Ray Bradbury: American Author Challenge

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. He was an American fantasy and horror author who rejected being categorized as a science fiction author, claiming that his work was based on the fantastical and unreal. His best known novel is Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian study of future American society in which critical thought is outlawed. He is also remembered for several other popular works, including The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury won the Pulitzer in 2004, and is one of the most celebrated authors of the 21st century. He died in Los Angeles on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91.

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2015. This author will be read in October. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185195

I have been looking forward to this one. I may have read one or 2 of Bradbury's stories, when I was a kid but I finally read Fahrenheit 451, as an adult and truly loved it. Sadly, I did not return to him for years. Thanks to Joe and other LT pals, I was inspired to pick him back up again and I ended up reading 4 more of his books. Dandelion Wine may be my favorite of those.

This time around I plan on reading The Golden Apples of the Sun. I may also squeeze in The Illustrated Man.

Who is everyone else reading?

I have Something Wicked This Way Comes checked out from the library and ready to go.

I will be reading The Halloween Tree.

>5 LoisB: Book Bullet, Lois! I have Fahrenheit 451 requested through the library. Now The Halloween Tree sounds so perfect that I've requested it, too.

>4 cbl_tn: I really enjoyed that one in a group read a couple years back.

Don't have much on hand...will probably read whatever story or stories of Bradbury's are included in the Library of America's American Fantastic Tales collection.

>3 msf59: I read Dandelion Wine as a late teen or maybe early twenties, and then re-read it in 2014. It grew on me as I read and I ended up loving it but recognize that it might not work well for everyone. I'm planning to read the follow-up for the first time Farewell Summer. If time allows I'll try to get in another read or re-read. I loved Bradbury when I was young but have found some of it too twee when reading as an older adult. Bradbury can go over the top but I consider him a favorite author of mine. Many of his short stories are little bits of perfection.

Real life has kept me very busy the last few weeks and my book reading has really been slim. I just last night finished up my Flannery O'Connor. Not sure if/what I'll say about it. My wife appreciates her more than I. I can appreciate her as a skilled writer but the darkness and meanness of her stories and characters really gets to me. I'm glad I read the short stories in small doses.

The Autumn Equinox provided those of us in the north bay area of California a Ray Bradbury sky. Some people saw the call for Batman from Gotham City, some of us saw spooks and witches dance across the sky. It was a very Halloween sky, with nature declaring that Fall had arrived in a big way. I posted half a dozen pix on my Facebook page that anyone should be able to see if you're interested.

https://www.facebook.com/ron.beffa

eta: aaargh I cannot find my planned read. I set it aside a few months ago and now can't find it at all. However while looking at my Bradbury I found something perhaps perfect to read instead. I'm thinking of reading several for October after glancing through the many books of his I have. This will be one of them, the perfect October AAC read ...
.

I'm going to read The Martian Chronicles (not read before, so a new adventure), and probably some of his short stories.

Fahrenheit 451 is one of my all time favourites.

Being a fantasy fanatic as a youth and a great lover of sci-fi, I have always been appalled at myself for never getting round to Bradbury! But huzzah - the time is now :) Fahrenheit 451 for me - and possibly another if I can kick start my reading again.

The Martian Chronicles was absolutely one of my favorite reads as a teen and something I re-read several times over the decades, although not recently. Every so often however I pull it out to read a passage that never fails to charm me ...

January 2030

Rocket Summer

One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer's ancient green lawns.

Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer. The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.

Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.

The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land....

>1 msf59: Great photo (and perfect for this night of the blood moon!) and wonderful quote.

I have The Martian Chronicles, which will be a reread for me. I first read it when I was thirteen years old and I remember loving it, so it will be interesting to read it again 40+ years later. I also have a copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes which I might add into the mix.

Bradbury's got to be read! I've done The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Fahrenheit 451. I got two small hardcovers--Driving Blind and Quicker than the Eye--on the shelf. But Dandelion Wine and The Illustrated Man....Those I want to read. So what it will be remains to be figured out.

Ran across these photos of the young Ray Bradbury with some other folks.

...

I've got two Bradbury books on my kindle. Dandelion Wine and Green Shadows, White Whale. Not sure which I'll read first, but I'm looking forward to both. :)

I've read Farenheit 451 several times and IMO it's a must read.

>8 RBeffa: I completely forgot about Farewell Summer, Ron. I wish I could find it on audio.

>14 weird_O: Great photos, Bill. Thanks!

>14 weird_O: >15 nittnut: Dandelion Wine is so good. I suggest you pick that one, Bill & Jenn. Just sayin'...

