Bradbury stories : 100 of his most celebrated tales / [Ray Bradbury].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012.

Standardized Title:

Short stories. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science fiction, American.

Fantasy fiction, American.

Genre:

Fantasy fiction, American.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

xvii, 893 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : William Morrow, [2003]

Summary:

For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from a lifetime of words and ideas -- tales that amaze, enthrall, and horrify; breathtaking journeys backward and forward in time; classic stories with the undiminished power to tantalize, mystify, elate, and move the reader to tears. Each small gem in the master's collection remains as dazzling as when it first appeared in print.

There is magic in these pages: the wonders of interstellar flight, a conspiracy of insects, the early bloom of love in the warmth of August. Both the world of Ray Bradbury and its people are vivid and alive, as colorfully unique as a poker chip hand-painted by a brilliant artist or as warmly familiar as the well-used settings on a family's dining room table. In a poor man's desire for the stars, in the twisted night games of a hateful embalmer, in a magnificent fraud perpetrated to banish despair and repair a future, in a writer's wonderful death is the glowing proof of the timeless artistry of one of America's greatest living bards.

The one hundred stories in this volume were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining. This is Bradbury at his very best -- golden visions of tomorrow, poetic memories of yesterday, dark nightmares and glorious dreams -- a grand celebration of humankind, God's intricate yet poignantly fallible machineries of joy.

Contents:

The Whole Town's Sleeping 1

The Rocket 16

Season of Disbelief 25

And the Rock Cried Out 33

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh 54

The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge 59

The Flying Machine 73

Heavy-Set 78

The First Night of Lent 86

Lafayette, Farewell 92

Remember Sascha? 100

Junior 107

That Woman on the Lawn 113

February 1999: Ylla 125

Banshee 136

One for His Lordship, and One for the Road! 148

The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair 156

Unterderseaboat Doktor 163

Another Fine Mess 174

The Dwarf 182

A Wild Night in Galway 192

The Wind 197

No News, or What Killed the Dog? 206

A Little Journey 213

Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's Is a Friend of Mine 220

The Garbage Collector 243

The Visitor 248

The Man 260

Henry the Ninth 271

The Messiah 278

Bang! You're Dead! 287

Darling Adolf 298

The Beautiful Shave 312

Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Mummy 315

I See You Never 328

The Exiles 331

At Midnight, in the Month of June 343

The Witch Door 352

The Watchers 361

2004-05: The Naming of Names 375

Hopscotch 376

The Illustrated Man 383

The Dead Man 394

June 2001: And the Moon Be Still as Bright 403

The Burning Man 426

G.B.S.

Mark V 432

A Blade of Grass 442

The Sound of Summer Running 449

And the Sailor, Home from the Sea 454

The Lonely Ones 461

The Finnegan 470

On the Orient, North 479

The Smiling People 490

The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl 498

Bug 508

Downwind from Gettysburg 515

Time in Thy Flight 529

Changeling 533

The Dragon 539

Let's Play "Poison" 542

The Cold Wind and the Warm 547

The Meadow 562

The Kilimanjaro Device 576

The Man in the Rorschach Shirt 585

Bless Me, Father, for I Have Sinned 595

The Pedestrian 600

Trapdoor 604

The Swan 613

The Sea Shell 624

Once More, Legato 630

June 2003: Way in the Middle of the Air 639

The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone 651

By the Numbers! 661

April 2005: Usher II 668

The Square Pegs 682

The Trolley 695

The Smile 698

The Miracles of Jamie 703

A Far-away Guitar 711

The Cistern 720

The Machineries of Joy 726

Bright Phoenix 738

The Wish 745

The Lifework of Juan Diaz 751

Time Intervening/Interim 760

Almost the End of the World 765

The Great Collision of Monday Last 772

The Poems 778

April 2026: The Long Years 789

Icarus Montgolfier Wright 799

Death and the Maiden 803

Zero Hour 811

The Toynbee Convector 820

Forever and the Earth 830

The Handler 845

Getting Through Sunday Somehow 854

The Pumpernickel 861

Last Rites 865

The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse 873

All on a Summer's Night 881.

Notes:

Statement of responsibility from cover.

ISBN:

006054242X

OCLC:

51631564