Hi Pg, I think you will find that story is "The Fox and the Forest", which is collected in the following Bradbury books:

The Illustrated Man
The Vintage Bradbury
The Stories of Ray Bradbury

It has also appeared under the title "The Fox IN the Forest", and was originally published as "To The Future". It has been collected once under this title, in a chapbook called The Dragon Who Ate His Tail.

I hope this helps!

I dig "Jack In The Box." The way the kid is sheltered from reality by his mother, the teacher. Then how the child's whole world changed and opened up when he left the confines of his home.

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Originally posted by dandelion:

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fjp, "Drummer Boy..." is interesting, but doesn't really work too well for me. Being a non-American, I don't have the necessary familiarity with the historical background of the story.

Sorry to hear that. It struck a chord with Americans when it appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and a number of readers wrote in claiming to have personally known "the" drummer boy (not taking into account the large number of union military outfits in the battle!)

Not only was a song of that title written about one such boy (impressive!) but the actual grave of the boy has been identified! (Extremely impressive!) http://library.blog.wku.edu/20...vil-war-sheet-music/

Phil, let me tell you sometime about when I tried to explain the English Civil War to my young nephew.

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Originally posted by dandelion:
...Phil, let me tell you sometime about when I tried to explain the English Civil War to my young nephew.

Yes, and then you can explain it to me!

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Originally posted by philnic:

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Originally posted by dandelion:
...Phil, let me tell you sometime about when I tried to explain the English Civil War to my young nephew.

Yes, and then you can explain it to me!

Thank you for asking, Phil. The whole flap started while watching a Britcom to which we are addicted, Keeping Up Appearances. This episode was at the church about presenting a play, "Our Town in the Civil War." My oldest nephew, who was eight at the time, became confused, and said, "But I thought the Civil War was the blue versus the gray."

I said something along the lines of, "Well, a long time ago in England, like about two hundred years before the American Civil War, were these two groups, the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, fighting about who should rule the country." (It was like that but probably not even that good.) So, I said, "There was this man named Oliver Cromwell who took over, did a lot of mean things and made unfair rules, such as, for instance, banning Christmas."

That really got his attention. "He banned Christmas?" I said, "Sure, let's get the World Book and see." (The World Book, kids, back in the day was an encyclopedia set published in Chicago, Illinois, USA, which my father bought when my sisters were ten and for many years we used for reference. Now it's about 50% reference and 50%, "I need something heavy to press something I just glued, grab me a World Book!")

We opened the World Book to "Christmas" and at a picture of the Holy Family, my nephew said, "Who are these people and why do they have circles around their heads?"

I never got into how our family hit the jackpot concerning Oliver Cromwell. Back around 1649 in Ireland, he was beheading the Catholics and exiling the Protestants, and a couple of Dad's direct ancestors being Protestants, they sailed for what later became America, so that branch of the family arrived.

Following up on an interest in the American Civil War, while visiting Pennsylvania I found a nice lady to drive me to Gettysburg, the site of the main and most important major battle. On the way Oliver Cromwell came into the conversation, and it turned out she was a direct descendant! She's one of my best friends now. I mean, what are the odds?

Anyhow, after showing my nephew the Christmas picture in the World Book, I told Mom what he said and she basically hit the ceiling over her own grandson, at the age of eight, knowing Christmas as a holiday but not recognizing the Baby Jesus! She totally reamed my sister out for "neglecting these children's religious education," and I spent the next several years picking up religious-themed books for them. As far as I know, my nephew showed no interest while his sister had aspirations as a preacher.

Anyhow, long story short, Oliver Cromwell ruled England for awhile, but he was such a complete and total pill the people decided they wanted the old king back, but they couldn't get him back as they'd cut off his head, so they got his son, who is the ancestor of today's British Royal Family. Now, Phil, no doubt you understand all about both Civil Wars!

All good choices, and if it is not possible to choose a best story, it is certainly possible to name "A Sound of Thunder" and "All Summer in a Day" as the two best-known and most popular.

During 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted on the best science fiction short stories of all time. The results were published as an anthology, THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME, VOLUME ONE (1970), edited by Robert Silverberg.

Four of Ray Bradbury's stories finished quite high up in the voting, and quite close together. He (Robert Silverberg) then consulted with Ray before deciding which story would represent him in the book. Ray's own choice fell on "Mars Is Heaven!", so that's the story that represents him in this classic anthology.

Unfortunately, mr. Silverberg has never revealed what the other three Bradbury stories were! He did mention that two of the four stories were from THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, and that the other two were from THE ILLUSTRATED MAN. If Robert Silverberg's recollections are correct (and I'm not going to doubt him---are you?), this means that "A Sound of Thunder" couldn't have been one of Ray's top four stories in the voting.

That's jolly interesting.

Two further volumes were published, title THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME, VOLUME TWO A and TWO B. These two volumes were for longer stories.

Ray Bradbury's "The Fireman" received enough votes to be included in the anthology, but reprint permission could not be obtained for the amount of payment that was available, so Ray's story had to be left out of the book.

Indeed, Ray's story "Mars Is Heaven!" was nearly left out of the first book, again because the anthology didn't have the budget to pay Ray's usual reprint rates. But Robert Silverberg appealed to Ray personally, pointing out that the anthology was meant to recognize outstanding achievement. So Ray overruled his agent and allowed the story to be reprinted at a lower rate.

As Robert Silverberg has pointed out, Ray was amply rewarded over the years because of the excellent sales of the anthology, which is in print to this day. The same arrangement could not be made for "The Fireman", unfortunately.

this is commendable...the sea shell is one of my favorite story by bradbury..

regards
Rashi

[Spam link deleted.]

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

Welcome to the board, Rashi!

And welcome to "wedding planners in jaipur"! That link is just all Bradbury readers want and need! Thanks, Rashi!

I had not noticed this thread before -- lots of great stories. I too love A Sound of Thunder.

But for me, my favorite is King of the Grey Spaces, later reprinted as R is for Rocket. I love how Ray sets up a future world where one cannot apply to become an astronaut -- one must be chosen. Some great imagery, and it was a story that captivated me as a young reader and was one of my influences to become an Air Force pilot (which I did ... now a pilot for Southwest Airlines).

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Originally posted by Richard:
And welcome to "wedding planners in jaipur"! That link is just all Bradbury readers want and need! Thanks, Rashi!

Thanks for calling my attention to that part of the post so I could duly delete. I kinda wondered about anyone choosing "The Sea Shell" as Ray's best but each to his own!

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Originally posted by C. M. Christopher:
I had not noticed this thread before -- lots of great stories. I too love A Sound of Thunder.

But for me, my favorite is King of the Grey Spaces, later reprinted as R is for Rocket. I love how Ray sets up a future world where one cannot apply to become an astronaut -- one must be chosen. Some great imagery, and it was a story that captivated me as a young reader and was one of my influences to become an Air Force pilot (which I did ... now a pilot for Southwest Airlines).

Wow. I loved that one, and wished it could have been a series of stories perhaps even expanded into a YA novel like similar works by Heinlein.