Farewell Summer proves to provide the poetic timbre we all crave in Ray Bradbury's writings.

It is October and the boys are a couple of years older. Doug and his brother Tom, along with Charlie, Bo and their other friends are launching an all-out battle with the aged members of the Board of Education manned by Calvin Quartermain, Mr. Bleak and poor Mr. Braling.

With firecrackers in hand, the boys are deep in mischief only with Doug and Tom's grandfather to keep them in check.

Not to detract from others reading it, I am not going to comment any further.

This is, in my opinion, an enjoyable read and I think that anyone who has enjoyed Dandelion Wine will enjoy this book as well.

It would be interesting, though, to be able to detect which portion was written fifty years ago and what portion was written most recently, or exactly what polishing Ray did to the manuscript.

I just called Ray to tell him that I had just finished reading Farewell Summer and he wanted to know if I had enjoyed it. My reply was a definate yes and he seemed to be very happy about that.

In addition to my comments about the book I mentioned how I enjoyed Nard and Doug Spaulding's posting of photos of both Ray and Forest Ackerman.

As I mentioned before I do not wish to say a lot about the book, but found it quite interesting in regard to something which happens to both Cal Quartermain and Douglas Spaulding as they, respectively, lie in bed.
It will interesting to hear other's comments on this particular situation.

Biplane, you tease, you! I've forgotten - how long do we have to wait now 'til we can respond to your question here?

Nice to see that Mr. B has included "Braling" in another of his stories!! He must have sneaked out of the cellar (or this cyboard).

The only clue I could find on that name was from a Soldier 2nd Class in the Pennsylvania army - from "The Tenmile Country and Its Pioneer Families" written by Howard L. Leckey, page 38, Pennsylvania Militia Year: 1782 - First Battalion, Washington County. Recruited in Whiteley and Greene Townships (now Greene County). A few from Dunkard. (Below in CAPS)
-----------------
Captain. Samuel Holliday
Lieutenant. Marshall Stanley
Ensign. Aaron Hamilton
First Class: Nathaniel Brown, John Burge, Wm Junkins, Arthur Naugin, Alex Stuard, James White, John Alfred, Nathaniel Standly
Second Class: John Beaty, Jacob Burge, Archey Stuart, JAMES BRALING
Third Class: William Armstrong, Gordon Howard, James Johnson, Wm Casper,
John Carlisle, Alex McDaniel
Fourth Class: John Turner, David Walker,
CARY MCCLELEHAN, John Junchan,
John Marsdon, Mathew Elder
Fifth Class: James Gallaway, James Broten, James Stuard, George McCartney, Thomas Neaigin
Sixth Class: John Conning, Rich'd Gunsalus, John Alling
Seventh Class: John Rankins, George Gilbreath, George Hanwalk, Robert Forgey
Eight Class: Peter Alling, John Brown, Samuel Greer, Daniel Gunsalis, Angus McDonald, Wm Mitchell
------------------
Someone recently asked about "McClellan" within the other topics (Soft Rains & 451). It is not unusual to discover that he has returned to a character name and simply given him/her another role within the new setting. (Curious, a somewhat similar "McC" shows up amidst the individuals recorded above.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

I just ordered my copy from Amazon.com and I believe the release date is October 1st.

This evening I read the next to the last chapter to my wife and she thought that it was interesting as well. Again, I can't wait until I hear from others as to their thoughts.

Hello, I am new to this board but not so new to Farewell Summer. I work at William Morrow, and can confirm that FAREWELL SUMMER goes on sale October 17th. I also want to post that if you would all like a sneak peek of the first five chapters of FARWELL SUMMER, come sign up for Ray's mailing list at www.harpercollins.com (search "ray bradbury"). We're releasing a secret link later today to all subscribers.

I just signed up today, September 30. Can I still get a sneak peak at the first five chapters?

Yes; we are going to send out the link again this week. Thanks for signing up!

quote:

Originally posted by TK:
Yes; we are going to send out the link again this week. Thanks for signing up!

TK, the link won't open - either at home on my macintosh or at work on my windows-based unit. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hi Doug,
thanks for letting me know. It worked when I tested it, but I'll re-do the email alert and send it out again with both links - to the first chapter on our site, plus to the whole first 5 chapters.
Apologies to anyone else who may have been frustrated by bum links.

After further investigation, the Dandelion Wine link on our site is down, too. As soon as we get these up and running again at harpercollins.com, I'll let everyone know, and send out the links again. Good catch, Doug.

TK, after having had the opportunity to obtain an advance copy of Farewll Summer , I must say that the first five chapters should whet the appetite of any Ray Bradbury aficionado.

The book read too fast, if you know what I mean, and as I mentioned to Ray the other day, I wanted it to go on and on.

I am sure that this is going to sell well.

Well that is great to hear, thank you - it's what booksellers have been telling us, as well.

I re-sent the email to the subscriber's on Ray's AuthorTracker list (you can sign-up at harpercollins.com), and tested all the links. Should be good to go.

The five-chapter link still doesn't work for me. I'm using a Mac and my browser is Safari, if that's relevant. I also notice that, at least on my Mac with Safari, a line of the letters ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ appears before the link.

The URL that doesn't work for me:
http://hcussc601:8002/features/pdf/raybradbury/FarewellSummer1-5.pdf

Hi everybody, I just wanted to give you all a head's up that we will be posting a special message about RAY BRADBURY and FAREWELL SUMMER on Tuesday, October 17th (the day the book goes on sale). You can find this post at www.outofthiseos.com - this is a blog dedicated to scinece-fiction & fantasy to which many of our authors and editors contribute on a daily basis. Stop by and check it out!