One thing I'm particularly trying to do over there is note every anniversary of every short story and book. For example, in the last couple of days I've posted about "Luana the Living", "Touched with Fire" and "Tale of the Mangledomvritch"!
Monday, June 05, 2023
Follow Me On Facebook
Thursday, June 01, 2023
New Bradbury 100 podcast episode: Chronological Bradbury!
The idea is to work through Ray Bradbury's fiction output in the order of publication, discussing each item as we go.
In this first "Chronological Bradbury", I start right at the beginning, with a discussion of Ray's earliest published works, which appeared in amateur magazines in 1938.
I hope you enjoy the discussion - and do please let me know what you think. You can post a comment down below, or on the Bradbury 100 Podcast Facebook page.
In this episode I mention several useful sources:
- Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction (Eller & Touponce)
- FANAC's historical fanzine collection
- The Earliest Bradbury (Ritter)
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Friday, May 26, 2023
Ray Bradbury Experience Museum in Waukegan: Closure Announced
Thursday, May 18, 2023
New Bradbury 100 podcast episode: Rescuing SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
In this new episode of the show, I continue the story, examining how the film - disastrously previewed in 1982 - was rescued through some re-writing, re-shooting and re-editing. Ray claimed that he "directed" or "edited" the film doing this re-make period, rescuing it from the clutches of director Jack Clayton. But is this really true?
Join me as I dig into the archives, and look for evidence of what really went on.
This picture up above, by the way, is a publicity still showing Ray Bradbury and actor Royal Dano (who took the pivotal role of the Lightning Rod salesman in the film).
Before listening to the pod, you might want to re-watch this short video clip from 2017, where I talk about finding Ray Bradbury's personal copy of the preview version of Something Wicked:
...and here's the podcast, also available via your podcast app:
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Friday, May 05, 2023
New Podcast Episode: Film/Book/Film: Writing SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
So in this new episode of Bradbury 100, I take a detailed look at the origins of SWTWC, going all the way back to the short story "The Black Ferris" (1948) and working through to the shooting of the film.
Bradbury wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by his good friend Jack Clayton (director of Room at the Top (1959) and The Innocents (1961). So everything must have worked out really well...
Listen and find out:
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Friday, April 21, 2023
Unnecessary Rewrites: John Mortimer (1923-2009)
100 years ago today, writer John Mortimer was born. He's best remembered for his Rumpole of the Bailey stories and TV series. But did you know that he was an uncredited contributor to the screenplay of Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)?
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Follow Me On Facebook
Just a short post to say:
I'm making a renewed effort to keep a flow of Ray Bradbury news on my Bradbury 100 Podcast Facebook page. Most days, you will find at least one brief post with a link - and I'm also going to try to mark significant (and not so significant) anniversaries. Find it at https://www.facebook.com/bradburymedia
By the way, this should be seen as an extra rather than as a replacement for Bradburymedia, which will continue right here as normal!
Monday, March 06, 2023
New Podcast Episode: The Bradbury Books That Never Were
This time I dig into the Bradbury files held by the Ray Bradbury Center in Indianapolis, and uncover a 1960 file in which Ray lays out his book publishing plans for the following couple of years.
Alongside familiar titles (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Farewell Summer), we find some totally unfamiliar ones. Listen to the pod (below - or via your podcast app) for all the details.
One of Ray's proposed books was an anthology to be called God On Tomorrow Morning. Something of a follow-up to his two previous anthologies (Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow and The Circus of Dr Lao), this would have been themed around the relationship between science, humanity and religion.
Although the book never came to exist, we do have a proposed table of contents, which I have reproduced in full below, with detail added on where each story originated. You could seek out these stories, and assemble the anthology for yourself!
God On Tomorrow Morning, to be edited by Ray Bradbury: Suggested Contents
Three Stories by Bradbury: The Fire Balloons, The Man, If Sun and Moon Should Doubt
Stories by others:
|
Short Story |
Author |
From |
1 |
For I Am A Jealous People |
Lester Del Rey |
Star Short Novels (anthology, ed. by Frederik Pohl), 1954 |
2 |
Subterfuge |
Robert Silverberg |
Amazing Science Fiction Stories, March 1960 |
3 |
Up The Mountain Or Down |
Sylvia Jacobs |
Universe Science Fiction, September 1953 |
4 |
Postscript |
Eric Frank Russell |
Science Fiction Plus, October 1953 |
5 |
Saint Julie And The Visgi |
Robert F. Young |
If: Worlds of Science Fiction, January 1955 |
6 |
The Quest For Saint Aquin |
Anthony Boucher |
New Tales of Space and Time (anthology, ed. by Raymond J. Healy), 1951 |
7 |
Many Mansions In The Sky |
Koller Ernst |
Super-Science Fiction, August 1958 |
8 |
A Demon At Devotions |
Jane Roberts |
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1958 |
9 |
The Star |
Arthur C. Clarke |
Infinity Science Fiction, November 1955 |
10 |
The Pure Observers |
B.J. Rogers |
If: Worlds of Science Fiction, October 1958 |
11 |
The Funnel Of God |
Robert Bloch |
Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, January 1960 |
12 |
Every Work Into Judgement |
Kris Neville |
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Winter-Spring 1950 |
13 |
Last Rites |
Charles Beaumont |
If: Worlds of Science Fiction, October 1955 |
14 |
The Sons Of Japheth |
Richard Wilson |
Infinity Science Fiction, December 1956 |
15 |
The Guest Rites |
Robert Silverberg |
Infinity Science Fiction, February 1957 |
[Update: since I wrote this post, I read the following in chapter 25 of Jonathan R. Eller's biographical volume Ray Bradbury Unbound:
"[Bradbury's God on Tomorrow Morning] surviving list of fifteen titles were all published in the 1950s, mostly in the few genre digests that he still occasionally read: If, Infinity Science Fiction, and the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Ballantine’s Star anthology series of new stories."
Eller is slightly incorrect regarding the 1950s, since two of the stories appeared in magazines dated as 1960. However, it is conceivable that those magazine issues appeared on news stands at the very end of 1959.]
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