My advanced reading copy of Match to Flame; The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451 arrived today. This almost 500 page treasure, with the Donn Albright jacket collage, is another winner in the Gauntlet Press tradition. Finally being able to get a copy of The Fireman is worth the price of admission alone. Of course, you get the other goodies included in Match to Flame that make this a welcome addition to your Ray Bradbury collection. I missed out on the initial Gauntlet offerings of Something Wicked This Way Comes, The October Country, and the Illustrated Man. Glad I wasn't caught napping on this one. Let's discuss the cover collage when your copies start to arrive in the coming days.

I emailed Gauntlet, and Donn Albright explained what is pictured on the cover of Match to Flame. At this time I don't want to spoil it for those of you who will try to figure it for yourself. Non-Spoiler clue; the images on the spine are of two different gentlemen, not one.

Wow, what an extraordinary book! I've just started reading the first couple of stories. The contents list is quite a journey, leading to 'The Fireman' and F.451.
As for the dustjacket collage, what an inspired piece of cover art! I recognise Ray's smile inserted into the Mona Lisa, and E.A. Poe's face is clearly recognisable. I'll be interested to find out about some of the more subtle images in the collage that elude my amateur eyes.

Match to Flame does NOT contain the text of the actual novel F451, right?

oz-crumley,

Regarding the cover, I contacted Gauntlet a few weeks back, and Donn Albright provided the following;


"Hi. It's Nathaniel Hawthorne and Poe at other end of spine. EC is original cover torn apart of 2nd issue of Weird Science #13, 1950. (Real number 2,their flying saucer issue.) Cover illustrates The Smile and Ignorant Armies."
Donn

bsaenz24,

You are correct, Match to Flame does not contain the Fahrenheit 451 novel.

Here is a picture of Weird Science 13. Note that Ray Bradbury does not have a story in this issue.

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

419px-Weirdscience13.jpg (76 Kb, 12 downloads) Weird Science 13

........Talking about flying saucer covers on magazines:
~ This is no Joke: ~

I leave last night to have coffee with a friend of mine who is bent out of shape because he is getting into a nervous wreck getting himself ready to travel to Rwanda, Africa this upcoming weekend. He is working on 4 (count them four)...4 books, and he's dropping everything and leaving for 2 weeks. So I get in the car (about 10:30PM, Monday night) tell my wife I'll be back in a couple hours, and start heading towards the city of Santa Ana, California. Well, I put on the radio. And the radio program I put on is station AM 640, usually a talk/radio/news/station. But tonight...(can you believe this???)... it''s about flying saucers and abduction!

Okay! So I start listening...and within two minutes (count them TWO MINUTES) I am going down Irvine Center Drive towards the 5 freeway and look up in the sky while this radio program is on, talking about people's confrontation with flying saucer people, and (I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT JOKING) what do I see in the air? A flying saucer!!

I could NOT believe what I was looking at!!:

Little lights, in a circle, like a pearl necklace, way way way up in the sky, moving this way, then that, and hovering in the dark dark sky. Again, I couldn't believe it. But the worst part is... I didn't take my camera. When I left the house a few minutes before, I said, "Heck, I'll leave the camera home!" And here I am looking at this """actual flying saucer"""
...and NO CAMERA!! So I call me wife and cry out my perdicament. Here I am, listening to an extra-terrestrial discussion on a radio program, looking up at a flying saucer, and no camera, and no phone contact but a lousy answering gadget!

Re-thinking all this...is too exasperating!

I have to continue this tomorrow....

( think "I figured this all out"...by discussing this with someone more dynamically more level-headed and intelligent then myself...earlier this afternoon!)


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This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nard Kordell,

I'd say you're very susceptible to the power of suggestion, you're very susceptible to the power of suggestion, you're very susceptible to the power of suggestion, you're very susceptible to the power of suggestion...

... or it was just another one of those pesky wayward weather balloons.

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quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
...and what do I see in the air? a flying saucer!!

Wow - this is big!

What, no camera built into the cellular phone?

Nard was abducted. They've eaten his brains, checked him for pollups, and implanted RC and GPS units in his teeth... we'll never see the OLD Nard again.

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...not so fast, grasstains!

If there seems to be one time I shall have to fight enduring regret of not bringing along a video camera, this might be one of them.

However...
... after discussing this strange event with someone more astute than I, we have come to the conclusion that this was a "KITE" along with a perfectly round string of small white lights. That would be the reason why there was no noise. Also why it would hover...then zip to the side, etc. It's hard to imagine just how real looking this was...the somewhat misty ocean marine layer making it look a bit blurry and extra-terrestrial..., and what makes it all the more crazy is the flying saucer radio program I happened to be listening to at the time.

The only thing is...there was absolutely no wind that evening.

This would have undoubtedly made a great YOUTUBE video!

Hey Nard, I think you are now really ready for that Irish coffee. UFOs would not be in or around Irvine, they couldn't find any people that would marry their 1st cousins and talk real slow, and out in the fields working the crops, wait a minute, there ain't any crops these days, just mega buck houses, and the former farm hands are buying them up. I don't buy it, just clean your glasses, I see lights all the time, and then I hear voices, and its usually the damn cell phone. If they contact you again, tell them you know Ray real well, that may do the trick!

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

Ok Nard,

Now I know what the UFO must have been - they are building a tethered Helium ballon ride at the old El Toro Marine Base that is to become the Great Park in the next few years. This thing will be operating on a winch and there will be an observation platform that will hold several people and it will go up a ways into the air so that the folks can see how the construction of the Great Park is progressing. It will be free until January, so hurry. After that there will be a charge to ride it. Sort of like the hot air ballon in the Wizard of Oz that Professor Marvel would ride at the county fair, until the cable broke and he wound up in OZ and be came the Wizard. See the LA Times today friday the 13th edition. Keep an eye out for witches though!

That... is not Nard.

Received my copy yesterday. I love the wood slipcase, such a nice touch! The Chapbook was not included in the box (the same thing happened when I had received the Halloween Tree) but Gauntlet was very nice and sent on out the next day.

I own a copy of Galaxy with The Fireman... but the facsimilies and copy of Bonfire are both a welcome addition to my collection. I continue to be impressed with Gauntlet and will continue to order these very special Bradbury editions.

I just wish Gauntlet's books weren't so expensive. However, the US-UK exchange rate is highly favorable (to me!) right now.