It is claimed that Ray wrote a story called "Mathematica Menace" which appeared in Imagination! September 1938 (Volume 1, Number 12) under the pseudonym "Oswald Bradbury":

http://www.abebooks.com/servle...ace%22&sts=t&x=0&y=0

I cannot find this title in Phil's list of Rays short stories and also in other lists of his short stories it isn't mentioned. Could it nevertheless be that this story is written by Ray?

whoever, that is an interesting discovery. The stories listed on my website are cross-checked against the detailed bibliography created by Jon Eller (in Eller & Touponce, Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction. I've just double-checked this bibliography, and "Mathematica" is not listed.

In Weller's biography The Bradbury Chronicles, it is indicated that Bradbury contributed several pieces of writing to Imagination!, so it seems plausible that he wrote this piece, but I haven't been able to verify it from any sources I have. There is a slight elaboration of the discussion here:
http://www.americanaexchange.c...=1&id=967&m=3&y=2010

- but this proves nothing.

I will ask Prof Eller if he knows of the story.

quote:

Originally posted by whoever:
Mathematica Menace

Sounds like my algebra classes.

Many thanks for your interest Phil!

Another strange thing I discovered today is that Ray allegedly sold TWO stories to "Captain Future", but I only know of one (Gabriel's Horn):

http://books.google.com/books?...#v=onepage&q&f=false

Perhaps you also can ask Prof. Eller about this story...

~Frank

@Doug Spaulding: Perhaps this story was ignored because no one wants to associate beloved Ray with hateful mathematics

quote:

Originally posted by whoever:
...Ray allegedly sold TWO stories to "Captain Future", but I only know of one (Gabriel's Horn)...

A number of possibilities suggest themselves:

1. The book you quote from could be wrong!
2. Ray may have sold two stories, but only one ("Gabriel's Horn") was published.
3. The second story appeared under a pseudonym.

This website seems to show all issues of CAPTAIN FUTURE:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/cap...re/mag_contents.html

I notice that "Gabriel's Horn" appeared in Spring 1943. I also notice that the pseudonym Brett Sterling appears in the magazine in various issues. This was a pseudonym Bradbury used for the story "Referent" in 1948, so it's vaguely possible that one of the Captain Future Brett Sterling stories is by Bradbury. (I believe Sterling was a house pseudonym, used by the publisher for stories written by various writers.)

quote:

Originally posted by whoever:
...It is claimed that Ray wrote a story called "Mathematica Menace" which appeared in Imagination!... under the pseudonym "Oswald Bradbury"...

Save your money!

Do not pay the asking price of $650 thinking that you will be getting a rare Bradbury story! Oswald Bradbury is indeed Ray Bradbury. But it's not a story.

According to Jon Eller:
"It's not a story; not even close. It's one of a number of little humor columns, fake articles and such that Ray penned during the brief run [of IMAGINATION!]"

Jon provided me with a list of other NON-stories by Bradbury which graced(?) the pages of IMAGINATION!, and he tells me these were all very short and rather amateurish:

Foolosofy & Scientificrax
Formula for a Successful S T F Story
How to Become a Sci-Fic Fan
Mathematica Minus
Way Down South on Broadway
How to Be a Successful S T F Ed
Mathematica Menace
Imagi-Nik-Nax

This isn't the first time I have asked Jon for help with identifying a story that isn't in his bibliography. But in every case, the bibliography has turned out to be correct, and the claimed "story" has been omitted for good reason.

Somebody now needs to correct the seller who is making false claims about the content of that magazine!

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

Hi Phil, many thanks for this information! I already was suspicious regarding this claim and I just wanted to get sure.

phil... thank you for your research. I was unaware of these little NON Stories

"I am not a completist... I am not a completist..."

That's really funny he used the pseudonym Oswald Bradbury because there was a famous author in the 19th century named Osgood Bradbury who was very popular in his day and never remembered now.