Another vote for Dandelion Wine - loved that one. The Illustrated Man is great, too.

>17 jnwelch: Did you read Farewell Summer, Joe? I completely forgot that there was a sequel to Dandelion.

>18 msf59: No, that's a new one to me, Mark. Any word on it?

>14 weird_O: In that second one he looks like Father Mulcahey!

I live just a couple of miles from Bradbury's hometown of Waukegan, IL and am embarrassed to say that I've read very little by him. There's an annual Ray Bradbury storytelling festival in town. An old HS/college friend is connected to their Main Street group and is always urging people to go there to visit.

I know I've read Farenheit 451 in school but can't remember much else.

Anyway, I'm considering Dandelion Wine.

Ray Bradbury has been a favorite of mine since junior high, although I didn't appreciate his fine writing until I grew up a little bit, I just liked all the SF! Instead of reading one of his many fiction books, I found Bradbury Speaks: Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars at my library, so I'll read that. It is a collection of essays. I've read the intro, and can't wait to get into the collection.

Karen O.

>19 jnwelch: Nope! No word on Farewell Summer, Joe! Hopefully someone here decides to read it and gives us the scoop.

>21 lindapanzo: Dandelion Wine, is a perfect choice, Linda. I hope you decide to read it.

I also loved Dandelion Wine when we read it a couple of years ago. I haven't read Fahrenheit 451 and I would like to read it someday. I'm rather excited about reading The Martian Chronicles. I have a conference trip later this month and am thinking that, along with Frankenstein for F2F book group, might go on the plane with me.

Read a short story, "The April Witch" last night. Short and sweet. Well written, not meant to be scary, just supernatural. I like his style, and I'll try some more of it.

I've started reading The October Country. I read two stories last night and will probably read a couple per day - there are 19 of them. I don't recall if I had read the collection before. The first story was very familiar "The Dwarf" and it must have been made into a Twilight Zone episode or another anthology TV series. It was very memorable. I do know that one of the later stories in this collection was the basis for an Alfred Hitchcock Presents show, "The Jar" about Charlie and his mysterious big jar full of stuff he bought at the carnival and all the hick neighbors come to his house to stare and ponder just what it is was super creepy to a young kid like me. I'm looking forward to getting to that story. The majority of this collection, from the introduction, are Bradbury's earliest stories. He clearly hit the ground running.

I am new to Bradbury so I have decided to go with an audiobook read of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Read "Pillar of Fire"...whew. What dreck. I hope it was one of his earlier efforts. I know he did much better than that.

>28 laytonwoman3rd: That is too bad. 1948 for Pillar of Fire. He'd been writing for a while and his best work would start coming soon. I have no recollection of the story although I am certain I read it.

I'm finding The October Country, most of which comes from this same period, to be a little hit and miss. More hit. Only one that I thought was an absolute bust. I haven't found a thing in here so far that I would remotely call science fiction. There's a mix of stuff in it, mainstream, macabre, very mild horror, supernatural, a touch of strange. A couple of very good stories seem to be carrying the so-so ones, but there are a few in here that are quite remarkable. I hope to finish it in the next day or two and tackle another Bradbury. I don't think October Country is one of Bradbury's best collections, but it has been a while since I read much of him. memory can play tricks.

I've always put Bradbury more in the dystopian box than the science fiction box, but that's mostly because I read Fahrenheit 451 first, many years ago, and you know what they say about first impressions. I've put Dandelion Wine on hold at the library. Definitely not sci-fi, according to my daughter, so we'll see.

>30 laytonwoman3rd: Oh, Bradbury has lots more to offer, Linda. Good advice from your daughter. You'll be really surprised. Fahrenheit 451 is probably my least favorite of his.

"...And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun."

W.B. Yeats

"It swam slowly and with a great dark majesty out in the icy waters, far away. The fog came and went about it, momentarily erasing it's shape."

"A cry came across a million years of water and mist. A cry so anguished and alone that it shuddered in my head and my body. The monster cried out at the tower."

The Fog Horn, the first story in The Golden Apples of the Sun

>31 jnwelch: I was in a bookstore yesterday, and there was a rather nice 60th anniversary edition (paperback) copy of Fahrenheit 451, and I felt disturbed that my personal library did not include a copy of this somewhat essential story. So I bought it.

>33 laytonwoman3rd: Good for you. It is somewhat essential, and I have a copy, too. It's imaginative, I just think his others are even better.

I'm currently reading Quicker Than The Eye and I love it so far.

I finished up October Country a few days ago and posted a review to the book. Overall good, but uneven. Reading Farewell Summer now, the sequel to Dandelion Wine. It is a short novel and I'll certainly finish it this weekend, if not today. My enthusiasm was dashed rather quickly. It isn't Dandelion Wine.

