I found this book on eBay (Timeless Stories For Today and Tomorrow): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3535267230&category=273&rd=1

and I was wondering what the story (no pun intended) was for this book. Is this the only anthology Ray has edited, and if so, why did he compile this particular collection? Anything special I should know about this assemblage?

Also, I noticed the book is currently out-of-print. Any reason why?

Chrisman43, Ray edited two short story anthologies, both in the 1950's. He edited the one you cite, as well as THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO AND OTHER IMPROBABLE STORIES. As to why he decided to act as editor for these two collections and why the books are out-of-print, I could only speculate. As to why he chose the stories that appear in these collections, I feel confident, knowing Ray's love of writing and writers, that he did so because they were stories and writers he admired. Perhaps someone else has discussed these anthologies with Ray and is more knowledgeable on the subject.

Now this is interesting! I had no idea that Ray had ever edited any story collections. I did a little quick research--Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow was published in 1952, paperback only, and has been reprinted numerous times throughout the 1960's and 1970's. (Don't know if the cover art changed from decade to decade or not.) It's still fairly easy to find out there--check out http://www.abe.com/ . The Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories is a paperback from 1956, and not quite as readily available, compared to the other volume.

I'm curious now--I've ordered a copy of Timeless Stories already! That's one of the things I like about this board; I've learned about all sorts of Bradbury-related items that I had never heard of before.

I don't suppose there's any particular reason why these are out of print. The vast majority of books ever published are now out of print; with so many new titles coming out every year it would be impossible to keep all titles in stock. Finding these older books has become so much easier since the internet came along, that's certain. It used to be extremely difficult to track down antique or collectible volumes--and now with just a few moments at the keyboard you can find almost anything. I usually use the Advanced Book Exchange site, but http://www.bookfinder.com/ is good also.

[This message has been edited by octobercountry (edited 07-09-2003).]

Bradbury�s introduction to the 1967 Bantam printing of �Timeless Stories For Today and Tomorrow� contains the reasons why he put this collection together. Since it�s out of print, and has gotten old, I�m taking the liberty of placing excerpts here. If that is illegal, please feel free to delete it. This is a very good introduction where Bradbury explains exactly what the intent of this anthology was. I think it is one of his most successful efforts at a literary theory.

�This anthology was collected for three reasons: To locate stories by authors who rarely write fantasy; to find stories heretofore not used in other fantasy anthologies; and, most important of all, to publish stories of quality.�

�I have always believed that Life itself is more than fantastic. Therefore, most of these stories simply illustrate how fantastic life is. Life, to the believer or the agnostic, is a pretty wonderful affair. I mean wonderful in the sense of true wonder . . .�

�No matter how old we get there should always be that sense of living on the margin of impossibility. Hence, this book, in which many discover the margin, or the precipice, or whatever you, personally, wish to call it.�

�This book, I hope, will show you that for all its reality, life is still a fantasy. For it is not only what life does in the material world that counts, but how each mind sees what is done that makes the fantasy complete.�

�The fact is that as we get older the wonders and awes seem to fade a trifle. All of us work ourselves into our own little phonograph record existence, play the same tune each day, with perhaps a fox trot arrangement on Saturday and a hymnal of same on Sunday. This is the safe, sane, sure little path we must all take if we are to live on this world. In habit there is comfort, in routine there is satisfaction. Only occasionally, as years pass, do the sunsets, the awes, wonders, and beauties break through our shells. So , now and then, we must remind ourselves of the wondrous and the delightful. Some of us sit down and write fantasies, Others, like yourself, read them.�

�It is my idea, probably borrowed at an earlier time [from Hawthorne�s introductions and other sources], that fantasy is rarely good fantasy if it wants to be fantasy alone. Unless it adheres some way, by a literary osmosis, to life, in which realities may pass back and forth and be recognized, then it becomes mere pointless day-dreaming.�

�I am no glib theorist or literary technician capable of diagramming these stories for you in great sweeps of logic and detail. And, the good Lord knows, the scientific method and I are only nodding acquaintances. I have had nothing but my emotions to go on, and what little I�ve learned in a few short years of writing in the field itself. It is all to easy for an emotionalist to go astray in the eyes of the scientific; and surely this is no handbook for the mathematician or the chemist or the specialist in physics. Somehow, though, I am compensated by allowing myself to believe that while the scientific man can tell you the exact size, location, pulse, musculature and color of the heart, we emotionalists can find and touch it quicker.�

Ray Bradbury
Los Angeles, California
July 1st, 1951

Introduction, �Timeless Stories For Today and Tomorrow. Ray Bradbury. A Bantam Book, NY. 1952.