In 1980, the landmark collection The Stories of Ray Bradbury appeared, boasting 100 of the author’s best stories. I was very disappointed at the omission of “The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl”, “And the Rock Cried Out”, “The Swan”, “The Whole Town’s Sleeping”, and a few others. But maybe that was just me.

In 2003, another doorstop came out: Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales . Again, there were 100 stories – and better still, there was no overlap with the first volume. All the stories mentioned above were included.

It is now possible for a Bradbury fan (or a new reader) to scoop up 200 Bradbury stories by buying just those two books.

Who could possibly complain? Well, again: me.

For you see, there are still some stories that should have made it into those two colossal story Arks, but didn’t.

I’ll start off with some suggestions, hoping others chip in as well.

For starters, “R is for Rocket” (originally “King of the Gray Spaces”) is a glaring omission. It was the first Bradbury story I ever read, and I still think it’s quite moving, and that it captures starry-eyed childhood daydreams perfectly. How can it not be one of his 200 best stories?

“The Fireman” : Yes, it’s rather long – a 25,000 word novella. But it’s easily the most significant piece of short fiction not to appear in any of Ray’s “mainstream” collections (the ones he compiled and sequenced himself). And it appeared in Galaxy , too – the most prestigious SF magazine of its day. Room should have been made. I do have the story in A Pleasure to Burn , but still.

“The Lost City of Mars” – This could possibly be Bradbury’s longest Martian tale, and that alone makes it of great interest. It was, of course, collected in I Sing the Body Electric! . Personally, I don’t think it’s Ray’s absolute best, and it’s a bit similar to other stories thematically, but come on! It’s Bradbury! It’s Mars! What’s not to like?

“The Hunt Wedding” – One of Ray’s best Irish pieces, and one of his better mainstream stories, hidden away as Chapter 9 of Green Shadows, White Whale , though published seperately in American Way .

“That Old Dog Lying in the Dust” – A brilliant piece of comic writing about a decrepit circus on the Mexican border. It’s simply miles better than anything else in Driving Blind .

Well, that’s five. I could mention more, but those are my favorites. Does anyone else have favorite “orphaned” stories?

"The Reincarnate" Does this one qualify? I don't think it was published until the limited edition, Match to Flame then later in A Pleasure to Burn. A revised or edited version was collected in We'll Always Have Paris too, but I prefer the more macabre organiciness in the other collections.

"Driving Blind" Another fun Green Town tale.

"Chrysalis" - The other one as found in The Cat's Pajamas.

"Goodbye Grandma" - Perhaps too short?

I'm sure there are many more.

Linnl, "The Reincarnate", "Driving Blind" and "Chrysalis" (no. 2) all qualify. I don't think they're very good, though, but mileage varies. It's usually not a good sign if a story missed at least a dozen chances to be collected.

"The Reincarnate" appeared in We'll Always Have Paris as well.

I think "Good-by Grandma" is the same as "The Leave-Taking", and that, of course, is in the 1980 super-collection.

Strangely enough, none of the stories from Driving Blind or from One More for the Road seem to have been considered for Bradbury Stories (2003), despite having been published earlier.

(There is a half-exception: "Time Intervening", which was in OMFTR, but my guess is that the story was probably included because it had recently been revised for a Gauntlet chapbook in 2001, not because it was in OMFTR).

Perhaps one of the Bradbury experts can explain why Ray chose not to represent his two most recent "proper" collections in Bradbury Stories . I'm fairly sure it's not a matter of quality, because although Driving Blind and OMFTR are among Bradbury's less stellar collections, Quicker Than the Eye is of about the same quality, and no fewer than 11 stories from QTTE made it into Bradbury Stories .

I don't have any insider knowledge, but maybe BRADBURY STORIES was compiled around the same time as QUICKER THAN THE EYE, despite the difference in publication dates.

Or maybe HarperCollins didn't want to harm sales of DRIVING BLIND by having any overlap with BRADBURY STORIES.

And maybe the contents of BRADBURY STORIES were not chosen by Bradbury, but by an editor at HarperCollins.

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douglasSP wrote: I think "Good-by Grandma" is the same as "The Leave-Taking", and that, of course, is in the 1980 super-collection.

Oh, right! I love the connective (although untitled) short that follows this story as it appears in Dandelion Wine.

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I don't have any insider knowledge, but maybe BRADBURY STORIES was compiled around the same time as QUICKER THAN THE EYE, despite the difference in publication dates.

That occurred to me, and it seems to be the best guess. It's just that there were seven years between Quicker Than the Eye and Bradbury Stories.

Phil also said:

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And maybe the contents of BRADBURY STORIES were not chosen by Bradbury, but by an editor at HarperCollins.

That would surprise me, because I assumed that Bradbury was fully involved in the compilation of all the books from his main publisher (HarperCollins).

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Originally posted by douglasSP:
...That would surprise me, because I assumed that Bradbury was fully involved in the compilation of all the books from his main publisher (HarperCollins).

