Title, "Forever Mars!"

This is a good title, too; but it excludes the Venus stories (assuming we may include those). Of course an argument can be made to just exclude them, but while few in number, they are great stories.

I think the book title should keep
"The Martian Chronicles"
in its title...

so... "The Other Martian Chronicles"

"More Martian Chronicles"

"The Martian Chronicles Revisited"

Or maybe "Onward to Mars!" one of Ray B's favorite sayings.

I'd say if HarperCollins isn't enthusiastic about the idea, let's bring it to Gauntlet Press's attention.

Assuming they could clear the rights, they could either do a standalone sequel, or do an "ultimate" Martian Chronicles edition with stray Martian stories included.

They've done a great job on such editions in the past (excluding the unsigned signed Dark Carnival debacle!).


[This message has been edited by WritingReptile (edited 01-15-2003).]

Yes, Greg! "Onward to Mars!" (A classic Bradburyism) The rights "would be" the catch! Gauntlet is a fine outfit. I am sure many previously unreleased notes, anecdotes, drafts, illustrations, and letters could be included. I'd buy one!

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 01-15-2003).]

To be honest, I can't imagine a "sequel" or companion book being published unless Ray B. was very closely involved...It figures in with one of his most famous works, and would need to be structured and attended to as such. In addition, he's doing a slew of other projects right now, from what I hear.

On the other hand, a Gauntlet Press edition of 'The Martian Chronicles' with supplemental stories appendixed after the established "Chronicles" (the way "Dark Carnival" is formatted) along with drafts, comments by Ray B., etc., would be more practical.

The greatest problem with such a volume that I see is that I would imagine Gauntlet Press had far less trouble gaining reprint rights from 'Dark Carnival' stories (despite having to convince Ray of the project's validity) then they would have trying to gain 'Martian Chronicles' reprint rights and rights to the other stories. Most of the works Gauntlet publishes are at least somewhat specialized, and while 'Dark Carnival is an extraordinarily influencial book (and one of my personal favorites), 'The Martian Chronicles' is an international phenomenon of massive proportions...Such a 'Gauntlet' publication would be fantastic, though, no doubt about it.

And remember that Ray is still writing Martian stories every once in a while...There may be more coming (or already written!) of which we are currently unaware!


-Greg

I once heard that Martian Chronicles is the top selling science fiction novel of all time. (I am aware that Ray considers it fantasy, but bookstores usually classify it as sci fi.) Anyway, I was wondering if any of you know if this statistic is true, and also do you know how many copies have been sold? Thanks for your help!!

Imskipper:

Welcome to the zany world of multiple listings beyond our... 'sometimes' control.

Click on that little 'icon' with the pencil drawing, and your copy will come up...and you can at least delete some or all the copy. You can also delete the words... "edited by.." that appears at the bottom of your post...if there are more than one change (multiple returns for delete)... so that ..."delete by.." only shows up once...instead of 2 or more times at the bottom of a single post.... Otherwise, the moderator Dandelion may be able to wipe out the multiple-posts later. So if there is only one posting by Imskipper above...all my talk will sound like gibberish...(which I believe I am prone to at times anyway...)

About the number of copies of ...'The Martian Chronicles'... All I could uncover was the statement..."in the millons". (Well, we knew that.)

However, Fahrenheit 451 is listed as between 5 and 6 million copies sold. (Don't know if that is combination hardbacks/paperback, trade editions, etc together or what.) Dandelion Wine is listed as "millions..." I guess if you went to the Web Site of particular publisher, you may find more accurate numbers....

Safe to say that there have been numerous copies sold of numerous editions... When you consider the number of languages they have also been translated into ...it easily turns from numerous to myriads....

Duplicates dutifully deleted. I wondered why this topic had suddenly become so popular! Kind of ironic the posts were by "Imskipper." I have a cat named Skipper I just took in to be neutered. He may be a Martian as he is both dark and golden-eyed. The vet found poor baby not quite well enough for surgery, so we're due to go back when he's feeling a little better.
As far as number of copies, I don't know if that will ever be exact as I read that back during the Cold War a number of Ray's works went out in bootleg editions distributed through the underground (subversive against the oppressive government) in Russia, for which he was never paid. A lot, anyhow....

[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 01-17-2003).]

Okay, guys...here's my plan of how to go about lighting this candle. There are so many space stories they need to go in three volumes--trying to cram them all into one would just bust bindings. When all three are ready to go,
FIRST--the publisher should reissue a nice, new, hardcover edition of "The Martian Chronicles." NO CHANGES should be made to the current standard edition except the story dates (which have been changed by the publisher) and some additional material such as a new foreword and afterword, perhaps bringing in some of the latest Mars explorations. You don't want to mess with the classic work itself--Mr. Bradbury has serious issues with this and has been known to become a bit testy when not approached correctly.
SECOND--A second hardcover, nicely matched to the first, containing ALL the Mars and closely-related-to-Mars space stories should appear, titled "Martian Chronicles II: Onward to Mars." (Everything has two titles like that now--like those "Star Wars" movies.) If Mr. Bradbury would format it like "The Martian Chronicles" and add some "bridge-passages" or "vignettes" as in "The Martian Chronicles" and other collections, this would form an exciting NEW WORK!
THIRD--another hardcover volume, nicely matched to these two, should be issued, containing all the Venus and other outer space and space alien stories, which might or might not be tied together in some way. This would also be exciting as it could include all the early non-Mars space stories, many of which have never seen print after their original magazine appearances, making this another exciting NEW COLLECTION!
At the proper interval after hardcover appearance, all three of these should be issued in paperback. How does this sound?

I'm positively salivating! dandelion, I think you've just become an Editor.

I love this layout. Someone tell Bradbury he can't die for another hundred years or so!

I also want him to give us another ten or so Venus stories.

Another thing we'd better mention--knowing Ray, he may even have ten or so Venus stories in his files somewhere. That would make the collection even better, including previously unpublished stories, as well as uncollected stories and perhaps new vignettes or bridge-passages.

I have a feeling that Mr. Albright would have found those by now, if they existed. He's done an excellent job of bringing forgotten stories to light from Ray B's files.

-Greg