Hello...

Regarding "The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition, volume 2" The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies site mentions the following:

"Volume two, which includes twenty-five stories Bradbury wrote during 1943 and 1944, is well underway."

Is there a list somewhere? Perhaps a teaser with the 25 story titles??

I'm an editorial consultant on the volume, so I have seen the list of contents. I'll see if I can get permission to share it.

That would be awesome Phil... thank you for asking!

I am hoping to see "Killer, come Back to Me" on the list.

Amazon shows Sept 2014 as a release date and is taking pre-orders. I know it's way off, but I had to pre-order!!!

Of course, they have a typo for "Critical". LOL!!

Amazon vol 2

"...and it contains eight stories that Bradbury never placed in his own story collections..."

OK, we are getting closer!

quote:

Originally posted by djmonolith:
"...and it contains eight stories that Bradbury never placed in his own story collections..."

OK, we are getting closer!

I now have permission to reveal the contents of vol. 2 - but I will need to keep you in suspense for one more day, as I am away from my normal computer at present!

Well... that is great news and I we can wait another day!

I just realised that I posted this in another thread, but it would be more appropriate here... so here it is again:

http://bradburymedia.blogspot....-stories-of-ray.html

What wonderful news!

The Table of Contents is not one iota less interesting than that of Volume 1 - the reverse, in fact, because some of Ray's best stories are beginning to show up (as well as some personal favorites).

Random observations: It's pleasing to see "Referent" and "Perchance to Dream" get another long overdue airing - they have hitherto been available only in The Day It Rained Forever, a UK-only book, so the stories will be new to many readers.

I've also always been curious about "Doodad", and here it is at last! It's one of Ray's very few (three, I think) contributions to Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction - and as far as I've been able to tell, it isn't a "Probability Zero" entry, so it seems to be Ray's only "regular" story for Astounding!

I'm also pleased to see that "Where Everything Ends" is in, because you previously had to buy a huge omnibus just for that one story.

It's also an interesting reminder that Ray had many ideas for continuing series of stories, which he abandoned when he found more exciting ideas (the Douser and Ducker stories).

There seem to be nine stories I haven't read in any form, but I'm looking forward to devouring them all - and Eller's fascinating editorial content as well!

Three cheers for our very own Phil!

Ah, good point about THE DAY IT RAINED FOREVER.

I have one blind spot when it comes to Bradbury's books, and that is the American A MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY. Traditionally, we didn't have such a book in the UK; instead we had THE DAY IT RAINED FOREVER, a volume which draws on MELANCHOLY but which is not identical to it. It had not occurred to me that "Referent" and "Perchance to Dream" would be less familiar to US readers.

"Doodad" is indeed a proper short story, of about 4000 words (guesstimate). It's interesting to see that "Doodad" was not Bradbury's title, but was presumably John W. Campbell's idea. The word "Doodad" does, however, appear in the story, so it is part of Bradbury's lexicon.

quote:

Originally posted by douglasSP:
What wonderful news!

Agreed! And thank you for your comments. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the stories from The Day It Rained Forever! Both are solid stories that have eluded US publications.

"Doodad" was the first "uncollected" story I read and was the story that started my interest in finding these lost treasures. I have probably read this story a dozen times over the years.

"Where Everything Ends" - another happy inclusion! Bradbury's longer mystery and detective fiction has never appealed to me. I have read these novels but never felt the need to return to them. Buying a "huge omnibus" for one story was never an attractive option. Conversely, many of the detective short stories collected in the long out-of-print book A Memory of Murder need to see the light of day again. One story, "Killer, Come Back to Me!" or "The Autopsy" (originally published in Detective Tales, July 1944) is included in this collection!

A point of interest regarding the Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury vol. 1:

Ray wrote a number of stories from 1938 - 1942 that did not make the cut on the first book:

• The Death of Mr. McCarthy (Blue and White Daily - April 21, 1938)
  
• Gold (Science Fiction Fan - August, 1939)
  
• How to Run a Successful Ghost Agency (D'Journal - March 1939 under the pseudonym Brian Eldred)
  
• The Last Man (The Damn Thing, November, 1940)
  
• Mummy Dust (D'Journal - May 1939 under the pseudonym Cecil Clayborne Cunningham)
  
• The Tale of the Terrible Typer (Fantasite - November, 1940)
  
• Tale of the Tortletwitch (Spaceways - April 1940 under the pseudonym Guy Amory)
  
• Wilber and His Germ (Script - May 24, 1941)
  

Perhaps the original manuscripts or original publications are lost... but I have always wondered why these stories were not included in the first Collected Stories...

Do you have any insight Phil? Thank you!

I remember reading somewhere that "The Death of Mr. McCarthy" is lost.

I don't know about the others, but the second volume is just beginning to move into really interesting territory, and I'm already looking forward to the third!

If the series goes no further, I'll be disappointed - but the young man who once trawled every second hand bookstore in his hometown, before the internet, before anything - just to uncover the occasional scrap of unknown Bradbury, would have wept if you'd told him there would one day be books like this.

quote:

Originally posted by djmonolith:
...Do you have any insight Phil? Thank you!

The only insight I have is what I glean from the editorial notes in volume 1, which is that:

(a) the volume consists of professionally published stories (rather than unpaid appearances in amateur publication)...

...except for:

(b) a selection of amateur publications included in Appendix A....

...which, we are told, were SELECTED for their SIGNIFICANCE.

Perhaps there was a limit to the allowed page count; perhaps some of the stories have been lost; perhaps the stories which were left out were of poor quality.

Thank you for your reply Phil... it makes sense.

Having read a number of these early short stories it might have been a wise decision to exclude them (as much as I would love to have a complete "complete" collection.