Fully involved, yes, but he may not have led the process. But all this is speculative. I'll add this to my list of things to find out!

There are a few stories from the last few collections that I would have preferred to some of the ones that did get in (in completely random order):

"Heart Transplant", "Autumn Afternoon", "Apple-Core Baltimore", "Sixty-Six", "Tangerine", "Perchance to Dream", "Here There Be Tygers", "Chrysalis" (the S Is for Space one), "The Other Highway", "House Divided", "Referent", and "The Time Machine".

Some of these were collected before Bradbury Stories , and some after, but the point is that Bradbury's top 200 stories would have looked somewhat different if we could put those two books together now!

Phil said:

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I'll add this to my list of things to find out!

Don't put that list away just yet, Phil! I'm still scratching my head about the first story on your Story Finder, "About Face". I can't find any mention of it anywhere - ISFDB, Locus Index, Google - and it's not on the list of unpublished stories in The Life of Fiction . Yet you give it an Eller number. Where/how was that one published?

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Originally posted by douglasSP:
Some of these were collected before Bradbury Stories , and some after, but the point is that Bradbury's top 200 stories would have looked somewhat different if we could put those two books together now!

Indeed. There are so many. Just an opinion, I know it might not be agreeable to some, but his work merits a third 100 stories volume. It could be done(!), and to include, perhaps, some of his unpublished stories.

Linnl, you could certainly put out another volume of 100 stories, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Nothing diminishes my love and respect for Ray and his work, but even Ray Bradbury can't escape the immutable laws of the universe - and one of these is the law of diminishing returns.

I hate to say it, but Bradbury Stories (2003), while thoroughly worthwhile, is already noticeably weaker than The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980), despite a good sprinkle of excellent stories.

A third helping of 100 stories would simply have to include an unacceptable number of clunkers. There, I said it!

What would be interesting and worthwhile is a supplementary volume of stories that aren't in one of the big books - but far fewer than 100. I would love to see a collection of 22 of the "orphaned" stories. Ray loved that number, and contrived some of his collections to include specifically that number of stories (no doubt because he was born on the 22nd).

With 22 well chosen stories, the book would be GOOD, and it would make it possible to have a truly brilliant three volume collection of Bradbury's best.

I'm not saying Ray is any less great than he was, and is. But come on - I don't think anybody wrote 300 really excellent short works.

Just to give you some perspective: I've recently been working on the lists and bibliographies I love to make as a pastime, and here are some facts about three of Ray Bradbury's most famous peers:

Robert A. Heinlein published only about 60 short fiction works.
Isaac Asimov published roughly 210.
Arthur C. Clarke's tally is around 100 to 110.

When it comes to short stories, Ray is the man - but even his good output does end somewhere.

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Originally posted by douglasSP:
...I'm still scratching my head about the first story on your Story Finder, "About Face"...

Well, I finally figured out where I got the information from - it's from a title cross-reference Jon Eller sent me privately in 2004. But I have no other information on it!

I must ask Jon about this one. If I had to guess (which I don't), I would guess that "About Face" was a variant title for one of the stories that premiered in CAT'S PAJAMAS.

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Originally posted by Linnl:
...his work merits a third 100 stories volume...

I suppose it depends on what you see as the purpose of those volumes. As someone who has all the "normal" collections (e.g. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, LONG AFTER MIDNIGHT, etc), I see the big omnibus collections as little more than "greatest hits" collections. Their real value probably lies in sales to libraries, schools and colleges.

But I agree, there is probably more than enough material to make a third volume. And if there's money in it, I'm sure the publisher will get around to it one day.

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Originally posted by douglasSP:
...Bradbury Stories (2003), while thoroughly worthwhile, is already noticeably weaker than The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980), despite a good sprinkle of excellent stories...

Well yes, because the best stuff was already in the first book, and Ray's later output was less significant in quantity as well as quality. But I'm amazed how good BRADBURY STORIES is, given that it "has to" be second best. The only thing that irritates me about the volume is how many stories begin with someone waking up, or being disturbed by someone bursting into a room!

As for other writers, what about Harlan Ellison? His tally of shorts must be high. Robert Bloch?

Harlan Ellison, like Ray Bradbury, is especially strong and prolific at short lengths. Like the other three I mentioned, he was a friend of Ray's.

I've never listed Ellison's work, but he may well have Ray beat in numbers, if not in quality. The thing about Harlan Ellison, as with Arthur C. Clarke, is that there is a truly definitive, exhaustive one volume collection that really does have everything you'd want.

For a really prolific writer, try Robert Silverberg. He could almost match Ray's short story tally in novels - never mind the aircraft hangars full of stories he wrote!

P. S. I just checked ISFDB - there are about 500 short pieces by Silverberg, and about 400 by Ellison. But you'd have to weed out the variants and duplicates to be exact.

I've never looked into Bloch. I have the book Bloch and Bradbury , of course.