at this discovery?

What dandy says reminds me of what George Harrison used to say when people couldn't think of him as anything other than one of the Beatles. He said the Beatles were like a shirt he used to wear - he and the shirt are not the same thing, no matter how you remember it.

Here's an interesting post on the Locus Magazine website, with Jonathan Eller discussing his forthcoming RAY BRADBURY UNBOUND (as well as the cuts made due to length from his prior book, BECOMING RAY BRADBURY. Hopefully, those excised pages from the first book will see the light of day in the future in some other format.)

http://www.locusmag.com/Roundt...ay-bradbury-unbound/

Read that LOCUS post too and pre-ordered a copy over the weekend.
Originally posted by Richard:

quote:

Hopefully, those excised pages from the first book will see the light of day in the future in some other format.

In future volumes of THE NEW RAY BRADBURY REVIEW? I hope so too.

quote:

Originally posted by Linnl:
...In future volumes of THE NEW RAY BRADBURY REVIEW? I hope so too.

Entirely possible, although that will be some time away.

The next issue (already at the publishers) is again devoted to various Bradbury fragments, a sequel of sorts to the previous issue. Not sure when this is due out, but I would guess early 2015.

The subsequent issue, due out in 2016, is a special "Truffaut's FAHRENHEIT 451" issue, to tie in with the 50th anniversary of that film. I'm the editor of that issue!

Ray Bradbury Unbound arrived this week, between two jobs(and what not), a fantastic read.

Originally posted by philnic

quote:

The next issue (already at the publishers) is again devoted to various Bradbury fragments, a sequel of sorts to the previous issue. Not sure when this is due out, but I would guess early 2015.

The subsequent issue, due out in 2016, is a special "Truffaut's FAHRENHEIT 451" issue, to tie in with the 50th anniversary of that film. I'm the editor of that issue!

2015 is a little over three months away. Looking forward to both issues. Congratulations on your editorship of the special issue!

Is there any word on a 50th anniversary DVD release of the film?

I've not heard anything about any anniversary release. The existing DVD is pretty darn good, in my view: lost of extras.

There is a BluRay edition, released for the German market (but with English audio tracks available), but it looks (to me) like an HD transfer of exactly the same print as the earlier DVD release. If anyone were to do a special release, I hope that they would locate a better print, or do some restoration work on it.