I finished reading Something Wicked This Way Comes and overall found it to be a fantastic story with just the right amount of sinister creepiness for the non-horror reader like me to enjoy.

Finished Dandelion Wine late last night. Wow!! Probably one of my favorite books of the year. I was never a 12-year old boy in 1928 (I was a 12 year old girl in 1973, not far from the real Green Town though) and this book took me back to that younger, more innocent time.

I finished Fahrenheit 451 this evening and was surprised I liked it that much. I'm probably going to add Dandelion Wine to my wish list to be read in the future as it was another one in which I was interested. If >38 lindapanzo: liked it so much, I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

I finished The Illustrated Man over the weekend. And posted my illustrated book report here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/196008#5302451

I'm nearly half way through Dandelion Wine and enjoying it, although there was an "adjustment period" at the beginning.

>41 laytonwoman3rd: I thought the same thing.

I don't like science fiction and was expecting it to be sci fi. While it has an occasional science fictiony feel in a couple of the episodes, Dandelion Wine really wasn't.

I just liked how it made me feel. Felt like a kid again. I remember thinking about whether grown ups were ever young, for instance.

>42 lindapanzo: I didn't expect sci-fi, because my daughter had told me this one definitely wasn't. But I read a couple of Bradbury's short stories, and the style of this one was very different from those. So poetic at first I couldn't quite get a grip on it! But then that kid-again feeling kicked in for me too.

I've finished up my 3rd Bradbury for the month. I think I'll plunge ahead for more. So far I've done The October Country, good; Farewell, Summer not good; Summer Morning, Summer Night very good.

Farewell Summer failed for me as a sequel to Dandelion Wine. I disliked much of the book, but it tried to redeem itself somewhere in the 2nd half. Then it ends with something I can't believe Bradbury wrote. Supposedly (I think) Farewell Summer was Bradbury's first novel, to be added to the Dandelion Wine stories for a large first novel, but the editor encouraged it to be chopped off. Bradbury then supposedly ruminated on it all these years until putting it out in the mid 2000's. Frankly I don't quite believe that story. I'm sure part of it was likely true, but whatever there was then had to have been extensively rewritten to produce Farewell Summer. It is a very different book. From the reviews I've looked at, some people still really like this book. Not me though.

On the other hand, I just finished the last of the stories in Summer Morning, Summer Night. This collection from a few years ago is a true companion to Dandelion Wine. Dandelion Wine was created in large part out of a lot of short stories Bradbury had written, which he then strung together. Some of those stories set in Green Town didn't fit in. They are collected here together for the first time. Some of these are of other characters, some at different times from Dandelion Wine, quite a few are fragments that were apparently cut out of Dandelion Wine or Farewell Summer. About half of the stories were previously published in magazines and the odd one here and there in collections such as Golden Apples of the Sun. One can enjoy the stories here and really appreciate Bradbury as a stylist even if you had not previously read Dandelion Wine. I think I appreciated it more for having re-read Dandelion Wine last year.

>44 RBeffa: Thanks for the insights into the subsequent books.

I finished Something Wicked This Way Comes yesterday. I really liked it, and I really liked Fahrenheit 451 when I listened to the audio last year. So far Bradbury is 2 for 2!

The film version of Fahrenheit 451 (directed by François Truffaut) is dated but interesting. I saw the Disney film of Something Wicked This Way Comes when it was originally released. It was so long ago that I don't remember much about it.

Took this month as an excuse to both come down off of Mt. TBR and to get a library card at the library near my office (I'm up to 3 different libraries, a new collection in the works)

I picked up The Martian Chronicles, haven't read that for at least 30 years. I think I was in middle school or high school the last time I read it.

Interesting blog post about reading Bradbury in October.

I started reading Fahrenheit 451 when I was quite young, but at that time, I was so put off by the mechanical hound that I quit reading it. I'm glad I finally finished it. It has lots of good sentiments both about the role of books and an unthinking society plugged into meaningless busy-ness.

I read the 50th anniversary edition, where there is both a Coda and an interview with Ray Bradbury. I thought this bit especially thought provoking:

”Fire-Captain Beatty in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were first burned by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from the book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever.

...Only six weeks ago I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony...” (p177)

It's an interesting thought in a politically correct world.

>49 streamsong: WOW! I never knew this. I was greatly offended when I discovered that the same thing had happened to Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes over the years.

