Thought it might be interesting to start a thread about variant versions of Ray Bradbury stories. THE EMISSARY, for example, originally appeared in DARK CARNIVAL, which I don't have. It was reprinted in THE OCTOBER COUNTRY and THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY. In both of those versions, the dog is simply named 'Dog'. But I have a copy of Herbert van Thal's THE FOURTH PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES, which includes a version of THE EMISSARY wherein the dog is named 'Torry'.

I haven't seen the variant versions of "Emissary", but most of the stories from Dark Carnival were revised for re-publication (many of them in The October Country). We can probably assume that the revised versions are Bradbury's preferred texts.

Sometimes the unrevised texts have managed to stay in print against Bradbury's wishes. I understand that even the Collier's version of A Sound of Thunder (where the magazine editors removed Bradbury's ending!) has occasionally appeared in anthologies over the years.

Bradbury's revisions are covered in some detail in Eller & Touponce's The Life of Fiction. They make it quite clear that Bradbury is a habitual reviser of his own work - perhaps the reason that he will return to some stories again and again in different media (plays, poems, screenplays etc).

Phil
www.bradburymedia.co.uk

Illustratedman > Aaah, THE PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES series . . . They sure don't make them like that anymore. I only ever found 'issues' 2, 3, 5, 13, 14 and 17. Are these books relatively easy to find in England?

They never seem to turn up anymore. I've had this one since I was a kid. I used to have several others, but must have junked them years ago - I guess I held onto this one for the variant version of THE EMISSARY.

I have read that same version of THE EMISSARY and a also an alternite version of FEVER DREAM (great story) wherein the boy kills some ants at the end, instead of stroking the canary. There are other little differances too, which slightly change the feel of the story. I must say that so far I have prefered the commoner revisions but It is good to have the others lurking about somewhere.
'People'. try to keep this thread going because its a good one.

[This message has been edited by Paul White (edited 11-02-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Paul White (edited 11-02-2004).]

The one with the ants is the only one I remember.

Sorry, I was comparing the two versions of FEVER DREAM that I own last night and the one in THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY contains both the scene with the ants and a reference to the boy stroking a canary and Waiting for a reaction. The other version has a slightly different scene with the ants and no canary; it justs finishes with the child telling his parents that he loves them, which kills of a little of the tension. I thought the one I first read did not have the ants and I thought that it read a little better but I may be Wrong.

Yeah a lot of Bradbury's stories seemed to have been slightly revised between publishings--ok, maybe not a lot, I'm not too sure haven't finished reading but it is interesting:
Ray Brabury: The Life of Fiction By J. Eller and W. Touponce

It's a textual and creative analysis of Bradbury's writings it goes through some of the major books and all. I'm working of stuff for F451 right now, being a Graduate school Geek, and am finding some interesting changes that are still out there dispite the resetting in 1978.

One of which is the variant of "caves" and "cafes". In the reset Ballantine Clarrisse talks about people hanging out in caves and listening to joke boxes and seeing TV screens. This lends creedence and impact to the NUMEROUS allusions Bradbury makes to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" however, in the Simon and Schuster printings (and the censored Ballantine printings) the term is changed to "cafes" putting teens in the center of society and destroying the allusion. It's an interesting thing to consider.

"caves"-"cafes", "joke boxes"-"juke boxes"
My guess is tht these are merely typographical errors. I find them all the time. (see previous post re the Cat's PJs)

Interesting variations. And some cafes can certainly resemble caves and might appeal only to a particular group of people.