I've nearly finished this amazing book (about halfway through 'The Fireman'). I had no idea that a pre-'Fireman' version of F.451 existed! ('Long after Midnight'). These two stories ('Midnight' and 'Fireman' are fascinating, bare-bones versions of the familiar novel; it's extraordinary to see how the premise and the novel itself evolved. The 'Ignorant Armies' project, meticulously reproduced in the book, is also fascinating.

Is anybody else reading MATCH TO FLAME? (there's been surprisingly little discussion of it here, though I understand the high cost is a barrier. I had to save my pennies from my measly teacher's salary!).

I'm reading it right now. As I mentioned earlier, the dollar/pound exchange rate makes it quite an economic proposition for Brits! Makes us for all the over-inflacted prices I've had to pay in the past.

I haven't read much of Bradbury's material in the book yet - I've just gone through the two introductory essays.

I always like seeing Bradbury's manuscripts - so many tiny adjustments made, just to get the right flow of words or to fine-tune the meaning. I know all writers do this, but it's good to see how Bradbury does it. I also like the weird cartoon characters throughout the book.

oz-crumley, did you get the chap book as well? There's more of the behind-the-scenes stuff in there.

Phil,

I am always amazed at how Ray can have words that just flow. One time I counted the words in a single sentence and I think that there were fifty-one words and yet it all made such sense and flowed so well. Who else can do that?

Ray had quite a bit of influence on Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and it is evident in his writings as well.

Richard was a neighbor of mine many years ago and it was through Richard that I got to meet Ray, and I had the privilege of reading sheets direct from Richard's typewriter and the go ahead to cross out any superfulous words that I came across. Now how many people get an opportunity to do that? And then I was mentioned in the book (Nothing By Chance) which was neat as well.

But speak about a person being a wordsmith, Ray is definitely one of those that can be.

quote:

oz-crumley, did you get the chap book as well? There's more of the behind-the-scenes stuff in there.

Yes, I did get the chapbook - some very interesting variations on 'Fox and the Forest'.