I still have my Ballantine Fahrenheit 451 paperback that I undoubtedly purchased through one of those TAB or Arrow school book clubs. It says it is an original Ballantine BAL-HI Book, first and second printing January 1967. I wonder if they started editing this early on? I hope not. I was debating re-reading it this month. I'm on a Bradbury marathon for October (7 done as of this morning) mixing new reads with re-reads.

>33 laytonwoman3rd: I've just got around to examining this 60th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451, and I'm very happily impressed. Not only does it have an introduction by Neil Gaiman, but there is a whole section of "History, Context and Criticism" in the back. This includes reproductions of pages of manuscript, commentary by Bradbury on the writing of the novel, and criticism by such lightweights as Margaret Atwood, Harold Bloom (a/k/a the Old Poop), Francois Truffaut, and Bertrand Russell. I think I'll be reading this before I stick it on a shelf.

Finished Dandelion Wine last week, and enjoyed it very much. My thoughts from my thread.

>51 laytonwoman3rd: Oooh. I may have to acquire a copy of this 60th anniversary edition. Very tempting.

I am just finishing Green Shadows, White Whale and it was delightful. It's a grand mix of truth and fiction and no way to tell which is what. I've really enjoyed it. I'll read my ANZAC selection and then come back to Bradbury for Dandelion Wine.

>50 RBeffa: That's really interesting! Bradbury said that the 'damn's' and 'hell's' were first to go, so you can check your edition for those words. If you like, you can go to Amazon, use the "Look inside this book" and search on damn or hell to see where they occur and compare your edition.

>53 streamsong: That was a good suggestion. According to the Amazon look inside Hell! first appeared on pg 15. I found it on pg 14 of my edition.

Hate, hate, hate bowdlerization of books. When I was a senior in college, I did a stint of student teaching..high school English. I was horrified to read one of Faulkner's short stories ( "Two Soldiers") in the textbook being used and to find that whole passages had been taken out, others re-written, and not an indication anywhere that this had been done. Perhaps in the teacher's edition it was acknowledged, but I didn't have access to that. Now I wonder about those special editions of Shakespeare's plays we were handed in high school...were they cleaned up for our mid-20th century innocent minds?

>28 laytonwoman3rd: Linda, I'm reading S is for Space today and the second story in it was Pillar of Fire. Jeez that story was awful. I can't believe I read it. Must be like one of those accidents people look at that they shouldn't have. Maybe I thought Bradbury was going to turn the absurd into something. He didn't even though he was trying to make some points on society which have truth in them. Maybe that's the plus in the story, echoing recent comments here (your apt use of the term bowdlerization) that society was sweeping aside and getting rid of the unpleasant things .. this is kind of a warm up to Fahrenheit 451 ideas. Still, such an absurd premise to this which I won't detail.

>56 RBeffa: That story struck me as something that wasn't even a good first draft...just a mishmash that never should have been published.

I read Dandelion Wine which was OK, but I thought a little sentimental, and without the fun of science fiction. But it did have some interesting ideas… I liked the way he referred to older people as "time machines."

I just finished listening to The Halloween Tree. I had read some rave reviews, comparing Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud to Christmas's Tiny Tim. Meh. Personally, I don't see it. It's a fun look at Halloween customs. It might be a bit intense and a bit too heavy for smaller kids. The friends in the book are asked to give a year from the end of their lives 'when each day is precious' in order to save their friend's life. 3 stars.

I'm failing miserably with AAC. But I still have 10 days left for Bradburt. It has to be said I've had very little reading time of late.

Great photos in >14 weird_O:

Ooh, hadn't realized Bradbury had an essay collection! I will have to check that out from the library when I'm done with my other two e-books (if I can restrain myself and that's a big if). I'll also have to look at the 60th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 -- am devouring the regular version right now, most fittingly with a "Books Turns Muggles into Wizards" bookmark from the Harry Potter Alliance.

Another reader here for Something Wicked This Way Comes. I don't do horror, so this was just scary enough. Well told story of good vs evil.

I just finished The Halloween Tree - a great ghost story-fantasy!

Just finished The Martian Chronicles. This was a re-read for me, but since it was so long ago, it was almost like a first time read. I had totally forgotten that it was essentially a collection of short stories about Mars and how us Earthlings come to live there. Very interesting read. In my mind I envisioned a lot of these as Twilight Zone episodes.

I will say that it is a little dated in both Bradbury's treatment of gender roles and a quaint take on space travel and life on Mars being very easy and routine. Having just read (again) and seen The Martian, it was in interesting historical juxtaposition.

I'll get to an actual review soon. Hopefully by the end of the year, I'm woefully behind.

Just thought I'd mention that the Audible Daily Deal today is The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.